I was on a measurement panel at the IAB Social Media
Conference recently, and we talked a lot about the social media
‘scorecard.’ There were a variety of perspectives represented as Bryan
Wiener, CEO of 360i, moderated the discussion between Liza Hausman of
Gigya, Keith Kilpatrick from Buzzlogic, Jonathan Carson from Nielsen
Online and me. We all agreed that we wanted the discussion to be
practical and useable.

I imagined the social media scorecard in vivid color, its clarity
overwhelmingly simple, something marketers and agencies could put in
their pockets and use immediately when next evaluating the
effectiveness and efficiency of social media channels in an upfront
media mix. Sounds easy, right?

Enabling quality conversation (ranked on a ten point scale) with my
consumers? Check. Possessing pass-along value that inspires influencers
to inspire others about my core brand message, directly relatable to
product sales? Check. The fundamental elements of virality, guaranteed
to spread like wildfire through cyberspace? Check. Keep full control of
my brand? Double-check.

Now, I am fully in favor of scores and scorecards. Without them, how
can you know if your efforts are effective, or if you are winning or
losing? But while we all agreed that measurement must be the
cornerstone, we also recognized that there is no silver bullet.
Especially in emerging areas that are still defining the rules of the
game, where many marketers are still deciding whether to get in the
game to begin with.

So let’s put away our scorecards and magic bullets just for a little while, and talk about what we need to know to get started.

Three Useful Points to Consider in Social Media Marketing and Measurement

1) Clarity is key: define your success
As with all media, before diving in, ask yourself: what will it take
for you to look back at the campaign and say that it was successful?
Perhaps it will be based on the number of coupons downloaded, the
number of 18-24 year olds who become fans on Facebook, CRM signups or
overall brand effectiveness measures and attitudinal shifts… Only you
know what is important, but whatever it is, be clear about it so you
can prepare to measure it, and adjust your campaign on the fly if need
be.

2) Keep measurement simple and familiar

To break this down, separate quantity questions from quality
questions. On the quantity side, keep it simple: know how many people
you want to reach, and then measure how many you actually reached
post-campaign. Make these metrics as familiar as possible – if they are
expressed in comparable terms to other parts of your campaign, they are
more likely to be tangible and accepted. Reach and frequency metrics
are not going away any time soon.

The quality question allows for a bit more creativity – here is
where you can bring in ‘engagement’ and otherwise tie in your KPI’s
from (1) back into your web program. Basically, you are building a
track record with your brand and making the case that there were
quality elements which underscored that social media marketing was a
good choice. Depending on what your success markers were, these metrics
will vary – but can range from ‘branding” metrics (e.g. as measured
through comScore’s Brand Metrix studies) all the way to the lift in offline purchasing.

3) Control is not the point, listening is

We know, we know… this is a scary premise. But even the best
clarity, choreography and execution cannot completely guarantee control
in a social media campaign. So let’s imagine for a moment that we can
suspend our disbelief about relinquishing control and needing to
communicate, and focus instead on how to be heard -- because attention,
after all, is a scarce commodity. How might this be valuable, and what
is the added value of being able to listen directly, and adjust when
needed?

The value proposition here is also the trade-off – this is two-way,
and frequently one-to-many. Listen to the good. Respond quickly to the
bad, and respond even faster to the ugly. Enable the conversation,
rather than attempting to put it in a chokehold. People are talking
about your brand anyway, so you may as well get down in the weeds and
know what’s going on.

And don’t forget to bring your scorecard with you.