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c h a p t e r6 :SOCIAL ANALYTICS, METRICS, AND MEASUREMENT■Social Analytics
The previous chapters have provided a basis for understanding how social media and
Web 2.0 technologies are reshaping the relationship between Marketing, where the
promise is created, and Operations, where the promise is kept. Building on the basics
of managing conversations through decided behavior rather than attempts at control,
this chapter presents the fundamentals of actual measurement.
Measurement is critical to building social media acceptance within an organiza-
tion beyond the marketing department. Facebook pages and Twitter profiles are useful
as marketing extensions, no doubt about it. However, at this point in the book it is my
hope that the really big levers of social technology (reshaping products and services;
creating a robust, two-way, collaborative relationship with customers; and using what
is learned throughout your organization) are starting to become apparent.
Throughout this chapter is an underlying theme of the value of measurement
and its role in determining a return on investment (ROI). As you work through this
chapter, consider that asking “How do I measure ROI?” is preceded with questions like
“What is ROI?” and “Does ROI even apply to this activity?” Don’t overly focus on ROI
unless you’ve first established that ROI is actually the appropriate end measure for your
intended use of social technology. For example, a key performance indicator, or KPI (see
sidebar) may be more appropriate and more informative if there is not a clear “invest-
ment” or financial return in the form of new, incremental revenue or costs avoided as a
an expected outcome of your project. ROI is important, but determining why (and when)
ROI is the appropriate measure can make even more difference to your success.Quantitative Measurement
What should be clear at this point is that without meaningful and quantitative mea-
surement you stand essentially no chance of ever seeing social media and Web 2.0
technologies adopted through your organization. Why not, and why the central role for
metrics? Think back to the Good Guide— a customer-driven, handheld social applica-
tion that directly empowers consumers—referenced in Chapter 4, “The Social Business
Ecosystem.” When your core customer—take the “advocate Mom,” for example—has
an application like the Good Guide and scans your product with her iPhone, comparing
your company’s carbon footprint and hiring practices with your competitor’s, what will
your marketing program do to ensure that your brand wins in this type of comparison?
Without the coordinated, committed help of the entire organization you stand no chance
of winning, and without quantitative measurement—the universal language throughout
most organizations—you’ll face an essentially undoable job in trying to rally your larger
team to understand why their participation—beyond marketing—is essential.
Social media analytics are at the core of putting the Social Web to work in busi-
ness. When time is taken to understand the quantitative tools and measurement points,
the Social Web is transformed from a source of largely unstructured qualitative data