We hate math.
Our abhorrence for calculation enables us to mutually agree on statistically dubious metrics with nary a shrug or arched eyebrow. Consider Nielsen ratings, which are used to determine the popularity of all TV shows and, consequently, how the dozens of billions of dollars in TV advertising is apportioned.
Nielsen ratings have a direct impact on hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. In 2009, there were 1,147,910 households with a TV in metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina. Of those more than 1 million households, the behavior of just 619 was tracked by Nielsen to determine ratings. A total of 619 families became the unelected representative tastemakers for 1,147,291 other families. That’s not math; that’s folly.
But yet, we welcome numerical vagary and imprecision into our businesses like a box of free Krispy Kremes. We accept as truth Arbitron (and Nielsen) radio rankings, the number of cars that drive by a billboard, and the notion that somehow people read every page of a newspaper or magazine (and pass it along to 2.5 friends). Do you really know the financial impact of your TV, radio, outdoor print, public relations, and customer services initiatives? Probably not.
Social Media is Inherently Measurable
Social media almost always offers the advantage of complete—rather than extrapolated—data. The same is true of all online marketing. Whereas we have mutually agreed that 619 families are an appropriate stand-in for 1 million others, online marketing offers the compelling alternative of measuring each and every individual.
That’s the good news. One equals one.
What Should You Measure? It Depends
The bad news is that there isn’t an easy-to-convey, standardized, one-size-fits-all metric, like Nielsen ratings, for social media. And there isn’t going to be. What is measurable differs from company to company. If you’re a business-to-business (B2B) company that has a long sales cycle with many conversations with prospects before they become customers, you can determine with relative ease whether that customer was influenced in some way by your social media efforts. Alternatively, if you’re Pringles, it’s a lot tougher to make that connection.
Your type of company and how your business is structured has tremendous influence on what you can credibly and reliably measure within the social media realm. Measurement of all things—not just social media—is a discipline, not a task, and it needs to be a cultural imperative. If you’re going to ask about the value or impact of social media and how to measure it, you need to know how you determine those things for other areas of your business and translate or adapt some of those practices.
The Common Excuses
“Social media isn’t measurable” is an excuse. Here’s what companies really mean when they say that:
- We don’t have the right tools in place to collect the data we need.
- When we have all the data, we don’t know where to start.
- We don’t know which data might relate to other data to analyze it well.
- We don’t have or won’t deploy enough data collection and analysis resources to figure this out.
- We’re afraid of what measuring will actually tell us about our effectiveness.
You need to understand whether you’re equipped with the right tools and data, whether you’re willing to spend the time evaluating that data, and whether you’re functionally and culturally prepared for what it might show you.
Once you’re past that hurdle, you can get to the numbers – and if you’re going to do social media right, you need to get past your loathing for math. Nobody promised social media would be easy, only that it would be awesome.
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This is the final post in a 7-week series covering themes included in The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social – my new book with Jay Baer, now available on Amazon in hard cover and Kindle.
“What is measurable differs from company to company.” We should all be thankful for this. All of us who learn how to help companies measure what’s useful for them in the social space in actionable ways will have guaranteed jobs for life.
“What is measurable differs from company to company” is important not only for job security (that’s never a given), but as a reminder that you need to THINK through what you’re trying to accomplish with any tool, social media or not. Figure out what you want to do, figure out how to do it, THEN figure out what measurements make sense. Great article, Amber!
Yes, what I meant was if you can help companies set goals that make sense for them, and then measure those goals effectively, that makes you as an individual valuable to companies, thus leading to steady employment.
Fighting the battle against Nielsen and other traditional metrics is a constant challenge. It’s amazing how many marketers have blindly followed these metrics for decades. Even when data from social media suggests better results, they still turn to the old standby. The day we get marketers to stop looking at huge numbers of impressions and realize that a .05% CTR via banner ads, etc. compared to a 3.5% CTR via Twitter interactions with only 1/10 the amount of impressions we can start moving forward. The shear size of impression and reach numbers put stars in people’s eyes, but if they’d turn the corner and look at the action from those activities, they’d realize they get better results from smart social media activity then they do from traditional efforts.
