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The Monthly Measurement Maven and Menace Awards

The Measurement Maven of the Month:

Misty Moyse
Mothers Against Drunk Driving

Like Shonali Burke, Misty is a real pioneer in the world of non-profit communications measurement. Last fall she began a program that tracks her social as well as traditional media. She makes decisions about where to allocate resources using the research data. And, best of all, she recently called her metrics program "The most important thing we're doing." For that alone she deserves the coveted Maven award. --KDP

The Measurement Menace of the Month:

All those CMOs and VPs of Advertising...
...who demand "guaranteed eyeball reach" from social media.

What part of "it's a conversation" don't they understand? Do they count the success of cocktail parties and sponsorship hospitality opportunities by how many people see the invitation? I'm going to go out on a limb here and guess that the success of those sorts of conversations are probably measured in sales, and/or relationship building. So why should online conversations be measured differently?

Social media is not about how many eyeballs you reach, but about how many hearts you engage and the loyalty you build for your brand. It's about the degree to which you are reaching audiences you've never had a clue how to reach before. Audiences that are honestly interested in what you have to say or sell.

I just organized a fundraising concert that taught me this lesson yet again. We had ClearChannel as our media sponsor, and were initially thrilled; with multiple stations here on the seacoast of New Hampshire, they reached a huge number of eyeballs (or, in this case, I guess "ears" is a more accurate statement). But, come the day of the event, attendance was the lowest it's been in 4 years, and significantly lower than when we had a smaller independent radio station as our sponsor.

What went wrong? Turns out that the bands that performed at our concert were played more frequently on the smaller independent station. ClearChannel reached a ton of ears, but they didn't reach the fan base that connected with our entertainment. Lesson learned.

I wonder how long before this month's menaces reach the same conclusion. --KDP

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