Ay AMEC’s 4th European Summit on Measurement Tim Marklein and Katie Paine presented the results of the ongoing social media standards-setting effort. (Download slidedeck SMMStandards_MarkleinPaine_Jun15’12)
This presentation detailed the first concrete results and recommendations of a standards-setting process. There are six topics:
- Content Sourcing & Methods
- Reach & Impressions
- Engagement
- Influence & Relevance
- Opinion & Advocacy
- Impact & Value
Progress has been made on the first of the topics, Content. A standard content sourcing and methodology table has been defined that details what goes into a measurement program.
For each of the other five topics, preliminary guidance and actions for the next year were reported:
Reach & Impressions
- Accurate impressions data is hard to source, especially globally
- Be transparent about sources used and clearly/correctly label charts
- Definitional confusion across media types and disciplines
- Impressions; opportunities to see; circulation; reach; frequency; total vs. targeted reach; visits; visitors; followers; fans; views
- Multipliers should not be used – in fact, dividers are more appropriate
- Few of your followers “read” every tweet; only 8-12% see Facebook posts
- NEXT ACTION: Work with IAB and Media Ratings Council to find common ground. Publish discussion document in Sept/Oct (PRSA, AMEC, IPR and Conclave events).
Engagement
- Engagement is an action that happens after reach, beyond consumption
- Engagement could be but is not necessarily an outcome
- Engagement manifests differently by channel, but typically measurable at three levels – Low, Medium and High – based on effort required, inclusion of opinion and how shared with others
- Low examples = Facebook “likes” and Twitter “follows”
- Medium examples = blog/video comments and Twitter “retweets”
- High examples = Facebook shares and original content/video posts
- Clients prioritize differently, but engagement “levels” are consistent
- NEXT ACTION: Publish discussion document in Sept/Oct (PRSA, AMEC, IPR and Conclave events).
Influence & Relevance
- Influence is something that takes place beyond engagement
- “You have been influenced when you have thought something that you otherwise wouldn’t have thought or done something that you otherwise wouldn’t have done.” – Philip Sheldrake, “The Business of Influence”
- Influence is multi-level and multi-dimensional, online and offline
- Not popularity; not a single score
- Domain & subject specific – relevance is critical
- Influencers should be identified and rated using custom criteria via desk research, not purely on automated algorithms
- NEXT ACTION: Publish discussion document in Nov/Dec (SNCR and WOMMA events).
Opinion & Advocacy
- Sentiment is over-rated and over-used
- Not the end-all, be-all qualitative measure – other factors to consider
- Sentiment reliability varies by vendor and approach – be transparent
- Opinions, recommendations and other qualitative measures are typically more valuable than raw sentiment and increasingly measurable:
- Opinions (“it’s a good product”)
- Recommendations (“try it” or “avoid it”)
- Feeling/Emotions (“That product makes me feel happy”)
- Intended action (“I’m going to buy that product tomorrow”)
- Coding definitions, consistency and transparency are critical
- NEXT ACTION: Publish discussion document in Nov/Dec (SNCR and WOMMA events).
Impact & Value
- Impact and value will always be dependent on client objectives
- Need to define outcomes in advance – will likely span multiple business goals, especially for social (crosses disciplines)
- “ROI” should be strictly limited to measurable financial impact; “total value” can be used for financial and non-financial impact combination
- Value can be calculated in positive returns (sales, reputation, etc.) or avoided negative returns (risk mitigated, costs avoided)
- Key performance indicators and balanced scorecards are helpful to connect social media impact to business results/language
- NEXT ACTION: Publish discussion document in early 2013.
