social measurement: best practices framework for a social measurement strategy

8/13/2019 SOCIAL MEASUREMENT: BEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK FOR A SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY

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SOCIAL MEASUREMENTBEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK

FOR A SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGYA practical, proven approach to integrating social media

with other digital channels and determining its value to the

bottom line.

DIGITAL

MEASUREMENTWHITE P

2013 2013 WEBTRENDS, INC. WWW.WEBTRENDS.COM.


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SOCIAL MEASUREMENTBEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK

FOR A SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY

A practical, proven approach to integrating social mediawith other digital channels and determining its value to the

bottom line.

Mind the Social Gap

Altimeter Group reports

that 48% of corporations

made social media ROI a

primary focus in 2011, yet

just 56% of companies who

identified as advanced usersof social media had standard

measurement frameworks in

place to help benchmark ROI.

+20%rise in social

media in the

next 5 years

$1.2 BILLION SPENT ON

SOCIAL MEDIA IN THE US IN 2011

Merlyn Gordon, Director, Solutions Marketing

Merlyn has spent his career helping leading global brands succeed with

digital marketing, social CRM, and multi-channel measurement solutions.

As Director of Solutions Marketing at Webtrends, Merlyn is currently

responsible for product marketing activities related to Webtrends

portfolio of measurement and optimization solutions.

AUTHOR BIO

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

TREND

As spending increases in social media, marketing departments

are under greater pressure to prove the value of social channels

and tie efforts to business outcomes and revenue.

PROBLEMHowever, most companies who include social media in their digital

marketing efforts do not have a measurement strategy in place to

prove success or return on investment.

SOLUTION

By developing a framework grounded in best practices

objectives, technology and expertise companies can clearly

measure the impact of social on engagement, conversion and

revenue, and in context of other digital marketing efforts.

WEBTRENDS WHITE PAPER. 2013 Webtrends, Inc. 2


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SOCIAL MEDIA AS A BUSINESS DRIVER

Its fair to say that social media is no longer new Facebook,

Twitter and YouTube have been around for more than six years,

and internal collaboration solutions, such as Jive and SharePoint,

have been in use even longer. But the volatility, fragmentation

and unique characteristics of social data continue to challengemany brands. Companies are still looking for ways to quantify the

success of social media initiatives.

As social media ramps up and dollars shift from traditional

marketing channels, theres a corresponding shift in technology

ownership taking place within many organizations. In fact, Gartner

recently predicted that CMOs will surpass CIOs in technology

spend by 2017. This adds to the pressure marketing leaders are

feeling to justify investments in people and tools, and to tie social

initiatives back to business performance. Proving social ROI is the

primary challenge most organizations face as they adopt social

business programs.

CHALLENGES OF MANAGING SOCIAL

MEDIA MARKETING

In addition to the challenge of tying social initiatives to business

performance, brands face other major pain points in managing

their social business.

1. LACK OF FAMILIARITY APPLYING TRADITIONALDIGITAL MEASUREMENT PRACTICES TO SOCIAL

MEDIA CAMPAIGNS.

Its not uncommon to find social practitioners with public

relations or communication backgrounds thrust into the

position of deciphering how to deal with changes to social

platform APIs, or trying to make sense of which media,

audience and content attributes should be collected and how.

The skills required to design, deploy and manage social media

initiatives really require a unique set of skills and thinking.

This presents a people and process oppor tunity as brands

organize for social business and look to interact with rapidly

evolving mediums.

Forrester reported $1.2

billion was spent on social

media in the U.S. in 2011.

The CMO Survey on Marketingand Social Spend (August

2012) shows social media

spending will rise nearly 20%

in the next five years.

Gartner recently predicted

that CMOs will surpass CIOs

in technology spend by 2017.

Social Media by the Numbers*

Facebook

- 618 million daily active users

- 680 million monthly active

users who use Facebook

mobile products.

Twitter

- 140 million active users

- 84 million active users who

accessed content through

mobile.

* As of December, 2012



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2. DIFFICULTY IN RECOGNIZING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN

SOCIAL PLATFORMS AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS.

