The Paine of Measurement

SXSW: All Party and No Measurement
It's time for social media to justify all the hot air and hype.

I spent a number of days at SXSW (South by Southwest Interactive), which is essentially an extended play date for social media types. Not much work gets done, but everyone has a lot of fun and you learn just enough to cover your expenses. Unfortunately, (with the exception of the panel that I was on), there was no discussion of accountability, measurement, or results. For this reason, I awarded this month's Measurement Menace to SXSW.

See these and lots more photos of SXSW here.

Sure, there was lots of great thinking and ideas.* But most of the conversations were advocating doing more conversing, spiraling around in a contradance of self-justification. And I began to wonder whether anyone really wanted to be held accountable. Thank God for my fellow panelists (on the non-profit POI Poetry Slam), as well as the Dell folks I met with, or I might have gone into measurement withdrawal.

Yes, social media is fun, and I don't want to stop doing it. And we all know it can, at times, be a very effective way to communicate and to do PR. But, given the economy and shrinking budgets, isn't it about time to figure out what is working and not working?

Should you really keep throwing dollars down a social media hole just because some consultant says, "It's all about the conversation?" Well, maybe the conversation is useful. But maybe it's crap. And maybe all the hype hides a lot of hot air.

And when the time comes to tighten those belts (with the big buckles we all bought at the SXSW All Hat No Cattle Party), how will you know what to cut if you have no data? If you haven't tied your results to some kind of organizational goal?

I know I'm preaching to the choir here, since you wouldn't be subscribing to this newsletter if you didn't believe in measurement, but we need to get the word out to the rest of the world. So here's a little cheat sheet you can use at the next SXSW. Or the next time you are at any conference or a cocktail party and you get into a measurement discussion with your peers:

When they say:
"I'm afraid that metrics will reveal that my program isn't working,"
your response is:
"If it's not working, why keep doing it?"

When they say:
"I'm afraid of what I'll hear,"
your response should be:
"If you're deaf to the conversation, only your enemies will hear it."

When they say:
"I'm afraid I won't be able to justify my program/existence,"
you respond:
"It's not about justifying, it's about improving."

When they say:
"I'm afraid I'll be fired for not showing the right numbers,"
inform them that
they should be fired for not showing any numbers.

Wishing you large measures of success,

*I especially liked the idea of how Twitter and Facebook and personal networks are replacing Google as the preferred search engine: Why get a recommendation from Google or a stranger, when you can get it from one of your Facebook friends or Tweeps?

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New articles in this issue:

THE PAINE OF MEASUREMENT
SXSW: All Party and No Measurement
It's time for social media to justify all the hot air and hype.

MEASUREMENT CONFERENCES
4 Themes from the 12th Annual IPRRC
International Public Relations Research Conference Round Up

PRACTICAL APPLICATIONS OF CUTTING EDGE RESEARCH
Lessons Learned from 13 Financial Communicators

THE MEASUREMENT MAVENS OF THE MONTH
The Participants in the Non-Profit ROI Poetry Slam at SXSW

THE MEASUREMENT MENACE OF THE MONTH AWARD
The Organizers of SXSW...

CAN THIS REPUTATION BE SAVED?
American International Group, Inc.

DAPHNE GRAY-GRANT'S RAPID WRITING
7 Keys to Foolproof Proofreading
It's a dangerous job.

JENNY SCHADE'S MAKING IT COUNT
Meeting Facilitation 9-1-1
How to reach a verdict at every meeting.

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