The document outlines a 6-step process for developing an effective social media strategy for research institutions: 1) determine communication goals, 2) identify target audiences, 3) craft appropriate messages, 4) evaluate existing contact points, 5) select relevant social media tools, and 6) establish metrics for measurement. It also describes 5 levels of relationship-building on social media - from awareness to advocation - and provides examples of common metrics at each level, such as page views, followers, comments, and shared content.

1. Social Media Metrics
for
Research Institutions
Workbook

3. Strategic guide to planning a
social media campaign
Step 1: Determine communication goals
First decide what you really want to achieve. Your goal should
be a SMART goal: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant,
and Time-based.
Step 2: Audiences
Who is the target of your communication effort? How finely can
you define the sector? You might have different audiences for
each goal.
Step 3: Messages
What messages do you want to communicate to your audience?
In a social media world, you need to turn this question aroun-
das well: What do your audiences want to tell you? What do
you want to hear from your audiences?
Step 4: Existing touchpoints
With regard to specific goals, how do you come into contact
with the audiences you have determined? What other ways
might you come into contact with them?
Step 5: Which social media tools might help?
When considering the touchpoints you have identified, what
social media tools might help you enhance that contact, or what
tools might allow you to create new touchpoints?
Step 6: What will you measure?
For each social media tool you have identified, determine what
you might measure to indicate the level of relationship and
helath of that relationship.

4. The five levels of relationships
in social media
Level 1. Awareness
The first level of relationship with an audience is having that
audience know you exist. Unfortunately, this is the first big
battle many communication offices have to face. I won’t be
going into how you solve that problem here but there are some
metrics you can find that help identify whether people know
you exist in the social media space.
Example metrics: Web site page views
Level 2. Attention
Once people know you exist, you want them also to listen
to what you have to say, along with you listening to them of
course. In social media that generally requires some deliberate
action on the part of your audience as people generally have to
opt in to receive communication from you. If they do sign up
to follow you or get information from you some other way, you
know they are at least open to listening to your messages or
moving further along the relationship track. Too often commu-
nications offices don’t try to push past this stage in a relation-
ship but there is still a long way to go.
Example metrics: Time on web site, followers on Twitter, fans
on Facebook
Level 3. Participation
Ideally you want your audiences to be involved in conversation
with and about you, not just listening to what you have to say.
Conversations about you are probably more likely in the begin-
ning but be open to all kinds and measure what is going on in
those conversations.

5. Example metrics: Comments on a blog, @replies on Twitter,
posts on Facebook wall, re-sharing on Facebook or web sites.
Level 4. Engagement
Now we are getting to place where you want to be. Engaged
audiences are audiences that are in a mutually beneficial rela-
tionship with you. As such, they tend to be willing to actually
take action on your behalf, as long as you respect that relation-
ship and take appropriate actions on their behalf. The specific
metrics you use here will be defined by your individual goals
so it’s hard to give general examples, although there are some
common signs of engagement.
Example metrics: Retweeting, contacting you, completing
surveys, using your hashtags, signing up for your newsletter or
press releases
Level 5. Advocation
If you really build a strong, positive relationship you might
have even created advocates for your organization. Often alum-
ni play this role but it is quite possible to create many other
advocates in the community. Advocates will take action on
your behalf without being asked to. They will speak about you
positively, defend you against detractors, and encourage others
to pay attention to you (to enter a level 2 relationship with you).
Note that is also possible for people to be advocating against
you. They should also be measured and should be a priority for
you to deal with in some form.
Example metrics: Initiated conversations about you, encour-
agement of others to pay attention, defence of you, other posi-
tive comments picked up by content analysis, initiating sharing
on Facebook or web sites.

6. Communication goals
1. _______________________________________
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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7. Audiences
1. _______________________________________
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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8. Messages
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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9. Existing touchpoints
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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10. Social Media Tools
1. _______________________________________
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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11. Metrics
1. _______________________________________
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2. _______________________________________
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3. _______________________________________
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12. David Harris Communication
PO Box 705
Palo Alto, CA 94032
+1-650-704-0738
physicsdavid@gmail.com
Twitter: @physicsdavid