FIVE MEDIA

MEASUREMENT

CHALLENGES

How smart communicators can leverage

media data to drive

competitive advantage

+ 2INTRODUCTION

Five Social Media Insight Challenges

"The only man who behaved sensibly was my tailor; he took

my measurement anew every

time he saw me, while all the

rest went on with their old

measurements and expected them to fit me."

George Bernard Shaw

THE CHALLENGE

SOME QUESTIONS ON

OUR CLIENTS‟ MIND

• When it comes to brand and reputation,how can I „measure what matters‟?

• With so much being said in the

media, how do I know what stakeholders really feel about my brand and products?

• How effective am I in communicating my messages?

• Who are the most influential voices in my communities of interest and what are their interests and motivations?

• Which of those should I seek to influence and how could I go about it?

• How does my performance compare to competitors?

• How can I as an organisation or individual participate meaningfully in social media?

• What does a best in class approach look like?

KNOWING IS

BUILDING

A BETTER

BUSINESS

Our five challenges for discussion today:

1. Measure what matters

2. Understanding accuracy

3. Tracking trends

4. Insight beyond buzz

5. Blending other data

But what is missing?

pecific

easurable

ttainable

ealistic/relevant

imely

5

Understand your social media goals and

objectives

+Measure what matters

INSIGHT CHALLENGE #1 6

YOU CAN TRACK A WEALTH OF METRICS WITH

MONITORING TOOLS… BUT WHICH ONES ARE

IMPORTANT TO YOUR BUSINESS?

#1 Easy-to-capture metrics are all about outputs –

activity volume, followers, sentiment – but KPIs tend

to be sales, leads, conversions, recommendations,

engagement… reflecting business KPIs in social media

data is a complex but critical task

#2 Monitoring tools don‟t track all social media… you need tools to track forums, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube

and podcasts that social media SaaS can‟t give you – start by

mapping what matters, and choose tools that can deliver it

#3 “Influence” – don‟t believe the hype… the idea

that a small number of social media influencers are the key to

social media success is seductive, but unsubstantiated –

articulate and measure what „success‟ means to your

company

THERE IS NO MAGIC BULLET IN SOCIAL MEDIA

MEASUREMENT. TOOLS HELP COLLECT DATA, BUT

INSIGHT COMES FROM HUMANS.

+Understanding accuracy

INSIGHT CHALLENGE #2 7

“Text analytics is like a dancing bear. You don’t

care how good it is, you’re just amazed it works at

all” (att: @kurtis_williams)

SOCIAL MEDIA MONITORING TOOLS PROVIDE LOTS OF

TECHNOLOGY OPTIONS – BUT ARE THEY EFFECTIVE?

#1 Sentiment analysis – out of lab conditions it‟s little

better than a tossed coin… it is known to struggle with

sarcasm, but also fails in other ways – it has its uses, but don‟t rely

on it for serious opinion research

#2 Social media software is rarely if ever an effective

discovery tool… coverage is rarely comprehensive and

searched sources often bias toward interests of previous clients –

you will always need a separate process to discover sources

#3 Country filters work in unexpected ways, and

deliver unrealistic results… site metadata, IP addresses and

physical server locations drive country filters, don‟t rely on them

UNDERSTAND HOW „LABOUR SAVING‟ TECHNOLOGIES

WORK, AND VALIDATE THEIR RESULTS

+Tracking trends

INSIGHT CHALLENGE #3 8

THE SOCIAL MEDIA UNIVERSE IS IN CONSTANT FLUX –

YOU MUST UNDERSTAND “REAL” TRENDS: EARNED, NOT

ORGANIC GROWTH

#1 The universe is growing, but by how much?… tracking mindshare in social media is a classic challenge – data

from search firms and aggregators provides the answers

#2 People are increasingly comfortable expressing

themselves in social media… so an increase in discussion

about your brand could be an organic trend that you need to

model in to your findings

#3 New ideas; new sources; new technologies; new

metrics… sources like Friendster reside in the „where are they

now?‟ file, as new ones like Quora rise to prominence. The market

is constantly changing, providing new insight opportunities – look

outward as well as inward, and be agile and responsive

TO MEASURE SOCIAL, YOU NEED TO KNOW SOCIAL.

ENSURE THAT YOU HAVE ACCESS TO DOMAIN

EXPERTISE AND ENTHUSIASM TO HELP SCOPE AND

DEVELOP INSIGHT PROGRAMMES.

+Insight beyond buzz

INSIGHT CHALLENGE #4 9

COMPARED TO PRESS AND BROADCAST CHANNELS,

SOCIAL MEDIA IS THE WILD WEST – COMMENTATOR

MOTIVATIONS AND INTENTIONS ARE UNCERTAIN,

BUZZ ALONE TELLS YOU VERY LITTLE THAT IS

USEFUL

#1 Complement quantitative “buzz monitoring” with

qualitative research… qualitative research disciplines provide

critical context for buzz monitoring and measurement

#2 Track what people do, as well as what they say… verbatim comment is an important source of insight, but not the only one

– pay attention to non-verbal endorsements (likes and links); search

trends and frequency of engagement

#3 Break down research silos… social media monitoring and

analytics complements other research lines, including web analytics,

opinion research and media content analysis – they are all parts of one

bigger picture

BUZZ MONITORING IS NOT THE FINISHED PRODUCT,

BUT WITH CARE AND ATTENTION IT IS A VALUABLE

SOURCE OF INSIGHT.

+Blending other data

INSIGHT CHALLENGE #5 10

IN SOCIAL MEDIA, BRAND ENGAGEMENT AND INSIGHT

ARE TWO SIDES OF THE SAME COIN.

#1 Exploit insight opportunities that comms activity

creates… engagement channels like Facebook include

comprehensive and valuable analytics dashboards – be sure you

can access and use them

#2 Maintain ethical standards… the etiquette of online

monitoring and engagement is not set in stone, but organisations

have suffered reputational damage from borderline activity.

Monitor, communicate and live your standards

#3 Consider your own engagement… the social media

insight opportunity isn‟t only about unprompted buzz. Curated

engagements like MROCs are an interesting insight prospect

LOOK FOR OPPORTUNITIES TO CREATE VALUE FROM

SOCIAL MEDIA RESEARCH FOR OTHER PARTS OF THE

ENTERPRISE, BUT ALWAYS KEEP REPUTATION RISK IN

MIND.

OUR PROCESS

WE OFFER “TECHNOLOGY

ASSISTED HUMAN

ANALYTICS”

We combine the best features of automated

text analysis with the benefits of human input

to enable complex analysis of a high volume

of media items time and cost effectively