Is the proof really in the pudding?
On my recent post about Being a Director of Community, one question came up prominently in the comments and feedback on Twitter:
So, how exactly do you quantify and justify what you do each day?
Aha. We want proof do we? Proof that all the things I do on a daily basis are moving needles somehow?
I’m going to answer in two parts. I’m going to answer in the practical sense and give you some true, tangible benchmarks. But please pay close attention to the conclusions that aren’t so concrete, because I think they matter a lot.
Measuring the Impact: Hard Metrics
Given all of the communicating I do on a daily basis, there are a few things that are most certainly – and at least partially – influenced by my activities across the web. I use Radian6 to track and quantify the workflow of all of my engagement on sites like blogs and Twitter, and combined with my offline work, we can map some of that activity to:
- Increased traffic, subscribers, and engagement for our website and blog
- Increased numbers of leads coming through online channels (and I can certainly track the ones that come through me directly)
- Leads from in-person events like conferences and seminars
- More positive word-of-mouth and awareness for our brand and company overall
- An increased proportion of positive sentiment in mentions of our brand
- An increase in mentions of our company in the media, both online and traditional (Share of Conversation)
- More engaged conversations on our corporate Twitter account
I’d also wager that having a community presence can help tie back to many of the metrics listed back on this post, some of which will be more directly attributable than others, and many of which are greatly affected by the fact that we have an engaged team of people that interacts in the community (not just me by any means). For us, it’s woven into our culture, and I think that’s part of what’s going to eventually separate the businesses that succeed with social media from the ones that will always struggle to make it work.
One thing to note: the most effective way to measure the impact of something specific is to benchmark beforehand. I know it sounds obvious, but it’s really hard to measure something over time without a starting point, and many folks flounder to find meaning in their stats because they never knew where they started from. Do the best you can to quantify where you are NOW on a few solid points. Track everything you can related to those points, and measure those same elements again later. Resist the urge to overcomplicate.
Anecdotal Counts, Too
There’s also a “smoosh” factor to all of this work, which means that some of the positive impact of having a community presence is intangible. It’s the equivalent of the business development and customer cultivation we’ve done for years. Think dinner with clients, rounds of golf, customer appreciation events.
We don’t do these things because they themselves have an immediate impact on the bottom line, we do them because we know they positively influence and contribute to relationship building, and in some cases, it’s just the grateful and human thing to do. It’s about working to increase the likelihood that your business is the one people choose.
So, part of qualifying the value of my work is in hearing, first hand, that someone reached out to learn more about us because they knew and trusted me on a personal level. That something on our blog prompted them to learn more about us, or to explore better ways to get involved and immersed in social media. That they learned something from a case study we developed, or that they had a great experience with our customer support team.
These days, we call a lot of this “social proof” and some of it you can capture (you can check out Radian6’s Twitter favorites for some of our anecdotal proof of the nice things people say about us, which is one way we track it). Some of it is more elusive, an overall association people draw between your company, your people, and the quality of their experiences with you. There’s no singlar metric that measures that.
So, when it comes down to it, are you capable of trusting a little bit of one of the oldest ideas? That taking good care of people is good for business, and ultimately what keeps them coming back?
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Most often, referrals are the way people get business. Social Media is just another way for those people that love to talk to each other and share their positive experiences in a more open forum (and expose them to more ears). Why wouldn’t you have a presence on the biggest grading/rating/commentary system on the web? The brand knowledge alone is worth the price of admission.
Stuart Fosters last blog post..Currito? Don’t You Mean Boloco?
Most often, referrals are the way people get business. Social Media is just another way for those people that love to talk to each other and share their positive experiences in a more open forum (and expose them to more ears). Why wouldn’t you have a presence on the biggest grading/rating/commentary system on the web? The brand knowledge alone is worth the price of admission.
Stuart Fosters last blog post..Currito? Don’t You Mean Boloco?
One of those intangible “smoosh” factors relates to the richness of the interaction. It’s one thing to be contacted by someone who is mildly interested in your brand/product/service, and quite another to be contacted by prospects who are qualified buyers, enthused by your message and ready to do business.
By fine tuning your message you may not always see an increase in the quantity of leads, but rather the quality. And as Amber mentioned, the level of trust that’s developed can go a long way toward forging a more beneficial relationship.
Global Patriots last blog post..Restaurants Loving Local Produce – Guest Post
One of those intangible “smoosh” factors relates to the richness of the interaction. It’s one thing to be contacted by someone who is mildly interested in your brand/product/service, and quite another to be contacted by prospects who are qualified buyers, enthused by your message and ready to do business.
By fine tuning your message you may not always see an increase in the quantity of leads, but rather the quality. And as Amber mentioned, the level of trust that’s developed can go a long way toward forging a more beneficial relationship.
Global Patriots last blog post..Restaurants Loving Local Produce – Guest Post
Amber, I can think of a dozen other ways I can use Radian6 to make execs happy.
1. By overlaying social mention with PR, Marketing and Advertsining timelines, you can actually watch the impact that each press release, campaign, article, conference or product release has on the conversation.
2. By overlaying the above with sales data, you can tie revenue to ALL of your activities (across traditional and new media) and see what is working and what isn’t.
3. You can measure the delta of positive vs. negative mentions over time. (Reputation feedback.)
Besides, your tool has INCREDIBLE reporting capabilities. If most people only knew…
olivier blanchards last blog post..Killing America’s brands, one lousy C.E.O. at a time.
Amber, I can think of a dozen other ways I can use Radian6 to make execs happy.
1. By overlaying social mention with PR, Marketing and Advertsining timelines, you can actually watch the impact that each press release, campaign, article, conference or product release has on the conversation.
2. By overlaying the above with sales data, you can tie revenue to ALL of your activities (across traditional and new media) and see what is working and what isn’t.
3. You can measure the delta of positive vs. negative mentions over time. (Reputation feedback.)
Besides, your tool has INCREDIBLE reporting capabilities. If most people only knew…
olivier blanchards last blog post..Killing America’s brands, one lousy C.E.O. at a time.