Jim Macnamara"s "Measuring Up"

10 Social Media Metrics
How to make social media more measurable
than traditional media.

There is a growing amount of advice on how to measure social media, including the excellent Social Media Compendium produced by The Measurement Standard in December. But do we have all the answers yet? Judging by the range of different approaches and the machinations occurring in the online advertising industry, it would appear not.

A quick count made for a presentation to the IPR's Summit on Measurement in Portsmouth last October revealed 30 or more companies offering measurement services for social media -- all of which use different approaches and metrics.

A 2008 report by the Technology, Media and Telecommunications Industry Group of Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu noted that the Internet advertising industry has been criticized for poor research methods. Also, a survey conducted in Australia for the Australian Marketing Institute by research company Colmar Brunton in association with the University of New South Wales reported that, "...most senior executives are dissatisfied with the quality, timelines and depth of marketing metrics available to them." -- particularly with online media.

Despite calling for proposals for a new single-standard Internet audience measurement method from research companies such as Nielsen NetRatings, Hitwise, comScore and other research firms, the Interactive Advertising Bureau's set of measurement guidelines for online advertising released in November 2008 represent a minimalist approach, focusing on a few basic quantitative metrics. Of course, the advertising industry does not need to analyze content to determine its favourability or otherwise, its messages, and so on, because they already know that.

Nevertheless, it would be good if media users could agree on at least basic standards for measurement of key criteria such as reach, credibility and likely impact of online media including the rapidly growing range of what are termed social media.

However, with the focus of the IAB and many media measurement companies primarily on justifying advertising expenditure rather than gaining an in-depth understanding of the impact of media content, standards seem no closer than when Web 2.0 emerged.

Ten Key Metrics for Social Media

To keep the debate going, it seems that there are at least ten key metrics that can be productively measured for Web 2.0-type interactive media:

1. Unique visitors -- Duplications should be deleted to detect click fraud and identify the number of individual human log-ins, which provides a measure of reach.

2. Duration -- Filtering out very short stayers is recommended to provide a more accurate measure of true reach and also it provides a basic measure of engagement.

3. Links to a site (also called incoming links) -- A major Internet convention is linking to others, but organizations usually link only to sites that they trust and respect. Therefore, a high "link to" count is a sign that a site has some credibility and influence. Counts of links identify network nodes and hubs of credibility -- i.e. important influencers in networks.

4. Views of videos and...

5. Downloads of documents are measures of engagement, as people who take the time to view videos or download documents usually are interested. (Purchases, of course, are the ultimate measure of engagement).

6. User ratings such as star ratings and favorites -- These folksonomies are examples of the emergent self-organising characteristics of Web 2.0. While not formal taxonomies (objective categories or ratings), they are a further indication of credibility and influence, and substantiate reach and engagement.

7. Comments and...

8. Conversations or chat -- What people say on blogs, social networks, in comments on YouTube, Flickr, etc. and in Twitter is a direct form of feedback and market research, providing a further measure of engagement and a clear indication of impact. By analyzing what people are saying, analysts can see the "take-out" from campaigns and identify how much support or otherwise messages are receiving.

9. Return visits -- The number of people who come back to a site is a measure of frequency and stickiness in marketing terms.

10. Next clicks -- Where visitors go next also can provide useful information. For instance, if they leave a car manufacturer's site and go to a retailer's site for that brand, it is a clear progression towards buying. Whereas, if they go to a competitor's site, it is a sign of dissatisfaction with what they have found or that they are shopping around. As well as indicating future intentions, where users click next also maps intertextuality -- i.e., the range of information that they are accessing and using.

Content Analysis and Social Media

So, does this mean that traditional media measurement methods such as content analysis are not applicable for social media?

To the contrary, content analysis -- particularly qualitative methods of content analysis, drawing on techniques from text analysis, semiotics, narrative analysis, and discourse analysis -- is necessary to analyze social media content such as blog posts, comments, "tweets," and so on. Because this content is "editorial" and therefore variable, it is important to know its availability and what messages it communicates.

The ten measures listed above provide three things:

• First, they offer quantitative data sets for social media, for which there are no circulation figures, audience ratings, or TARPs (Target Audience Ratings Points).
• Second, they provide additional information to indicate credibility, which is a key question hanging over social media, as well as providing feedback and market research.
• Third, these metrics go further that traditional media measurement (which provide only reach and frequency) and give indicators of engagement, impact, and even stickiness, which most researchers agree are the most important metrics of all.

Combing these approaches makes social media more measurable than other media. Feedback on these ten metrics for social media is welcome, email me here.

Dr. Jim Macnamara MA, PhD, FPRIA, FAMI, CPM, FAMEC is Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology Sydney. He joined academia in late 2007 after a 30-year career working in journalism, public relations, and media research which culminated in selling the CARMA Asia Pacific franchise which he founded to Media Monitors in 2006. He worked as Group Research Director with Media Monitors - CARMA Asia Pacific following the sale and continues as a Consultant with the Group.

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