Digital Leadership Group Blog

Social media has evolved into a truly multi-dimensional environment squarely founded on the connections between the people that use these sites, and now that brands that are infiltrating the ranks. While Facebook, Bebo, Twitter, YouTube, Myspace, and LinkedIn as well as other social media websites were only used by a small group of marketers a few years ago, the numbers of consumers accessing social sites, have now elevated their importance to a critical component of the digital marketing approach.

Social sites and blogs are fast becoming a central pillar to the marketing strategy of thousands of clients, as they are forced to make some semblance in these complex media channels and connect with increasingly hard to reach audiences.   The use of social media for brands has changed the marketing paradigm.  The way brands interact with consumers in a social environment should be very different to that of traditional channels as the as the influence of the consumer on brand metrics is clearly very powerful.

Very little thought however, has been given to the measurement systems available to assess the results of their new media channels.  If anything, the measurement of social media is arguably more important than monologue channels, as the range of control marketers have over what people are saying about their brands or services is marginal.   So often, with the focus being on the message, the measurement of the dialogue and sentiment is missed; however, skipping this important step is a risky proposition.

Importantly, an understanding of what to measure and how to interpret these results is crucial to effective measurement.  If your social media activity generates 5m views on YouTube, attracts 20,000 Facebook friends and 5,000 positive blog mentions over the campaign period, this may show excellent “engagement” metrics. But what are we to measure these results against, if the campaign to be deemed successful? It’s so important that the context of the results be compared to historical activity and similar competitive client data (if available) to accurately determine the outcome, and to tie this back to KPI’s.  Overlaying independent brand affinity studies from companies like Colmar Brunton can also help provide a top down view to the success (or otherwise) of campaign activity, and should also include the impact of other media.  It may be that the role of social was only one component of a much bigger campaign including a vast portfolio of other media channels and disciplines, and this needs to be considered in reviewing the overall results.

Agencies now have access to a whole host of tools that aggregate this data and information and through the use of dashboards can quickly interpret this information in a meaningful way.  Tools like Buzz Metrics, Radian 6, Technorati and Cymfony from TNS are just a few of the more widely used tools, and agency networks have also invested huge amounts of money to develop their own proprietary measurement tools (OMD Antenna is ours) that are customised for their clients.

The outputs of all of the tools vary greatly, so its important clients start with a clear brief as to what should be measured to satisfy the requirements of the key stakeholders.  Two key areas to consider are:
1.    Set meaningful KPI’s. Online metrics are an easy starting point, but as mentioned above can be misleading or meaningless. It’s important to establish an objective beyond just getting as many “friends” or “views” as possible. It is far more relevant to have fewer more engaged and active participants, then “friends “that are literally there to make up the numbers.
2.    What will you do with the Insights? Before you set out to measure the social landscape around your brands or products, it’s prudent to outline what you will do with the insights you may gain.  It’s all very well to identify that there are key “influencers” who are creating positive or negative posts about your brands, however without a plan that outlines how you are going to engage with these people, the insights are redundant.

Finally – It’s also worth noting not to under estimate the resources required to interrogate the data that these tools will provide.  The tools themselves are only half the equation.  The real value of the research and measurement is from smart people who can accurately articulate the findings and recommend a strategy to optimise the approach.

Author: Chris Riley, OMD Digital