Measuring Social Media
As Toby mentioned in her last post, McNeil/J&J got wind of a controversy brewing on Twitter which ultimately escalated into mainstream media. For better or worse, this type of digital consumer uprising rarely happens. However, the lesson that all marketers can learn here is that listening and being prepared are key
On a related note, the "Motrin Moms" controversy reached a boiling point on a Sunday, i.e. an atypical "work" day. Proof that social media will also require the concept of work/life balance to apply over seven days a week, not five vs. two.
Being prepared and digital "listening" require effective measurement of online conversation. And as physicist Lord Kelvin said centuries ago, "if you can measure it, then you can manage it."
Measuring social media consists of five related factors, whether it's your campaign or an external meme you are following:
- Attention. The amount of traffic that content receives over a specific period of time.
- Participation. The level of user participation with content, e.g. comments, trackbacks, and bookmarks.
- Authority. The number of inbound links pointing to content.
- Influence. The size of user base subscribed to content for regular updates.
- Sentiment. The net positive and negative attitudes being expressed about the content.
- Velocity. The rate at which metrics are rising or falling.
Peter is currently working with a stealth-mode startup, building an enterprise social services + technology company. He was previously a Forrester Research analyst, and prior to that, was in charge of PUMA's global interactive marketing, internal creative agency, and marketing finance. He also held strategy consulting positions at Razorfish and Coopers & Lybrand. He blogs regularly at Being Peter Kim and tweets once in a while as well.
Posted by Contributor on November 22, 2008 1:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)
Couldn't agree with you and Lord Kelvin more - effective measurement of online conversations enables a marketer to more effectively engage (manage) in them.
Thanks for the checklist of 5 factors used to measure social media - very helpful!