Measure by measure

There have been a number of items in the online and printed press recently regarding measurement. It seems that when the going gets tough, the tough start measuring, and for digital media, things have never been tougher. I expect to see a lot more on the subject in the coming months as the recession bites, so I thought it might be useful to look at one area that commentators are finding particularly interesting.

Social media measurement has received significant attention, particularly since the elevation of Twitter as the application of the hour, but organisations were already discussing how social media in general should be measured. Just this week, Matthew Yeomans of Custom Communications was interviewed by Econsultancy on the subject. Yeomans identifies three areas that combine to provide ROI data about social media effectiveness in a campaign context. These are: Reach, captured from how many people are talking about a brand post campaign; Sentiment, from people during the campaign; and Competitor Analysis to identify how the brand compared to peers.

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that the measurement of sentiment triggers the most debate when talking with clients. Methods range from software solutions that track words such as ‘like’ and ‘hate’ alongside mentions of brands, to detailed manual evaluation of comments made by identified influencers. The differences between qualitative versus quantitative methods and hybrid solutions leave marketers no clearer about the best approach. Even within the social media industry there is widespread concern that when discussing social media measurement, too many people are talking different languages and finding no concrete answers – yet.

Research conducted late last year by Marketing Sherpa added further to the conversation and the education. The US study looked at what worked in social media measurement, and where problems existed. It concluded that too many marketers were hung up on quantitative measurement when in fact qualitative measures added the most value. The survey found that the easiest things to measure (advertising for example) were actually the least effective, while the hardest things to measure (user reviews and ratings and relationships with bloggers) were the most effective.

Working in a research organisation, I understand why qualitative measurement is so important. 60% of the work we do is qualitative, although a great deal of that qualitative work is also supported by quantitative findings from parallel research in complementary areas (using web analytic traffic data to enrich findings from lab observation studies, for example). In our view both are needed to present the complete picture, but there are cost benefit arguments with every research project.

One thing is certain; there is a lot more to learn. Marketers will have to work through the noise to develop a clear understanding of how measurement should work for them. Establishing a measurement framework and strategy is work that can and should be done before even getting involved with evaluating solutions, and it should start far higher than the social media level. Providing your organisation with a measurement strategy is the gift that keeps on giving as it makes sure any decision making is firmly grounded in the business.

Returning to Twitter, we can see a great example of where an established strategy would help meet the challenge of measuring effectiveness. Trawling through pages of ‘Tweets’ to identify which referred to your campaign or website is not only time consuming it’s also very difficult to get right. Twitter’s prolific use of Tiny URL makes it impossible to see your campaign URL without actually clicking through each link. A better idea of what to look for can only help.

Businesses trying Twitter out today can write the investment off as innovation. Fairly soon though, senior people are going to start asking about ROI. When they do, we can expect to see a range of measurement solutions hitting the market very soon afterwards. By which time of course, Twitter will have been superseded by the next big thing. Do try and keep up!