Social Media Measurement: From Monitoring to

Listening to Intelligence

Sarab Kochhar, Ph.D. Director of Research, IPR Associate Director Measurement, APCO Worldwide

The Current State of Social Media Measurement:

Infinite volume of social media data Equally overwhelming number of metrics Organizations measuring what is easy to measure with

the data Lack of metrics that can influence the strategic decision

making

Social Media Effectiveness Should be Highly Influenced by Four Aspects: 1. Content quality, not quantity 2. Building trust and long-term relationships 3. Involvement 4. Integration with other platforms

Social Media Intelligence

Understand the science of opinion and the implications for social media data and metrics

Understand the behaviors driving the creation of online opinions from both a psychological and sociological perspective

Assess the implications of these behaviors on how we interpret social media

Integrate these insights into an overall strategy

How do we form opinions? How do expertise and knowledge influence the way we

form opinions? Opinion formation in a social context

Moe, W. W., & Schweidel, D. A. (2014). Social media intelligence. Cambridge University Press.

The Right Research Approach Multiple research reports from traditional focus groups,

customers surveys, in-store sales data, and social media.

Integrated research approach= traditional offline methods + social media intelligence.

Alignment of social media metrics with the offline metrics to complement one another.

1. Channel reporting tools 2. Score-card systems 3. Predictive analytic techniques (primarily text

mining)

Three Major Approaches to Looking at Social Media

New Approach: Merging Sentiment and Network Analysis

Best Practices in Social Media Measurement

Integrating insights from social media with other information sources

Understanding how social media plugs into the organization

Aligning social media to business goals Planning for performance measurement Building social media intelligence into your

organization’s strategies

Integrating Insights from Social Media with Other Information Sources

Shattering the vacuum: the need for collaborative analysis

Financial outcomes vs. nonfinancial outcomes Tying nonfinancial outcomes to social media

performance Maintain a list of everything you can vs. you

must measure

Understanding How Social Media Plugs into the Organization • Before the how, the why: Keeping an eye on objectives

and targets • The four phases of social media adoption:

– Phase 1- test adoption – Phase 2- focused adoption – Phase3- operational adoption – Phase 4- operational integration

Aligning Social Media Business Goals • Differentiating between strategy and tactics

– The current strategy to acquire net new customers is to use Facebook to increase both our reach and our prospect-to-customer conversions

– Tactics that will be used are discount coupons for new connections on Facebook on their first online purchase

• Differentiating between goals and targets – If the company’s goal is to increase net new

transacting customers, the target would be expressed as 100 net new customers in Q1.

Planning for Performance Measurement

Establishing clarity of purpose and execution Tools and methodologies Selecting the right social media measurement software for your program Key Performance Indicators (KPI)

A list of practical do’s and dont’s for research and measurement A common language for research providers, clients and agencies Increase reliability, promote efficiency and bring more credibility

to public relations

Barcelona Principle 6: Social Media Can and Should be Measured Consistently with Other Media Channels Include measurement methods such as: Media content analysis/Web and search analytics/Sales

and CRM data/Survey data Focus measurement on engagement, “conversation” and

“communities,” not just “coverage” or vanity metrics such as “likes”

AMEC Social Media Framework

Social media as big data

Analyzing unstructured social media data

Uncovering insights require a human element and critical thinking to create meaning.

Incorporation of Big Data into traditional PR functions

Key Takeaways Getting focused: identifying goals Getting attention: reaching your audience Getting respect: identifying influence Getting emotional: recognizing sentiment Getting response: triggering action Getting the message: hearing the conversation Getting results: driving business outcomes Getting ahead: seeing the future

TEST, MEASURE, LEARN, ADAPT, REPEAT

Social Media Measurement Mantra