An ROI index created to compare Facebook strategy of firms across a single industry.

2. 4 theatres achieved higher impact than their peers, but with above average effort

3. 42 theatres exerted less effort than their average peer, and also found less impact

5. Events created; disregarded efforts of individual events.

6. Weekly wall posts; captured for the 7 days prior to measurement date (week of November 11, 2009); primarily used as a proxy for frequency of efforts since most wall posts come from uploading photos, videos, notes, etc.

7. Uploaded videos; disregarded video length, and whether videos were integrated YouTube streams.

8. Pages favorited.

9. Notes written; disregarded whether notes were integrated RSS feeds.

11. ART highlights theatre merchandise for purchase

12. ART and Florida Stage both use a “splash page” function for users to land on

13. Alliance has their own Facebook Application

14. Kansas City Rep has a music player on their page

15. Many theatres have separate pages for alums and/or interns

17. Weekly wall comments; captured for the 7 days prior to measurement (week of November 11, 2009), disregarded difference between like, reply, and comment.

18. Photo comments; summed comments from theatre and fan uploaded photos.

19. People discussing; summed number of people that posted to a discussion forum, disregarded that staff and/or theatre could be posting to open forum, disregarded number of comments per person.

20. Fan photos uploaded.

21. Reviews written; disregarded sentiment and length of review.

22. Members of a theatre’s “Facebook Cause.”

23. Total contributions to a theatre’s “Facebook Cause.”

24. Donors contributing to a theatre’s “Facebook Cause.”

25. Fan videos uploaded.

27. A wall post by a theatre generates 2.7 fan comments

28. A photo album uploaded by a theatre generates 1.2 fan comments

30. Empowering users to create their own production related content

31. Engaging directly with users

32. Raising moneyUnder the assumption that theatres desire and benefit most from user engagement that requires more time, effort, and/or financial resources on the part of the fan/member, I’ve constructed a relative index, as follows. Score can also be interpreted as the number of minutes (or relative impact) a theatre earns (or saves) per unit of impact. So for example, a theatre earns 20 minutes of staff time per dollar raised online, and saves 10 minutes of (PR) staff time per review, etc. <br />ImpactScoreTypeUseCauses-$ Donated20GiveRaise $Causes-Donors10GiveRaise $Reviews10ComposeEmpowerFan Video5UploadEmpowerFan Photos5UploadEmpowerWall comments2WriteEngagePhoto Comments2WriteEngagePeople Discussing2WriteEngageCauses-Members1ClickMarketingFans/Memb10ers1ClickMarketing<br />Measuring ROI/Efficiency<br />Clearly, the idea that “Return” should be measured strictly by user effort and “Investment” should be measured solely in staff time is fraught with issues. In theory, it’s through all of these efforts that fans (at some point down the line) are more satisfied with their theatrical experience, buy more tickets, donate more, and introduce new consumers to the theatre. Additionally, when multiple staff members from across different departments are updating Facebook content, not everyone’s time should be represented as equally “expensive.” Finally, I’m only able to measure publically available data, inside Facebook’s walled garden. <br />Therefore, in absence of all of that data, I’ve created my own measurement of efficient return on effort. <br />First, each of the various types of efforts and impacts have varying degrees of prevalence throughout the LORT + Facebook community. So, I scored each theatre’s efforts and impacts as an order of magnitude index centered to the average case. For example, if a theatre posted to their wall 30 times this week, and the community average was 15, the theatre earns a score of +1 (=(30-15)/15) for that factor. If a different theatre posted only 5 times this week, the theatre earns a score of -.66 (=(5-15)/15) for that factor. This (somewhat falsely) assumes that the field’s average effort is ideal effort. <br />Second, each effort and impact was weighted according to the score listed in the above tables. So for example, a theatre with a Video Effort Factor Index of 2 (meaning they have posted three times as many videos as the average theatre) has a Video Effort Score of 10 (=2*5). Similarly, a theatre with a Fans Impact Factor Index of -1 (meaning they did not engage in the activity at all) has a Fans