Challenges and Solutions to Measuring Social Media

Last year, Internet users around the globe spent 45 billion minutes communicating on social networking or "member community" sites^[1], according to Nielsen Online. That's a lot of online chatter, and some of it is about brands. But what does it all mean?

Here, Joanne Puckett of Ketchum's Global Research Network talks about some of the challenges (and rewards) of measuring social media, and Patrick Rooney of Ketchum's word-of-mouth agency, Zócalo Group, discusses a solution to addressing the multidimensional nature of online conversations

The Challenges and Rewards of Measuring Social Media By Joanne Puckett, Vice President and Research Director, Ketchum Global Research Network View bio

As a growing number of professional communicators turn to social media marketing, they are quickly discovering that traditional techniques for measuring media results don't always apply.

Unlike a newspaper article or a TV news segment, social media conversations are as dynamic and varied as the millions of people engaging in them. That poses challenges for extracting information that is meaningful to marketers. But most of these challenges can be overcome.

Here are three key challenges to measuring social media and some considerations for addressing them.

1. Multiple conversations are happening at once. Any given subject can have numerous blogs and other social media outlets dedicated to it. And with virtually endless online chatter, the task of measurement can seem particularly daunting and costly. That's why it's important to realize that not all social media are equal. Some have greater reach and influence. So, a single mention of a product or brand on one site may outweigh multiple mentions on another. When deciding which sites to measure (and where to target marketing efforts), marketers must determine which social media outlets would have the greatest impact on their brands.
   
   Even on the most important sites, you don't need to read and measure every comment. You can take a sample of content or develop a consistent approach that stays on the pulse of what consumers are saying. For example, you can actively measure what key influencers are saying while only monitoring others who are commenting on a topic. You also can periodically alter measurement of the frequency, breadth and depth of conversations based on the resources you have available for measurement.
2. Social media alone can tell an incomplete story. Traditional media and social media may affect one another. Specifically, the impact of social media tends to be greater when it is integrated with other forms of marketing. So, looking at the results of social media alone can understate or overstate its true impact. Whenever possible, marketers should track in a manner that allows for side-by-side comparison and statistical analysis.
   
   But bear in mind that it may take a while to see the impact of social media for a number of reasons. For one, marketing through social media requires broader relationship building than traditional media, which takes time. And "impressions" for digital media typically are lower, which means that it can take longer for social media to achieve the same reach as traditional media when using that metric.
3. Social media is rapidly evolving. New forms of social media enter the marketplace seemingly every day. Adequately measuring social media impact means keeping pace with the latest outlets where consumers may be commenting about your brand. Marketers must continually review the outlets they are measuring and make adjustments as needed.

No matter what the challenge, the bottom line is that marketing in new media requires new ways to measure program effectiveness. But the potential rewards are far greater than the challenges. The democratic nature of social media means that companies have more opportunity than ever before to hear directly from consumers about their brands.

While most existing methods for listening to online consumers currently measure only one dimension of their conversations, measurement technology is becoming more sophisticated every day (see Patrick Rooney's article on "Measuring the Multidimensional Impact of Online Conversations"). New data-mining technology, for instance, already can allow marketers to not only measure the volume of online chatter, but also to examine the tone of conversations and determine their relationship to increased engagement, recommendations and even sales.

Access to such information means a treasure trove of opportunities for professional communicators to relate the work that they do back to real business results – and that's a challenge I think we're all ready to take on.

Measuring the Multidimensional Impact of Online Conversations By Patrick Rooney, Partner, Zócalo Group View bio

Word-of-mouth has long been a powerful form of marketing, and now online conversations have taken that to a new level. Marketers understand that.

But as more brands venture into social media programs, what marketers are still trying to understand is how to measure the impact of those programs so they can better calibrate them to tap into, harness and maximize online conversations. Unlike traditional marketing, measurement of online engagement is ill-defined. Marketers are still not quite sure what they need to measure or how to measure it.

To begin to comprehend this challenge, it's important to distinguish between "traditional" online marketing and programs that incorporate social media tools. When it comes to online conversation and engagement, the difference is paid engagement on the one hand (click through ads, banner ads, etc.) and earned engagement on the other (blogs, forums, microblogs, social networks, etc.).

Where marketers today are well-versed in measuring paid engagement (read: advertising), the ability to measure the impact of earned online engagement – conversations driven by word-of-mouth – is far less advanced. Most marketers rely on one or more automated technology solutions to gauge the amount of chatter about a brand. A number of existing tools – ranging from Technorati to Radian 6 to IceRocket – allow agencies and clients alike to set up a dashboard to track the level of conversations about a brand, trends around keywords, and even keyword-driven sentiment analysis.

The problem is that this is one-dimensional – measuring only quantity (or volume) – and even for that one dimension there is no industry standard. So marketers fall back on metrics with which they are familiar and comfortable – impressions, reach, etc. – but that aren't necessarily meaningful for measuring online engagement.

What marketers must understand is that online conversations are multidimensional and that measurement tools should be, too. Tools to gauge a brand's online presence should show not only the quantity of conversation, but also the level of interaction and the depth of message penetration and saturation.

At Zócalo Group, Ketchum's word-of-mouth and social media specialty group, we use a proprietary suite of tools that combine dozens of methods to evaluate, measure and track a brand's online footprint across multiple channels. Developed in conjunction with DePaul University School of Business and vetted with leading analyst firm Forrester Research, the measurement suite helps brands in these ways:

• Understand where and how they are being talked about, recommended, and/or criticized online (Are positioning and key messages resonating?)
• Identify leading advocates and detractors
• Measure and track the growth of a brand's earned online presence over time
• Quantify the value and ROI of earned conversation across social media channels
• Benchmark against competitors' social media presence and impact
• Demonstrate the impact of digital word-of-mouth activities

The Zócalo Measurement Suite is our approach to comprehensive measurement. But the era of social media is young and nascent, so others are sure to follow.

All of that spells a positive outlook for marketers seeking to gain a tangible understanding of the impact of their social media marketing programs. But the biggest impact will surely be determined by how readily marketers embrace these new measurement tools and techniques. And as marketers adopt the emerging tools that best meet their needs, perhaps an industry standard won't be far behind.