I’ve been to three ad industry/media conferences in the last three weeks and there’s one issue that remains center stage as the social tsunami continues to wash over the digital media landscape. That issue is of course, “What is the real value of social media and how do we measure it. Most decision makers intuitively know social media is having an impact from a general awareness prospective but few are measuring it. It’s really the next evolutionary stage of that old joke, “I know that half my advertising is working, I just don’t know which half.” Only this time it’s, “ I know people are talking about me, I just wish I knew who.” Many of you have no doubt seen this chart from eMarketer showing how little brands and their agencies are measuring social media initiatives. The pie will not look like this for very long however because inside the hallowed halls of the planet’s top brands, marketing execs are under pressure to design programs that measure the real effect of social media. Nowhere is this pressure felt more than at the incumbent agencies where measurement design of lower budget social/viral campaigns have been received with about as much enthusiasm as the swine flu.
There’s has been this rallying cry of incumbency that would have us believe that it is early days and it’s just not worth trying to figure out the ROI of social media. It’s a cop out says the tools are not there yet. Of course, this notion can easily be confounded by a quick search of basic analytic terms. For starters, Google analytics gives us the basics when it comes to matters of reach and positioning metrics like uniques, time on site, volume, origin and many other performance indicators. When it come to measuring preference through sentiment indexes, share of voice and net promoter scores within certain categories, services like Crimson Hexagon, Radian6, Chatthreads or TruCast all offer various levels of accountable, actionable data by which to evaluate and optimize social media campaign. Bottom line, the measure of a ad and marketing agencies going forward will most certainly be determined by the ability to measure.
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Twitter Comment
Seriously? Only 16% of survey respondents measure social media ROI? [link to post]
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Hi Mike,
You know, when I first heard the stats about social media measurement I was alarmed. But if I think back to my years in corporate marketing and branding, we didn’t do a very good job measuring there, either. I think that stat is more representative of overall measurement of communications, and the holes in the system to date.
I’m learning more and more that it’s not the actual act of measuring that companies struggle with, it’s *baseline* and benchmark measurements, and the ability to tie those measurements to tangible goals. Many companies want to increase customer loyalty, for example, but aren’t measuring that now and don’t know how to. Or they’re willing to track their engagement percentage on social sites, but aren’t taking steps to correlate that activity with their sales (let alone draw direct lines to it).
The truth is, measurement isn’t complicated, but it does take work and planning to be sure you’re measuring what matters. The speedbumps for companies are less about having the right tools, and more about understanding their objectives in the first place, and what metrics indicate progress toward them.
Thanks for the discussion! We’re going to keep working on it, to be sure.
Best,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra
Twitter Comment
RT @savageink Seriously? Only 16% of survey respondents measure #socialmedia ROI? [link to post] #marketing #metrics
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Twitter Comment
RT @bigfuel measuring ROI from a #socialmedia campaign [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
#CMO’s struggle to measure real #Social_Media #ROI [link to post] @seethereaction @olivemedia @benkunz
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I’m actually shocked it’s 16% – good thoughts – thanks for sharing…
LJY
Twitter Comment
@josh10x good article on #socialmedia ROI this today – [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
Uncovering Social Media ROI…seems to be a struggle for all of us! #CMOC [link to post]
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Twitter Comment
The CMO struggle to measure real Social Media ROI via @bigfuel [link to post]
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What a farce to say that ANY of those tools are “actionable” or “measure” the impact, let alone ROI. At best, they enable you to listen and kind-of engage. Few companies have a clue what their programs cost in people, trade off in value, or drive in revenues.
Sorry, but all you’ve done is restated the obvious, probably in hopes of some link love. Go back to your couch.
[...] 2009-12-19T21:30:41 The CMO struggle to measure real Social Media ROI – [link to post] [...]
16% seems very odd to me.
I just started my stumbling way into Social Media with my company, and one of the first things I made clear was, that I obviously had to measure impact – or else it was pointless.
Ok, in the same breath – I also see large companies making FB profiles – probably because they read in Business Weekly, that modern companies should have such…