Impact Score of -1 (=-1*1). <br />Third, a theatre’s 7 Effort Scores are summed (so an above average number of fans may make up for a below average number of videos posted) for a Total Effort Score, and their 10 Impact Scores are summed (so an above average number of fan videos may make up for a below average number of fans) for a Total Impact Score. For example, a Total Effort Score of 10 means that a theatre expends 10 times the amount of effort as the average theatre, while a Total Impact Score of -10 means that a theatre’s fans are 10 times less active than the average theatre’s fans. <br />Fourth, ROI is measured as: (Impact – Effort) / Effort. Because the impact and effort scores can be positive or negative, I’ve adjusted ROI (multiplied it by -1) so that any time Impact > Effort, the ROI score is positive. <br />The table that follows summarizes the 3 key indices, and each theatre’s rank within that index. <br />TheatreTotal Effort ScoreTotal Impact ScoreROIHardest Working RankEngaged Users RankEfficiency RankACT Theatre10.661,578.38147.062011Kansas City Rep29.22604.4219.681122Clarence Brown Theatre Co(21.93)218.6610.976833CenterStage15.16146.218.641654Actors Theatre Louisville12.9986.855.691775American Conservatory2.1311.984.6326116Denver Center PA38.46168.973.39647Berkeley Rep30.37110.702.65968Center Theatre Group12.4820.660.661889Alabama Shakes(13.07)(6.26)0.52511410Shakespeare Theatre Co29.7714.18(0.52)101011Guthrie40.9218.06(0.56)4912Geva Theatre(14.35)(22.84)(0.59)541713American Repertory Theatre48.78(0.39)(1.01)31214Portland Center Stage(20.23)(41.44)(1.05)622215Trinity Rep(26.04)(54.00)(1.07)734616Virginia Stage73.73(10.84)(1.15)11517Signature Theatre19.28(4.66)(1.24)141318Long Wharf(24.11)(56.99)(1.36)716419Roundabout Theatre(23.98)(57.03)(1.38)706520Laguna Playhouse(24.26)(57.72)(1.38)727121Arkansas Rep(18.74)(47.92)(1.56)602622Manhattan Theatre Club(21.41)(55.78)(1.60)675523Northlight(21.99)(57.74)(1.63)697324City Theatre (20.33)(53.65)(1.64)634125Lincoln Center Theatre(21.35)(57.72)(1.70)667226Syracuse Stage(20.40)(56.40)(1.76)646027Asolo Rep(20.52)(57.49)(1.80)656928Round House (19.53)(54.79)(1.81)615029Huntington Theatre38.55(34.40)(1.89)52030Capital Rep NY(16.53)(49.84)(2.01)583231Milwaukee Rep48.97(52.27)(2.07)23932Court Theatre(18.32)(57.29)(2.13)596733Indiana Rep(16.05)(51.38)(2.20)573634Cincinatti Playhouse(15.52)(55.52)(2.58)565335Arena Stage30.64(48.90)(2.60)82936Theatre for a New Audience(15.51)(57.64)(2.72)557037Rep Theatre of St. Louis31.51(56.48)(2.79)76138Florida Stage(13.90)(53.70)(2.86)524239Seattle Repertory(12.67)(49.25)(2.89)493140Arizona Theatre Co(14.29)(55.71)(2.90)535441Maltz Jupiter(12.65)(49.94)(2.95)483342Hartford Stage23.86(48.20)(3.02)122743Barter Theatre(12.95)(52.21)(3.03)503844Intiman Theatre(12.59)(51.28)(3.07)473545Yale Rep/Drama(12.20)(53.86)(3.41)464546South Coast Rep22.31(54.99)(3.47)135147Great Lakes Theatre(11.15)(50.48)(3.53)443448Alley Theatre(11.78)(57.24)(3.86)456649Fords Theatre6.52(22.21)(4.40)221650Marin Theatre(10.11)(54.77)(4.42)434951Old Globe15.61(53.70)(4.44)154352Alliance Theatre(9.53)(54.00)(4.67)424753People's Light(8.52)(55.89)(5.56)415854TheatreWorks(7.32)(48.79)(5.66)372855Pasadena Playhouse(4.47)(29.86)(5.68)341856Florida studio(8.23)(55.82)(5.78)395757Philadelphia Theatre(8.43)(57.41)(5.81)406858Pittsburgh Public(8.00)(55.10)(5.89)385259McCarter Theatre10.97(54.69)(5.99)194860Two Rivers(7.29)(56.54)(6.76)366261Merrimack Rep9.42(56.80)(7.03)216362Delaware Theatre(5.15)(55.79)(9.83)355663LaJolla Playhouse(2.91)(32.29)(10.09)321964Cleveland PlayHouse5.66(53.25)(10.41)234065Wilma Theatre(3.31)(53.75)(15.23)334466George Street(2.02)(35.61)(16.60)302167Play Makers Rep2.98(47.44)(16.93)242468San Jose Rep(2.48)(51.94)(19.91)313769Geffen2.31(49.12)(22.28)253070Georgia Shakespeare1.21(47.81)(40.51)272571Arden Theatre0.97(46.17)(48.55)282372Goodman Theatre0.72(56.08)(79.04)295973<br />Final Note: An Easier Method<br />I realize that this indexing method is likely too complicated to operationalize. Thus, I wanted to give a quick back of the envelope method for potentially calculating ROI: <br />Simple ROI = # fan comments/# theatre wall posts<br />This reduces the noise of Facebook down to a single element. It’s clearly not a complete picture, it doesn’t account for a huge variety of factors, but it’s simple and a short hand for showing whether your fans are engaged with the content you’re posting. Measure this over time, and you can begin to get a sense of how you can get the best “bang for your buck” online. <br />