1. Measuring social media - an overview
Dana Chinn
February 2010

2. • Traditional media vs. social media
rules, metrics
• Three steps for measuring social
media
• Example: measuring Twitter
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3. Not only are the technologies new,
but the metrics are as well.
--Online Media and Marketing Association Metrics and Measurement program, June 2009
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4. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website
has content
that it distributes
to people
who are
in the same
geography
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5. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website A social media service
has content
that it distributes
to people
who are
in the same
geography
4

6. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website A social media service
has content serves participants
that it distributes
to people
who are
in the same
geography
4

7. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website A social media service
has content serves participants
that it distributes who
to people
who are
in the same
geography
4

8. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website A social media service
has content serves participants
that it distributes who
to people -- group
-- have themselves
who are the same
in the same interests
geography
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9. Two different types of communities
A traditional news org website A social media service
has content serves participants
that it distributes who
to people -- group
-- have themselves
who are the same
in the same interests -- contribute
geography content
-- have
conversations
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10. Types of social media channels
Sharing
Networking
News
Bookmarking
Reviews
-- “Five essentials for social media marketing,” by Lisa Wehr, CEO/Oneupweb, iMedia Connection, July 17, 2009
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11. Social media:
a constant stream of calls to action
Brands earn the trust and loyalty of
their customers by listening and
responding.
--”The Maturation of Social Media ROI,” by Brian Solis, Mashable, Jan. 26, 2010
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12. Social media:
a constant stream of calls to action
Brands earn the trust and loyalty of
their customers by listening and
responding.
--”The Maturation of Social Media ROI,” by Brian Solis, Mashable, Jan. 26, 2010
...the true value of a network
is measured
by the frequency of engagement
of the participants.
-- Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009
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13. Social media rules
1. Listen
2. Engage
3. Measure
• Audience
• Engagement
• Loyalty
• Influence
• Action
Metrics should map to goals. Period.
From “What the **** is Social Media - One Year Later,” Marta Kagan, Espresso|Brand Infiltration, July 16, 2009. Some explicit words.
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14. Step 1: Define the R
R OI eturn n nvestment
and
R OO eturn n bjectve
“What is it that we want
to change, improve, accomplish, incite....?”
--”The Maturation of Social Media ROI,” by Brian Solis, Mashable, Jan. 26, 2010
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15. Step 2: Identify the participants,
their roles, their numbers
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16. Understand the limitations of your data sources
The Facebook ad
application only
gives you people on
Facebook who filled
out the form.
You don’t know
how many:
didn’t give details
or
updated their status
or
told the truth
or
aren’t in Facebook
or...
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17. Step 3: Identify the Key Performance Indicators,
the data you need to make decisions
Define success/failure with KPIs that indicate participation, engagement.
Use ratios, percents - not counts.
• Content: comments/post; bounce rate; percent positive/negative
• Twitter: PVs/URL; tweets/influencer; retweets/tweet
• Facebook: Percent of fans in target audience; discussion topics/influencer; wall
posts/fan
• Photos/slideshows: percent of show viewed; percent of target audience who
posted; comments/slideshow
• Videos: views/UV; percent of UVs who rated
• Attitudes: transparency; trust; are you adding value to the conversation?
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18. Advertisers want
proof of audience, participation
• Targeted audience reach, frequency
• Audience profile
• Unique visitors, active users; page views; visits, return visits; time spent
• Growth; “conversation reach”
• Content relevance
• Author (journalists, others) credibility; content freshness; influence
• Calls to action answered
• Passive: downloads; games played; videos viewed; alerts subscribed/
unsubscribed; widgets installed
• Info submitted: comments posted; topics/forums created; photos, videos
uploaded; poll votes; ratings, reviews, recommendations; contests entered
• Interaction: friends reached; in/out links; reposts
Derived from Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009
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19. Understand Twitter’s simple complexity,
understand how social media is measured
Content
Followers
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20. Analyze your follower profiles
to assess their likelihood of engagement
Do your followers identify with your keywords?
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21. Followers
Look for influencers
Review reach, churn,
following/follower ratio
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22. The perfect (measurable) Tweet
• A call to action to participate, engage with you
Look at this. Go here. What do you think?
• A link
To get news, information
Tweets are now a primary news source,
the new home page
To respond to the call to action
• A #hashtag and/or keywords
• Handle specific to person/topic
• A comment
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23. “Perfect” tweets are less than 120 characters
RT/via @handle + call to action/comment + link + #hashtag
100 characters 111 characters Watch handle,
hashtag sizes
Lost the link
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24. Analyze content
Review hashtags,
keywords, sentiment,
problems, conversations
that connect people
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25. Are you part of the conversation
in real-time web signaling events?
“When a burst of tweets citing a particular subject
or URL emerges, it’s a signaling event.”
--Rishab Ghosh, co-founder of Topsy, a search engine for tweets, in “Live in the Moment,”
by Clive Thompson, Wired magazine, October 2009
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26. GM “Reinvention”

27. GM “Reinvention”

28. GM “Reinvention”

29. GM “Reinvention”

30. GM “Reinvention”
R O
eturn n

31. GM “Reinvention”
R OI
eturn n nvestment

32. GM “Reinvention”
Measurable
R OI eturn n nvestment

33. Dana Chinn Blog
Lecturer http://www.newsnumbers.com
chinn@usc.edu
213-821-6259
Analytics for news orgs
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