Media Guerrilla

The Three O'sof Social Media Measurement

"How do you measure social media programs?"

You know, I try not to, it's a buzz kill. I'm kidding...

This question surfaces all the time. It's hands down one of the biggest challenges we marketers face, but come on, it's not impossible. Yeah, we need better weights and measuring sticks for new media — they will come — but don't let that stop you from adapting and customizing an approach that works for your business.

There are three things you should think about when it comes to measurement, each I'd argue are equally important:

Outputs

Pretty self explanatory, right. Is content being created? It could be a blog post or a forum topic or a video, you get the gist. Try not to get too hung up on the "how much" part of the output. Focus instead on the quality and relevancy of what's being produced and the utility of the medium for you and your customers.

Outgrowths

Again, pretty simple. What stems or grows from the content that was created? It could be comments, links, tags, diggs, votes, etc. How people choose to participate with the content will vary so try to think about the value and weight you place on certain actions — and how you might better enable them.

Outcomes

Basically, the net result or response to the first two things. It could be attention (influencers, media), amplification (memes), engagement (quality/quantity of comments), sentiment (positive/negative), this is where you have to simply interpret and weigh the shake out. And then compare your analysis to whatever the hell your goals were to begin with. Oh, and then pray they line up.

Keep in mind, all of this is just one approach to measurement — an admittedly simple one for an increasingly complex web. I tend to think social media measurement will always be half science/half art, and maybe for that reason, always be a headache too, but hopefully this gives folks a framework to pivot and build on.

Related Post:

Social Media Measurement Deconstructed

Also Read:

PR Measurement Blog (Katie Paine)

Like Nailing Down a Shadow (Brian Oberkirch)

Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)

[Cross published on Voce Nation]

Boost Your Monitoring Mojo with Yahoo! Pipes

Just ruminating here on my previous post, you can tell where my head's been at lately....

The monitoring vs. mining nut is a tough one to crack, no question, but I'm becoming increasingly convinced that of the many services that do exist, very few, if any frankly, are very good at real-time monitoring. And even then, those that come close, come at a cost - that cost ultimately being the time and effort that comes with good ol' fashion human analysis ($$$).

So, for those of you that find yourself in a place where by either choice or, uh, default, you're shouldering the task of monitoring online chatter for a brand, a quick tip:

Make a pipe. A Yahoo Pipe.

You can go crazy creating all sorts of custom feeds, alerts, watchlists, and the like, and while these things in aggregate can help you stay abreast of conversations, generally speaking, they waste a ton of your time too. Why? Because what you have is a loose set of data sources, each making dumb matches on a keyword, tag or string you've selected, and each lacking filters for relevancy, importance, language, etc.

It's a little like standing in the entrance of a grocery store. You know all the food you need is front of you, but you're still left having to traverse aisles hunting and picking for what you really want.

Yahoo Pipes basically lets you mashup and manipulate all sorts of data sources, adding a layer of intelligence and utility, and most important, efficiency, to your monitoring mojo that's tough to beat. Now, I'll admit, building a Pipe requires a little patience and know-how, but there are some great how-to's available, plus there's a growing pool of shared Pipes that you can take as-is and put to work immediately. A few favorites: Aggregated News Alerts Pipe, Video Search Pipe, Digg/del.icio.us Pipe, Upcoming Events Pipe....

These examples just scratch the surface of what you can do with Yahoo Pipes, dig in and give it try, my bet is that you'll find it alleviates some of your biggest web monitoring headaches. Good luck.

[Disclosure: Yahoo! is a client of mine, but that shouldn't stop you from trying this or me from sharing it....]

Technorati Tags: monitoring, yahoopipes

Third Thursday: Social Media Measurement

Just a quick Third Thursday update: Measurement has long been the achilles heal of communication and marketing programs so we're returning to Palo Alto this week to talk about measurement - specifically, social media measurement - with folks from Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Buzzlogic, OpenMind, and Biz360. SNCR's Jen McClure will be leading the discussion.

Details are on the meetup page, hope to see you there.

Also Read:
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang/Podtech)

Technorati Tags: meetup, social+media+measurement, silicon valley, thirdthursday

Finally, Somebody Ranks Brand Monitoring Services

If there was ever a research report I'd like to get my hands on, it's this one from Forrester. 

The folks at Forrester have completed what looks to be a pretty comprehensive analysis of the most popular brand monitoring services (e.g., Nielsen Buzzmetrics, Cymfony, Biz360, Umbria, Brandimensions, MotiveQuest, and Factiva). 