While social media may often create awareness, or serve as a first

touch in the conversion funnel, i t is less successful at closing the

final sale. Thats why it can no longer be viewed as a stand-alone,

isolated channel. Social has to be placed in context alongside, and

integrated with, other digital channels, especially mobile, where

adoption is faster than any other technology in history. As of 2012,

45% of American adults have a smartphone, and 31% of current

users say they access online content using their cell phone.

3. INEFFICIENCIES ASSOCIATED WITH COLLECTING AND

ASSIMILATING HIGHLY COMPLEX AND DISPARATE DATA

SOURCES.

Social data is unlike other digital data, and it presents significant

challenges to measurement professionals. The volume, variety

and velocity of social information can overwhelm even the most

experienced marketing expert. Collecting, reporting and analyzing

data such as unstructured text, images, geolocation, device

information all coming at you in streams and in real time is

beyond the management capacity of a typical spreadsheet.

4. CHALLENGES OF SCALE, WITH DATA COLLECTION

CONSTRAINTS AND LIMITED ACCESS TO HISTORIC

INSIGHTS.

This is particularly difficult when using third party platforms thatmay inhibit access, be slow to upgrade technologies, or make it

impossible to get the reporting or business story you need to make

informed decisions.

Entire conversations about your brand occur without anyone

visiting your website. And your social audience on YouTube,

Facebook and Twitter can be far greater than the sum of visitors

coming to your site. Thats why foundational measures for

social marketing analytics can act as a performance benchmark

to evaluate success across channels and competitors.

John Lovett | Author, Social Media Metrics Secrets

EXPERTS



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5. BELIEF THAT YOU DONT OWN SOCIAL PROPERTIES,

SO YOU CANT MEASURE THEM.

This is a false perception; however, it remains commonly held.

The good news is there is an explosion in the use and availability

of APIs, which allow data from one site to move to an app or to

a mashup with an online service. With data available through

open APIs, its now possible to bring measurement practices toproperties outside of the corporate domain.

NINE STEPS FOR DEVELOPING A SOCIAL

MEASUREMENT STRATEGY

Despite these challenges, marketers do have a path for gaining social

marketing intelligence. In order to move beyond experimentation and

prove business performance with social media, its crucial to develop a

framework for social measurement. Its also crucial to structure social

media initiatives to include metrics that are important to the C-suite

as well other teams, and include multiple layers of measurement to

assess, explain and manage social media operations.

The following nine steps offer a framework for a social

measurement culture.

1. SELECT YOUR USE CASE.

Based on the social media measurement compass published by the

Altimeter Group, a use case is a way to peg a path toward the goals

and objectives of social business programs. There are six mainuse cases for social analytics: innovation, brand health, marketing

optimization, revenue generation, operational efficiency and

customer experience. They all present a set of tools for meeting

social media goals.

BRAND HEALTH

A MEASURE OF ATTITUDES, CONVERSATION

AND BEHAVIOR TOWARDS A BRAND

REVENUE GENERATION

WHERE AND HOW A COMPANY GENERATES REVENUE

OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY

WHERE AND HOW A COMPANY

REDUCES EXPENSES

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS,

AND THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH THE BRAND

INNOVATION

COLLABORATING WITH CUSTOMERS TO DRIVE

FUTURE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES

MARKETING OPTIMIZATION

IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

MARKETING PROGRAMS

BUSINESS GOAL

Source: A Framework for Social Analytics,

Altimeter Group, August 2011



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Its important to select a primary use case, as goals, objectives, and

measurement requirements flow down-stream from this decision.

For example, improving operational efficiency by increasing

employee productivity or reducing costs would be measured and

managed differently than a marketing optimization program focused

on customer acquisition or loyalty priorities.

(See examples of use case applications on pg. 12.)

