Social-Media Metrics In Their Infancy

March 24, 2008 · 16 comments

Brian (aka @bmorrissey on Twitter) Morrissey wrote a great story for Adweek on social-media metrics. As I underscored in an interview with Brian for this story: “It’s still in its infancy,” and “Marketers are trying to bridge the divide of what the metrics mean and then put them into action.” My perspective comes as a former exec of a pioneering measurement service for social media, and, now, as a practitioner of social-media strategies on the marketer side.

Brian took an angle of social-media metrics for advertising and media purposes — understandable provided his publication’s audience of advertisers and media buyers, and the limited space. However, the major point I made in our interview, which he wasn’t able to unpack in this short article, is that social-media metrics are expansive and applicable to nearly all business processes, from innovation to product development, from strategic and communications planning to communications management, from marketing effectiveness to loyalty, as well as customer service, experience and beyond. Different operational silos within enterprises need to learn how social media are impacting them individually and holistically. From there, you can begin to evaluate the arsenal of metrics and and tie them to specific business objectives. This will be a long haul, and should be informed by experimentation, testing and practice.

That’s one of the great things about social media…I can add to the story and give you the back channel right here. However, it would be nice if Adweek.com enabled comments so I could leave my breadcrumbs and reader VALUE there as well. This certainly is one dimension missing from the DNA of most advertising and media professionals.

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  • bmorrissey

    Hey,
    Thanks for the help with the story. Sorry I demoted you.

    I tried to cover the more expansive view of social media later in the story. Admittedly, it’s hard to cover all the bases in a 1600-word story, but this is one I tried to touch. Here’s one part: “The challenge is conversations that cut across organizational silos. A single data set of customer feedback can apply to the marketing department wanting to know if its messages resulted in increased share of voice versus its competitors; customer service eager to know of problems before they ignite a firestorm; and product management in search of insights into unmet customer needs. No one set of metrics can apply to such a diverse set of constituencies,”

    -B

  • bmorrissey

    Hey,
    Thanks for the help with the story. Sorry I demoted you.

    I tried to cover the more expansive view of social media later in the story. Admittedly, it’s hard to cover all the bases in a 1600-word story, but this is one I tried to touch. Here’s one part: “The challenge is conversations that cut across organizational silos. A single data set of customer feedback can apply to the marketing department wanting to know if its messages resulted in increased share of voice versus its competitors; customer service eager to know of problems before they ignite a firestorm; and product management in search of insights into unmet customer needs. No one set of metrics can apply to such a diverse set of constituencies,”

    -B

  • http://www.stemato.com Stephen Tompkins

    Hey Max-

    I really enjoyed this post. I think the second paragraph is really concise and great explanation.

    S

  • http://www.stemato.com Stephen Tompkins

    Hey Max-

    I really enjoyed this post. I think the second paragraph is really concise and great explanation.

    S

  • http://www.attentionmax.com Max Kalehoff

    Brian: Thanks for your latter comment. That was largely along the essence. I would’ve like to have seen you push the embracement of social media by different business silos and operations, but, again, I understand the constraints. I think my first comment in our interview was “Good luck on tackling a complex issue!”

    Stephen: Thanks.

  • http://www.attentionmax.com Max Kalehoff

    Brian: Thanks for your latter comment. That was largely along the essence. I would’ve like to have seen you push the embracement of social media by different business silos and operations, but, again, I understand the constraints. I think my first comment in our interview was “Good luck on tackling a complex issue!”

    Stephen: Thanks.

  • bmorrissey

    Awesome. I think there’s an entire story left to tell about business silos.

  • bmorrissey

    Awesome. I think there’s an entire story left to tell about business silos.

  • http://mediaevaluation.blogspot.com/ michaelblowers

    I really enjoyed this article – a super round-up on the state of the art. Max, I think you make an excellent point when you talk about the arsenal of metrics available. Arguably, the online environment is bringing together the individual marketing disciplines; with far greater interaction and effect between PR, advertising and the greater marketing environment. Measurement can only become more complicated in a cross-discipline world and while I think there will still be a demand for measurement specialists, I also believe the greater marketing community needs to get educated on the selection of metrics available. Most importantly they need to make measurement important from a campaigns very inception, ensuring that all elements have some sort of measureable feed-back connection.

  • http://mediaevaluation.blogspot.com/ michaelblowers

    I really enjoyed this article – a super round-up on the state of the art. Max, I think you make an excellent point when you talk about the arsenal of metrics available. Arguably, the online environment is bringing together the individual marketing disciplines; with far greater interaction and effect between PR, advertising and the greater marketing environment. Measurement can only become more complicated in a cross-discipline world and while I think there will still be a demand for measurement specialists, I also believe the greater marketing community needs to get educated on the selection of metrics available. Most importantly they need to make measurement important from a campaigns very inception, ensuring that all elements have some sort of measureable feed-back connection.

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  • karthikanantharamu

    Hi Max,

    Can you comment on the size of this social media metrics(social media analytics) market ?

  • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

    It depends how you define it — and no matter how you approach it,
    it's messy. Here's a highly unscientific segmentation and estimate,
    based little recent research and mostly my finger in the wind. Pure
    third-party social media analytics products is probably just a few
    hundred million at most. The social media research/analytics
    professional services industry, including pureplay vendors and
    agencies that provide related services, is probably a billion or more.

  • karthikanantharamu

    Hi Max,

    Can you comment on the size of this social media metrics(social media analytics) market ?

  • http://www.attentionmax.com maxkalehoff

    It depends how you define it — and no matter how you approach it,
    it's messy. Here's a highly unscientific segmentation and estimate,
    based little recent research and mostly my finger in the wind. Pure
    third-party social media analytics products is probably just a few
    hundred million at most. The social media research/analytics
    professional services industry, including pureplay vendors and
    agencies that provide related services, is probably a billion or more.