The way TV shares are measured always puzzled me, especially because billions of dollars are based on those measurements. At least social media ones, even if not easy to grasp at first (hence the businesses doubts) offer something a lot more sure and verifiable.
I wonder if new ways of watching TV programs will offer a definitive fix for the measurements problems inherent to the platform. If everyone watches programs through the Internet, measuring the real amount of viewers become very easy.
It’s as simple as a spreadsheet like I have with the key metrics I want to track across the social media sites that make most sense to my business and what results I’m looking to achieve. I think it starts with setting goals so you know what you’re actually trying to track. I’m not sure many organizations have yet set these let alone figured out how to track them. Enjoyed this post – as usual!
” ‘Social media isn’t measurable’ is an excuse.”
Amen. Most of the so called “Social Media Experts” I know at my area (Cancun,Mexico) are happy to blurb that out when you ask them for measurement and ROI.
I agree, what to be measured depends on the company and goals; no “one size fits all”. However, there is always things to be measured. People tend to confuse “I don’t know how to do it” with “It can’t be done”.
Thanks for writing this, Amber.
Great point about the Nielson ratings.
“Measurement of all things—not just social media—is a discipline, not a task, and it needs to be a cultural imperative.” Agreed! Too often though I’ve run into management that admit a lack of understanding of social media as a *tactic* (NOT individual strategy) of a larger communications plan and attempt to apply those same obscure measurements that traditionally are used.
It’s a work in progress.
Nice post.
what a post Amber… very interesting.. I like the excuses given by the companies for not going for it… 🙂
Hey Amber, this is a great post. I certainly agree wholeheartedly, and I think that an integral part of any social media plan (just as with any marketing plan) is having an understanding of what will be measured and how it will be measured.
I would like to briefly touch upon your point of “one means one.” I think in the Internet and social media’s case this is not exactly true. Think about viral YouTube videos. Sure you can measure those by how many views, shares or ‘likes’ it gets. But the reality is that not one of those metrics tells you the exact number of people you are affecting. So many people watch funny/viral YouTube videos in groups, yet it still only records one view. I’m just using YouTube as an example, but I think there are plenty of instances where behavior on the Internet happens in groups, rather than as individuals.
Fantastic post!
It’s not just measurement, though, is it? It’s also comparison. It’s all well and good to say you’ve had a 20% increase in visits to the site, and a 10% increase in conversions from Social Media – but how much actual Social Media activity did that take? Does 20% visit increase equate to 40% Twitter follow increase?
Creating benchmarks is as much about doing apples to apples number crunching, as it is about figuring out how many apples are worth an orange.
Great post – I have made the Nielsen point many times and loved seeing you spread the word: we accept “sampling” for traditional media metrics, however, with social media, “sampling” is seen as imperfect or incomplete. Even if we had all of the data, folks would argue about the correct interpretation, no?
Great post – I have made the Nielsen point many times and loved seeing you spread the word: we accept “sampling” for traditional media metrics, however, with social media, “sampling” is seen as imperfect or incomplete. Even if we had all of the data, folks would argue about the correct interpretation, no?
Look at what is available in your market, what competitors are doing and find out if your customers in fact using these social media channels. These answers may help you determine the goals
Amber,
I love when people say social media is not measurable, such as your example “We don’t have the right tools in place to collect the data we need.” Its amazing what people will come up with.
The tools I use generally shocks people what data I can dig up. Its quite entertaining.
I love this post. Social medial, unlike most other forms of marketing, is 100% measurable. This is scary for a lot of companies and employees because they now know exactly how well or bad they are doing. It is always the same excuses. If you are doing badly, not enough data. But if you are doing well you have the best information.