Once the use case is determined, the next step is:

2. DEFINE SUCCESS MEASURES AND KPIS.

The key to this step is to select outcome metrics-based

objectives and align them to corporate goals, and then define

KPIs and success measures. For a Marketing Optimization use

case that is intended to improve the effectiveness of marketing

programs, success measures and KPIs might look like this, with

KPIs that roll up to Objectives and align to corporate goals:

BUSINESS GOAL

ACQUISITION LOYALTY

CORPORATE GOALS

Gain Exposure

Reach

Velocity

Share of Voice

Foster Dialogue

Unique contributors

Conversation volume

Engagement

Generate Interactions

Conversion rate

Interaction rate

Offer take rate

Promote Advocacy

Active advocates

Advocate Influence

Advocacy impact

Objectives

Measures KPIs

MARKETING OPTIMIZATION

IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF

MARKETING PROGRAMS



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3. ENSURE METRICS HAVE MEANING AND ALIGN TO

BUSINESS PRIORITIES.

This is critical, because without context, metrics are just

numbers. John Lovett, author of Social Media Metrics Secrets,

frames metrics in four layers:

Foundational measures are the building blocksof social analytics and include elements such as

interaction, engagement, influence, advocacy, and

impact. They persist across channels and apply almost

universally to measuring all sorts of social activities.

Many business and outcome metrics are calculated

based upon foundational measures.

Business value measures are specific t o roles, such

as executives, legal, HR, sales or marketing, and are

the basis for communicating success and failure to

stakeholders across the organization. These measures

can include Customer or Employee satisfaction,

revenue, market share, etc.

Outcome metrics help quantify the effectiveness of

social media programs, and align operational programs

to corporate goals. These are the key performance

indicators (KPIs) of social media, and include metrics such

as reach, conversion rate, velocity, etc.

Counting metrics are the most basic and readily

available (number of Likes, reTweets, Views, etc.) and

are generally used to show tactical performance.

Unfortunately, these metrics are often used to

communicate business performance, when in reality,

they show program performance.

The key takeaway of metrics with meaning is that when

communicating results, its important that the metrics used

are consistent and repeatable, and that they are placed in the

appropriate context of the measurement layer cake.



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4. DECIDE WHICH DATA MATTERS.

Before setting up a data collection process, its worth

considering four key dimensions of social data to be collected.

Recency:How current is the data from the time

of the event, and how important is it to know what

is happening immediately?

Richness:How much information about the visitor profile

is available, how much should you collect, and how does it

help drive your business? This an important consideration

for measures such as influence and advocacy.

Retention:How long is the data available? What is its

useful life? Not only is it important to understand the

life of a tweet, but also your long-term trend analysis

requirements. Can you go back through 12 months of

Facebook data to find the info you need?

Realization:How will the data be used or consumed? Will

it be used to develop reports, populate dashboards or drive

marketing programs or other action systems?

Answers to these questions will likely feed back into your success

measures and KPIs as you iterate and fine-tune your measurement

mix. They will also help inform technology choices.

ALIGNING SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY

TO BUSINESS PRIORITIES.

Most companies treat social as checking off a box and then saying were

doing social instead of stepping back and asking how it aligns with

overall business priorities and marketing objectives. Yet, according to the

August, 2012 CMO Survey conducted by CMO Insights, less than 7% of

companies consider their social media efforts very integrated.

However, once marketing objectives are established, then you can develop

the associated measurement in social. This involves asking questions,

such as do the number of reTweets prove ROI? or do Facebook Likes

and Pinterest Pins improve our customer satisfaction score? This

alignment step helps address the challenge of meeting business goals,

and justifying and defending investments in social initiatives.



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5. CHOOSE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY.

There is a spectrum of available technology solutions that enable

social media programs. Which technology, or set of technologies,

you choose depends on your use case, measurement framework,

and people and processes to support the tools.

For instance, a use case that is customer focusing, such as

Marketing Optimization, might include initiatives that are external

(listening, content, engagement, advertising) and internal (workflow

and automation, measurement). Several vendors have solutions that

span more than one category. For instance, HootSuite has strengths

within listening and engagement, while Webtrends has measurement

expertise plus solutions that suppor t the entire spectrum of external

and internal initiatives.

Along with looking into how a solution will support your measurement

framework, its important to also consider ease of setup, training,

and availability of strategic consulting and customer service. Thebest solutions combine great technology with individuals laser-

focused on your success with the solution. These are the experts

who want to ensure you get the most out of your investment.