I can't tell for certain how deep this report goes, it costs a thousand bucks, but they've posted a Q&A and an executive summary along with the graphic you see embedded here, which tease some of the findings.  A few of the nuggets (verbatim):

• Nielsen BuzzMetrics and Cymfony are market Leaders, thanks to their comprehensive technology platforms and extensive data source coverage.
• MotiveQuest — with the most services-focused and strategy-oriented offering — finishes as the leading Strong Performer.
• Biz360's focus on traditional PR monitoring services lands it as a midrange Strong Performer.
• Rounding out the Strong Performer category are Factiva, with its strong print orientation, and Umbria, which excels at speaker segmentation.
• Brandimensions falls into the Contender category, with targeted expertise in the automotive, entertainment, and pharmaceutical industries and an approach that relies heavily on human filtering.

Brand monitoring online is top-o-mind for a lot of companies that recognize the need for conversational marketing and communication, but lack the tools and insights to analyze and measure the impact and success of their efforts.  It's a real pain, and unfortunately, where there's pain there's also exploitation. I think some of the popular brand monitoring services have a reputation of over-promising and under-delivering -- which is why I'm glad to see a report like this surface.

Brand monitoring and sentiment mining online is a tough nut to crack, I personally don't think any of these companies have it nailed yet, but some are getting close.

For that reason, it's good to see that Forrester will be revisiting this report next year, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a big shake up in the rankings, perhaps even some new players to watch.  Forrester, if you're listening, I'd totally understand if you wanted to send this to me for "review.";p

Related Posts:
Social Media Monitoring
Synthesizing Social Media
Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap
Blog Monitoring As PR Service

Technorati Tags: forrester, measurement, brand+monitoring, research

More on Social Media Monitoring

Alright, so I've been on a bit of a kick lately about monitoring and synthesizing social media, it's just a great practical example of where technology, client services and agency business models are all colliding. And now I'll toss another variable into this messy mix -- human bandwidth.

Let's face it, there's a finite amount of information that you and I can realistically absorb and act on, at some point we're each limited in our info intake, if by nothing else but hours in the day. And therein lies yet another challenge for agency account teams chartered with managing a client's online health, particularly the big brands.

How many people does it take to successfully find, follow and flip solid client counsel based on online discussion levels? And can that structure scale as the volume of social media increases?

Again, no easy answer here, at least not yet. I think technology will solve some of this pain, I also think the pain itself will force some firms to rethink how they approach brand monitoring and reporting. For example, economies of scale could very quickly be achieved if online monitoring was no longer the function and responsibility of a client team, but instead the entire agency (i.e., a distributed service). Group delicious accounts and private corporate Digg sites, hell, even the idea of a simple bookmarklet on every browser, are all interim solutions that could -- and should -- be implemented to maximize the online eyes and ears for a client.

More to come on this, particularly this idea of distributed PR services.

Related Posts
Synthesizing Social Media
Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap
Blog Monitoring As PR Service

Technorati Tags: distributed PR, Measurement, PR, socialmedia

The Importance of Reputation in PR

I've been experimenting with RapLeaf, a new reputation system that launched over the weekend. Mike Arrington aptly calls it "eBay feedback for the rest of the web, and the offline world." It's a simple idea, elegantly executed, with tons of potential, but what I find most interesting are the implications this sort of service has for PR practitioners. Bear with me on this....

Shel Isreal wrote recently about the power of personal brand, specifically, how personal brands are increasingly influencing and shaping our perceptions of various corporate brands. I think you could argue there's a fine line between "personal brand" and "personal reputation," they each ultimately represent a subset of qualities and traits that outwardly define you, me, and every other poor sap out there, nothing new here really, however the difference today is that our personal brands, our personal reputations, comes with a degree of permanence and public accessibility -- be that for better or worse -- thanks to the web.

Case in point, the major search engines, like Yahoo and Google, are crawling and aggregating the bread crumbs of our digital selves, our digital reputations, making this info discoverable to anyone who seeks it, while the vertical search engines, like Technorati and Sphere, are taking it a step further by focusing on blog content and assigning authority and relevancy metrics to that.

To me, RapLeaf's service seems like the next logical step in this progression, where real-world feedback and offline sentiment can now be combined with algorithmic metrics and online measures to capture and represent one's reputation. I think the message this sends to PR practitioners, particularly consultants and agency folks, is the obvious one: that you're the keeper of your reputation, manage it diligently, or face the consequences. Write a bad press release, the world can see it. Send a bad pitch, the world can see it. And if you act unethically, the world can now see that too.

Now, there's an upside to all this as well, especially in the context of new media. A RapLeaf score has the *potential* to become a unique, at-a-glance qualifier for bloggers, podcasters, etc., who are increasingly being approached, or pitched, by PR folks who might not otherwise disclose their agendas or exercise any degree of transparency. A RapLeaf score could help bloggers and such determine the credibility and trustworthiness of a source, in much the same way that eBay feedback helps buyers and sellers determine who they want to do business with. If this sort of thing was to catch on, the implications for PR would run deep: those that act and operate ethically and responsibly would be largely listened to, and those that don't, largely ignored. Think about it....

