Moving Needles

March 4, 2009 · Comments

gauge Are you or aren’t you making a change happen? Can you or can’t you point to something different from before you started? Measurement. It’s where a lot of the social media conversations break down, where eyebrows furrow, where people stutter and change up their confidence for a slow deflation.

I don’t have all the answers. I’m working as diligently as anyone on the needles to follow. Here are some ideas that I’ve been working on with some clients, all with clear and obvious gauges. This is a sample of some of where we think numbers can matter.

  • Reduction in time from alert to response. – a listening project.
  • Increase in inbound links and off-site commentary. – a marketing awareness project.
  • Deliver directly-measurable sales related to activities in a specific product vertical. – a content marketing and outreach project.
  • Build velocity to an affiliate marketing program and measure % of sales increase. – a sales/content marketing project.
  • Promote through outposts (twitter, facebook) and count number of hits from those presence points. – an awareness campaign.

Some of the projects are easy to measure: speaking and education projects. By the end of the project, the people will be more educated and have some recommended actionable steps.

Others aren’t as easy. It’s difficult to show a numeric effect on Twitter that ties directly to sales unless we do something like Dell has done with some of their efforts. Does Facebook sell anything or is it just another PR-flavored “price of doing business” type of sell?

Needles on gauges. It’s a tricky business, but that’s where the forward motion is for marketers hoping to engage the big guys in 2009 and beyond. We’re doing all kinds of other things to show measurement. What about you?

What kinds of numbers are you moving? Where do you show your results? How is that being received? What are marketers saying are the big challenges on their plates right now?


(By the way, this is exactly the stuff we’ll talk about at the Inbound Marketing Summit, my event in April in San Francisco. If you’re coming, use code “insider” to get $200 off.)

Photo credit NathanFromDeVryEET

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  • Chris, more food for thought minus the indigestion. Digesting just fine. I think I have to pay more attention to the measurement of results .. or perhaps the quality of results. Thanks again!
  • How about counting the number of voices/expressions from your company. If social media is allowing you to mobilize your multiple personalities -- one voice; many speakers -- how is that growing?
  • Telling your customers they need to wait 24-48 hours for a response to their support email won't work today. There's a growing expectation for a certain level of listening from brands/companies.
  • @Bob - how do voices track back to sales? If we accept that the primary goal of business is creating more quality customers (or getting your existing ones to spend more), how would that track?

    Not smacking on your answer, but framing the question better.
  • After 2-3 years of heavy social marketing I think clients are really now asking "what does all this social media marketing getting me?" And its often a paralyzing question. We continue to execute them like a checklist or artillery in a military campaign.

    I have trouble seeing the intrinsic value in my own business - I know its there I can feel it as an entrepreneur.

    Clearly the need to quantify and measure all digital media including social should be at the top of our lists this year.

    Also, I have to say I'm disappointed I'll be in NY getting married during the Inbound Marketing Summit - would of loved to be there.
  • Tim Andren
    Brrr. It's cold in here. Marketers get the chills when anyone use the word 'measurement.' =]

    Receptability and a productive step toward sound measurement in social media is a value in and of itself Chris.
  • I guess I am doing things backwards... have been intent on writing, contributing, 'meeting' and following the movers and shakers [learning], and proving myself first. Really look forward to seeing you 'live' somewhere. In the meantime, please don't count how many times I visit your website! ;-)
  • I use knitting needles and gauge to design. Knitting is analytical, creative, can be extremely social if you let it. Knitters are great networkers.
  • Back @Chris, I guess we tend to think of other needles than sales, tho it be key:) From the standpoint of making your brand more accessible & approachable, the more people actively engaged out there socially leads to more touches and, ultimately, relationships, traffic, links and leads. So the number of social-media-savvy folks in your organization becomes more of an upstream measure of creating an approachable culture. How fast is it scaling? Just a thought!
  • At least some ways to measure ROI huh? Social web is just like email marketing. It is about relationship. However, email is perhaps the most measurable marketing channel comparable to the web.

    But I'm amazed how many of the so called social media experts claim there's no ROI in Twitter / Facebook, etc, etc.

    I know it depends on how people use it, but marketers should really start looking at creative ways of communication. There is more than one way to communicate. Networking is one thing, product recommendation is another thing, and very possible in the social web.

    Thanks for the post, Chris. Regarding the last bullet point, not only hits. Right now with web analytics, it is possible to measure the full funnel from the click to conversion.
  • Michele
    Metrics! My favorite topic...seriously.

    I think I would add a few things:
    1) subscription tracking to measure lead quality of readership and might also be an avenue to drive readers into the lead chain.
    2) ratings in addition to commentary.
    3) inbound communication outside of comments as a result of posts and efforts.
  • Ron Arden
    I view social media as just another set of tools that helps drive customer engagement and ultimately sales. It is easier to have unfiltered conversations with Twitter, Facebook, blogs, etc. The questions I ask: Is my customer base growing? Are sales increasing? Are sales to existing customers increasing? Are customers leaving? By really engaging customers and giving them what they need, I should be getting the answers I want. The needles are the same, the tools have just changed.
  • @Ron Arden, I'm with you. Social media is another set of tools to add. It allows a more efficient engagement with certain parts of a target audience. However most of the business owners I've talked to are looking at leveraging social media tools as a silver bullet, a way to dramatically increase their penetration and revenues.

    Business has a way of defining only something that can be measured as "real". Things that can't measured, therefore, don't exist. So pushing adoption without metrics is a tricky conversation. Thankfully however most companies have taken that leap of faith before. I'm convinced, purely from an ROI viewpoint that trade shows make no sense, nor do corporate sponsorships but businesses do them anyway. No matter how metric focused, jaded or skeptical anyone is, there is an intangible, unmeasurable benefit to all marketing. Social media is no different.
  • I feel the listening aspect of all this the most fascinating (especially in the context of Twitter).

    Telling your customers they need to wait 24-48 hours for a response to their support email won't work today. There's a growing expectation for a certain level of listening from brands/companies.

    Goes the other way too. Companies can get feedback from their customers quicker through various mediums.
  • It is easier to measure the effect of digital and social media marketing efforts than it has been to measure the effect of analogue traditional media as well implemented analytics can give a very good idea of where the people who visit your site have come from. (Assuming most people using social media will also choose to research potential suppliers online)

    If you are e-commerce it gets even easier as you can track which hits become sales. If you transaction takes place offline you can look at the traffic to your online presecence and compare it with your sales growth to get a rough guide if you are getting a good ROI.

    However as with all metrics many companies will continue to ignore the ones they don't like - see Phillip Van Peborghs comment about trade shows above. In the same way weak marketers will continue to bluff their way through the ROI and measurability arguments.

    For the rest of us this is a huge potential advantage - get your analytics set up now and measure your traffic, for the first time this will give you tangible figures to present to your clients and to improve your own efforts. Just remember the only figure the client will ever be interested in is sales and bear this in mind when choosing which metrics to focus on.
  • Veronica
    Great question. One that was bound to surface now that social media marketing is so widely used and even dependent on during this economic crisis.

    This question was addressed in a different way - "Measuring The Cost of Bad or Good Online Marketing" - by Cece Salomon-Lee on PR Meets Marketing. Also an interesting article.

    Cece offers some good advice: "start simply – take the most simple measurement and build upon it over time. Otherwise, you may find yourself spending more time assembling reports about your online reputation versus managing it directly."
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