6. COLLECT THE DATA.

There are many approaches for collecting data; however, links

and tagging, and integrated measurement are extremely

effective.

With links and tagging, Java script tags are the industry standard

for conversion attribution and tracking. Webtrends developed an

asynchronous tag optimized for all devices, including mobile, and

is built to allow extensibility. Through a series of plug-ins to the tag,

measurement programs can mature without requiring significant re-

work of the tag. And by combining tag, API and link data, its possible

to arrive at a granular level of insight.

Integrated measurement refers to applying metrics into social

applications and social platforms, such as social apps, Facebook

apps and collaboration widgets. As social and mobile experiencesbecome harder and harder to tease apart, apps in mobile

marketplaces must be considered for social measurement as well.



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7. VISUALIZE THE DATA.

Once a measurement framework is established, and the right

tools, people and processes are in place to collect social data,

then its t ime to become a storytel ler and deliver analysis and

recommendations not reports.

With social initiatives gaining greater visibility within organizations,more and more individuals not directly involved in social operations

are asking questions about its effectiveness and results. Data

visualization can clearly communicate results to a wide range of

stakeholders, translating the scientific reality of numbers into a more

accessible format and social business story that can be processed

and understood by people in an instant.

Theres a reason for the explosion of infographs and other data

images, even in traditional publications like the New York Times,

The Economist and Harvard Business Review. Its easier to process

information presented as an image rather than as words or numbers.

Keep in mind the ROI on social media is

rarely straight math. Social activities wont

always translate directly to dollars. You

need to factor in intangibles like exposure,

interaction and advocacy.

John Lovett | Author, Social Media Metrics SecretsEXPERTS

Webtrends offers data visualization, including story views, which

automatically transform data from a tabular presentation to a

visual narrative. Webtrends Streams lets you see live data

instantly and act on it when it matters most while customers are

engaged with your social, mobile or online property.



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SUSTAINING SOCIAL MEASUREMENT EFFORTS

The first seven steps will help any company develop a social

measurement framework. However, a social strategy should never

end, but rather be sustained for the long haul.

There are two ways to do that:

8. OPTIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY.

Its essential that teams and sponsors responsible for social

media initiatives establish a process for continuous optimization.

A social strategy must constantly be tested, challenged,

tweaked, and fine-tuned in order to ensure that its meeting the

requirements of the business.

9. NURTURE A CULTURE OF MEASUREMENT.

Work to ensure that everyone within the organization has a firm

grasp of the medium, and are comfortable using it. Gain the

support of at least one senior champion for your social media

strategy. Benchmark successes and failures over time in order

to allow you to differentiate between trends and anomalies.

Standardize on terms and tactics, so youre not lost in a potential

quagmire of repetitive explanation. And bake measurement intoevery aspect of social media endeavors. Its the only way to know

if your initiatives are having an impact on your business.

Visual data tells a data

analysis story better

than a report fil led

with numbers.



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SOCIAL USE CASE APPLICATIONS

SOCIAL LISTENING.Algorithm searches allow companies to scour

digital channels for mentions of both brand and competition, and

attach a sentiment value to these mentions (positive or negative).

Public relations professionals use social listening to understand how

a brand is perceived in the marketplace.Use cases: Brand Health, Customer Experiences

SOCIAL SUPPORT.Connects customer contact records within a CRM

program into a Twitter or Facebook account. This gives marketers

the ability to take action not only on what is uncovered, but also to

respond based on deep history.

Use cases: Customer Experience, Operational Efficiency

SOCIAL INNOVATION.Product managers use social networks to

understand what customers want in the next product release. There

are framework tools available with which to co-develop products with

key accounts.

Use cases: Innovation, Customer Experience

SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT.If someone gives you a great mention on

Facebook, you can use tools that allow response and posting, or set

up an automated workflow that sends an alert to the team or person

best equipped to respond.

Use cases: Brand Health, Customer Experience, Operational Efficiency, Marketing

Optimization

SOCIAL SELF-SERVICE.There are thousands of forums, communities

or organizations where peers answer questions, such as groups

on Yahoo. Although brands dont take an active part in the

conversation, it is a valuable tool for finding out what is being said

about a brand.

