Author Archives: Scot Wheeler
Critical Mass recently played host to the Chicago Web Analytics Association’s first 2012 event, a panel discussion on Social Media Measurement. A nice summary of the event is captured in this post from Christine Mortensen.
A key distinction between this Web Analytics Association (WAA) event and the thousands of other social media panels taking place at any given time (and the reason I was so excited to participate) is that this event brought together the comparatively well-established discipline of web analytics with the still evolving discipline of social media measurement.
A central recognition in this union of disciplines is that in today’s digital ecosystem, no form of digital measurement can stand alone.
The BIO Approach to the Digital Ecosystem
In order to help our clients and partners in the digital measurement space develop integrated digital measurement approaches, Critical Mass Marketing Science has developed the “BIO” approach to the new digital ecosystem.
The BIO approach views digital engagement in three overlapping and stages: (B) BEFORE delivering a digital experience, (I) INSIDE the “owned” aspects of our ecosystem, and (O) OUTSIDE the “owned” aspects of our ecosystem, in paid and earned (search, social) aspects of the ecosystem.
As another year begins we all find ourselves looking back and looking forward. Or, as we say in Marketing Science – analyzing and predicting.
We would also be the first to point out that predictive modeling relies on the analysis of historic data. Or, in regular-person speak – only by looking back can we look forward.
So, stick with us in our predictions for 2012 because as we focus on the future we will be taking some detours into the past.
Prediction #1
Social media measurement will focus less on ROI and more on brand affinity and purchase decisions.
Legend has it that once upon a time, in a land far, far away websites were once considered an expensive and optional marketing channel. (“This interweb thing is nothing more than a fad.”).
There was also a time when social media was viewed by many as a fad. 2008-2009 saw businesses start to take social media seriously. (“Maybe this Zuckerberg kid is onto something.”).
By 2010 executives wanted to know what their social media marketing spends were doing and social media measurement took off. The listening platform industry was born and several companies offered products that measured how much conversation was there about a brand, what were the key topics of conversation, and what was the sentiment of those conversations.
As social media marketing budgets grew, those same executives wanted to know how their spends were performing. And so 2011 became the year of social media ROI (return on investment). A prior post speaks more to this topic.
As we turn the corner into 2012 we predict that the focus on measuring ROI will lessen as companies stop wondering if social media has value and accept that it is now a fundamental part of the marketing mix. The measurement of social media will evolve into measuring its impact on brand affinity and purchase decisions. Social media will stop being viewed in a silo and seen as part of an end-to-end marketing mix.
The Challenge
Common sense asserts a wealth of marketing opportunity residing in the analysis of consumers’ publicly shared (and digitally documented) interests and interactions. However, there are significant challenges in separating valid information from noise, then structuring that valid data to draw actionable insights with the same level of confidence that businesses expect from their market research, web analytics, and other Business Intelligence functions.
The first generations of social media measurement and analysis have addressed these challenges as best they could. To advance beyond pseudo-science into the realm of truly actionable business analytics, the next generation of analysis will need to draw from the established standards and best practices of organizations’ existing analytics functions with established competency in building data-driven management practices from digital analytics.
Current State
Current approaches to social media measurement come in two forms:
1) Content-based monitoring or “listening” evaluates the content of conversations to assess current perceptions, and guide future engagement.
2) Context-based “social graph” analysis evaluates relationships and interactions within and across the social graph to assess networks and their capability to drive business objectives.
Businesses are currently trying to apply these two forms of measurement in various combinations for several objectives; to avoid or respond to brand crises, to build brand awareness and affinity, to enhance customer experience and loyalty, and even to influence sales.
We had a great turnout here at Critical Mass for our Social Media Week presentation on measuring Social Media ROI. As the standing room only crowd attested, this is a topic that many people are grappling with right now.
Social Media Week’s blogger Kerry Sugrue developed a good summary of the presentation, and we’ve made the slides available as well.
ROI Is Not Always the Right Fit
Perhaps the most well-received point of our presentation was the observation that the measurement of ROI is not always the best way to evaluate the value of social media engagement to an organization.
ROI has a clear definition; the measure of financial results against a defined investment. It is also unfortunately a management catch phrase.
Often, when management asks for the ROI on social media, what they are really asking for is the value of social media engagement to the business. Some value can be measured financially, and thus be converted to ROI, but with social media, much value must be measured in other terms.
Anyone who is asked to evaluate the ROI of their social media effort should ask back in return if ROI is really the right measure, or if management is really seeking the most relevant measures of value available. If the true interest is around understanding the effectiveness of engagement, then many alternative measures can be used.
We’ve asked our team to comment on the changes to Facebook announced at the F8 summit last week from the perspective of different disciplines. In this first installment, Leif Fescenmeyer (from our Insight & Planning group) looks at the implications for branded interactions and Scot Wheeler (from Marketing Science) discusses what, if any, changes to expect from Facebook insights.
Leif: Overall, I think the new Facebook interface has a lot going for it and at the same time, may have some hurdles besides the general distaste for change from users.
Brand Implications
It will be interesting to see how the new Newsfeed and realtime content Ticker will impact impressions and engagement on branded content from Pages. Already, we’ve noticed that impressions are no longer published on brand posts. How will “Top Posts” integrate branded content or will it at all? Will brands, in the future, be able to buy “Top Posts?” If branded content is not published as frequently or is secondary to Top Posts, will consumers and fans interact with brands as much as they did before? If so, how will brands prepare for decreased engagement?
News Feed and Ticker
The revamped Newsfeed and Ticker went over like a lead balloon with users, due perhaps to its unceremonious introduction. I’ve heard the Ticker called “a Facebook within a Facebook”–Inception style. It is and it isn’t. Read More
Two prior posts on this blog have discussed digital experience optimization and methods for appropriately attributing across distributed digital touch-points. Among these touch-points, social media is becoming a significant focus for many businesses, so this post examines how measurement of social media should align with the digital experience delivery process.
Social Media ROI
The previous post in this series addressed how appropriate attribution is essential for establishing accurate ROI for communication though various channels. I’ll pick up again on ROI with this post since this is a strong area of general interest right now. (In fact, I presented on this last week, and have another presentation on the topic this week as part of Social Media Week).
A fact of ROI is that while the formula is simple, the variables can get complicated when multiple investments contribute to a single measured return (i.e. social media’s role in the attribution question) or when a single investment contributes to multiple measured outcomes (potentially as in the social media diagram above), or when the outcomes of an investment are difficult to quantify (as in most “returns” from social media). Unfortunately, any of these can come to bear in measuring social media ROI.
Social Media Outcomes
Since the amount invested in a social media program is usually front-of-mind to management, an important area for clarity is usually the definition of (quantifiable) outcomes. The diagram above aligns key measureable social media outcomes with stages in the digital experience delivery process.
