Webinar Recap: Measurement Strategy Quantifies Your Social Media Investment

Who knew Altimeter Group’s preeminent social media analyst Susan Etlinger was into Ultimate Fighting?

That was just one of the interesting things attendees of Webtrends’ latest webinar, “Measurement Strategy Quantifies Your Social Media Investment”, learned as Susan often referred to the UFC as an organization with an effective social media engagement strategy.  Good for you, dear reader, that you can watch the replay for free right here!

Susan, an advocate for social analytics, and Webtrends’ own Merlyn Gordon, gave attendees an overview for why social media measurement strategies matter and, more importantly, how to pursue them.

In addition to Susan’s UFC love, other interesting tidbits and topics covered included:

Did you know?

• The average number of social media accounts for an enterprise is 178?!?
• Typically, up to 17 different departments are engaged in social media, ranging from PR to legal to customer service and others.
• 41% of more than 1,000 companies and agencies surveyed had NO ROI figure for any of the money they had spent on social channels as recently as October 2011 (according to eConsultancy)

There is no ‘silver bullet’ for social measurement.

Susan and Merlyn agreed that because each organization is different and has different goals for their social media activities, no single approach to social measurement dominates.  However, Susan did outline a guide for how an organization might determine what’s right for them:

• Identify Your Business Type
• Direct or indirect sales?
• Delivery type – online only or mixed physical & online?
• Culture – experimental or conservative?
• Target market – business or consumer?
• Assess Product Type
• Product or Service provider?
• Sales Cycle – short or long?
• Cost/Consideraton – low or high?
• Factor in Your Media Mix
• Paid (taggable)
• Owned (taggable)
• Earned (not always taggable)
• Shared (not always taggable)
• Identify Customer Profile
• Demographics – who where, etc.
• Socialgraphics – when and how they interact online

Great, that’s the framework, but where do I start?

Glad you asked.  Susan suggested the following step-by-step process:

• Strategy: define business objectives; identify required insights
• Metrics: define success, recommend actions
• Organization: Identify required resources, identify required training, identify barriers
• Technology: identify tools based on strategy, metrics & organization

So go ahead and click here to replay the whole webinar and learn more.  I will give away the ending for you, though.  The one overriding theme that Susan, Merlyn and all of us here at Webtrends agree upon: “Get your measurement organization in place now.”

As Home Depot says, you can do it.  We can help.