Use case: Brand Health

SOCIAL COMMERCE.This offers a shared experience for consumer

activity, with recommendations, shopping, shopping near you.

Use cases: Revenue Generation, Customer Experience

SOCIAL MARKETING.Brands can increase awareness, inspire

engagement and lift conversions by running social campaigns across

multiple properties, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Use cases: Marketing Optimization, Revenue Generation, Customer Experience



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SOCIAL MEASUREMENT CASE STUDY:

MOTORCYCLE SUPERSTORE

CRT

ten-foldincrease

+0.50%

Motorcycle Superstore (Motorcycle-Superstore.com) is the leading

retailer of motorcycle gear, parts, accessories and clothing in the

U.S. Operating through the Internet for over a decade, the site

receives about a million visitors per month.

To increase brand engagement, create a sense of community and

drive traffic to the website, the company launched a Facebook page

in the summer of 2009. To measure the impact of various ads and

promotions, Motorcycle Superstore deployed Webtrends Analytics,

already in use on the website, for its social media analyses.

Initially, the Facebook page was promoted by a single ad of general

interest on the website, and the click-through rate (CTR) was 0.05%,

which is the industry average.

Sports Bike persona

Facebook ad 0.50% click-

through rate - 10X increase

Original Facebook promotion

ad 0.05% click-through rate

SUCCESS

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We began testing various strategies, says Graham Hetland, social

media community manager for Motorcycle Superstore, focusing

on specifically targeting dif ferent segments of the motorcycling

community such as cruisers, street bikes, and scooters.

Most of the Facebook visitors are younger as compared to website

visitors, comments Hetland. Analyzing this information lets us

choose certain promotions for Facebook for example, casualapparel, which appeals to this persona.

Because users generally give permission for Motorcycle Superstore toaccess their demographic information, analysis by age, gender, and

other factors is possible, enabling the company to create personas of

targeted groups.

By monitoring response to the more targeted ad, Hetland

discovered that the CTR had increased to 0.50%, a ten-fold increase.

Reach: 138,33

CTR: 1.7%

CPC: $0.04

Reach: 212,83

CTR: .453%

CPC: $0.17

Using Webtrends, Motorcycle

Superstore can also track how much

traffic is driven to the website from

Facebook and other social channels,

and track CTR, costs per click (CPC) ,

conversions and referred sales, helping

the company understand the successand ROI of their social marketing

efforts.

The results?

Through segmented social ads,

Motorcycle Superstore was able to

increase click-through rates by an

average of 10X, while increasing

revenue from Facebook by 75% year-

over-year without increasing ad spend.These results were all possible because

Motorcycle Superstore has developed

a culture of measurement. Everything

they do on Facebook and other digital

channels is measured, analyzed, tested

and made actionable.



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WEBTRENDS ALIGNS TO DIGITAL

ECOSYSTEM

Webtrends understands that it takes more than technology to

ensure that measurement is a valuable component to the success of

market leading companies.

For social media and other digital marketing to show value to the

business, a holistic solution must be adopted that will address key

challenges and foster a culture of measurement.

CURRENT STATE DESIRED STATE

3 key challengesIncludes people, process

and technology

Measurement strategy to inform

metrics and standards

The appropriate operating model

and analytics team structure to

manage the requirements

Governance process to manage

the rel iabi lity of data across the

business

Well-designed structure to manage

the standards and processes put

in place

Necessary insight to enable

business to implement a marketing

strategy

Robust technical solution that

allows visit and visitor level data to

be collected and easily integrated

into other marketing systems.

Any social measurement strategy, or social use case, should

be iterative and ongoing, and align to business objectives. As

marketing invests more heavily in technology and digital channels,

Webtrends can help bridge the gap between business and

technology, providing the roadmap, data intelligence and ROI needed

to ensure success.



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For offices worldwide, visit:

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WebtrendsWHITE PAPER.

2013 Webtrends, Inc.

social measurement: best practices framework for a social measurement strategy

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