For now, ironically, under the premise of this post and my own RapLeaf score, I exist among the ignored masses, but you can change that, and so can I...;-)

Technorati Tags: Personal Brand, PR, RapLeaf, Reputation

Technorati Stats, Just a Sign Post, Folks

For all the hype and hyperbole surrounding the latest Technorati stats, I think, to Jeremy Pepper's point, a lot of marketers are sitting on the sidelines looking at things and asking, "how the hell does this really help us with our social media plans?" Truth is, it probably doesn't help that much, in the end it's just a quantitative snapshot of blog activity, and a questionable one at that -- but it's also a sign post, and when you put it in context with other data points and new media trends, it becomes a *little* easier to navigate through the noise and determine where the real opportunities (and threats) may reside for your organization.

Related Post:
Job title of the future: social media analyst (Church of the Customer)
"All of this seems to point toward a new job responsibility inside companies whose growth depends on word of mouth: social media analyst."

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Measurement, PR, Stats, Technorati

Blog Monitoring As PR Service

Sparked by a survey that Brian Oberkirch at WeblogsWork is getting underway, an interesting conversation has been taking shape on the Naked Conversations Blog (see comments thread) about blog monitoring as an emerging service/business opportunity among PR and marketing firms:

"I'm still learning to master Technorati, PubSub, Feedster and Bloglines. I've abandoned a few others. For businesses just trying to get their arms around it all, these tools are as hard to master as they are important to understand. This is a place for a PR agency to jump in. Use them to listen and learn for your clients. Serve as an early warning system for what is being said by both topic and company."

I have to admit, at first pass, my reaction to this was a little like "well, yeah!?" I think most PR folks are pretty damn good when it comes to traditional news scouring and analysis, and serving as the eyes and ears for their corporate clients, so it seems only natural that PR teams would carry the responsibility for monitoring the blogosphere too. In fact, I think this function of keeping a pulse on industry chatter, be it traditional media or otherwise, is hands-down, just critical to a program's overall health and strategic direction.

Some firms are already outsourcing this function of a program to third-party measurement and analysis companies in very much the same way they have outsourced traditional news monitoring. Others are taking the DIY approach, using a combination of lightweight tools like internal reporting blogs, team wikis and specialized search engines to get the job done. I think with both approaches there's a fair and formal up sell for a value-added service, it just comes down to the unique needs of the client.

Each has its own challenges too, btw: the outsourcing option remains problematic given the fast-moving nature of blogosphere discussion and the limitations that come with real-time tracking, while the DIY approach relies primarily on human tracking and analysis, and typically the hourly billing rates ($$$) that come with that.

Finally, I'll just add that when it comes to tracking and analyzing online discussions, it's my experience that marketing folks tend to see this as a function of taking a macro-level snapshot of the company's overall brand perception and health, whereas PR teams are much more engaged at the micro level, focusing on issues and responses.

I touched on this subject a few months ago with more thought/detail (see "Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap").

Technorati Tags: Business, DIY, Measurement, PR

BuzzMetrics, Intelliseek Merge

In a note that BuzzMetrics President and CEO Jonathan Carson sent out this morning, he shares the news that starting today, the company will be merging with Intelliseek to create a "new global standard in the measurement of consumer-generated media." Carson explains the deal:

"This truly is the joining of two leaders who’ve led our industry from the beginning, and our combined team will create a new global standard in the measurement of consumer-generated media. This exciting deal is backed by VNU, owner of such renowned research names as ACNielsen and Nielsen Media Research, and originally a minority shareholder in Trendum and BuzzMetrics. VNU will become a majority shareholder in our new company, BuzzMetrics, Inc., and we’ll market our services under the “Nielsen BuzzMetrics” brand."

More details are available on the new Nielsen Buzzmetrics site, including the press release and a pointer to a joint webcast scheduled for later this afternoon. I'll need some time to grok this, but it's certainly an interesting move -- one that will have broader implications for companies seeking to monitor and mine the blogosphere.

Related Posts:
Mining and Monitoring the Conversation Gap

Technorati Tags: Blog, BuzzMetrics, CGM, Intelliseek, Social Media, VNU, WOM

Why Blog Search Sucks

Randy Charles Morin at The RSS Blog explains the State of Blogosphere Search or put another way, Why Blog Search Sucks:

“It's been awhile since I reported on blogosophere search. This is mostly because it's not getting any better, with a few exceptions. The problems mainly arise from the broken blogosphere ping infrastructure and the unyielding supply of splogs.”

Like a lot of folks I have a chip in the game, both personally through this blog but also professionally through my day job consulting clients on their online programs.  The current state of blogosphere search is *painful* to say the least.  We need better tools and services to find and track online conversations.  Enough said.

Technorati Tags: Blogging, Measurement, PR, Search