social monitoring tools -- considerations and selection

Social Measurement --Considerations & Solution Selection

January 16, 2012

2

Calculating the smROI requires that you hold

three different concepts in your mind

at once:

1. Traditional operational activities and metrics.

2. Social analytics.

3. Business results when social media is applied.

1. Define marketing objectives & goals.2. Design marketing strategy.3. Design tactics.4. Define KPIs to measure success.5. Determine the best monitoring

solution(s).6. Measure outcomes.7. Convert metrics to business results

(ROI).8. Review results for lessens learned.

Steps towards Measurement /ROI success

Goals should be as quantitative as possible.

Address who, what, when and how much the marketing/PR program is intended to affect.

Undertake holistic measurement –

Reflective of traditional and social

media.

Measure changes in awareness among key stakeholders, comprehension, attitude, and behavior as much as applicable - and their effect on business results.

4. Define KPIs (metrics set)

Metrics are reflective of output but plan for an endgame where you can determine outcomes.

A.k.a., outcomes lead to business results.

4. Define KPIs (metrics set)

Outputs will be quantitative. Examples:• Downloads,• Click-through,• Traditional web stats.

Outcomes will be more qualitative but can be tied back to quantitative. Examples are shifts in:• Awareness, attitudes and behavior related to

purchase, • Brand equity, • Corporate reputation.

Why is the qualitative so important?

Picture 2 social channels….One has 1,000 members visiting per month and

the other has 50,000.

Which social channel is more valuable?

What if I told you each channel had the same cost structure and…

…the members in the 1,000/mo channel were highly engaged and generated

$300,000/mo in revenues…

…while the members in the 50,000/mo channel had low engagement and only generated $80,000/mo in revenues?

101

5. Social Monitoring tools

To turn social data into insight for your brands is an art as well as science.

Insights, intelligence, action and ROI are the promises of tools, not the

deliverables.

Expert people are needed to turn these promises into deliverables.

9 Criteria for selecting a social monitoring tool

1. Range of coverage – How good is the solution at collecting data at your sites of interest. E.g., some solutions are great at FB & Twitter but not with blogs & forums.

2. Availability of historical data - Some tools have better databases of past data.

3. Ease of use - Social monitoring tools can bring back a mountain of information, but the data is only meaningful if the tool is configured correctly. And some solutions are harder to learn than others.

9 Criteria for selecting a social monitoring tool

4. CRM Workflow capabilities – Do you need to direct conversations to different people within your or your client’s organization?

5. Sentiment – Solutions range from the less accurate keyword matching (less pricey) to more accurate Natural Language Processing (more pricey) which evaluates context.

9 Criteria for selecting a social monitoring tool

6. Frequency of alerts – How often do you need updates (real-time?). Can you select criteria needed/wanted for updates?

7. Language – Do you need to cover non-English languages?

8. Monitoring beyond social media. Some tools integrate PR & social media monitoring. E.g., Sysomos or NM Incite.

9 Criteria for selecting a social monitoring tool

10. Support and training – Some tools are harder to use than others & will require training to master. E.g., Radian6.

The next 2 slides that follow show ratings of social monitoring vendors by 5 different organizations.

SocialMedia.biz = http://www.socialmedia.bizFresh Networks = http://www.freshnetworks.com/files/freshnetworks/FINAL%20FreshNetworks%20version_0.pdf TopTenReviews = http://social-media-monitoring-review.toptenreviews.com/

Vendor Kathy Herrmann SocialMedia.biz

Fresh Networks TopTenReviews

Radian6 5 1 2 2

Collect Intellect 2 4

Lithium (formerly ScoutLabs)

3 3(Eval before merger)

3

Sysomos 1 4 1 1

Attensity360 2 5 4(Evaluated only Biz360...before merger)

Alterian SM2 6 4 5

Crimson Hexagon 7

Autonomy

NM Incite (formerly BuzzMetrics)

11

Visible Technologies 3 15

Simply Measured 4

Gartner (July 2011)

This includes full solution set, including community.

At press date for report, Radian6 had been acquired by Salesforce.com.

19

Kathy Herrmanninfo@kathyherrmann.comwww.kathyherrmann.com

571-236-7929

@KathyHerrmann+KathyHerrmann

1