Velocity- The Metric to Watch

Chris,LOVE the analogy here. Think it is even deeper.Speed = the rate at which something happens.Velocity = is the vector of speed AND direction.Velocity is an awesome metric… because it is not only how fast you are going… but in which direction!PS – Sorry to go all Math. :)

Chris, interested in your perspective on why these social media metrics are important. You discussed them but did not provide a rationale for their importance.

Considering this post has been retweeted 30-some times in the few minutes it took me to write this, I think there is validity to velocity as a metric. But I view it as a sub-component of influence. Sure, responsiveness on your part and the part of your audience is very telling, but I think conversion (subscribers, sales, speaking gigs booked, affiliate links clicks, etc.) are still the holy grail. Velocity does measure something very interesting, but I’m not sure it is the metric to watch. Then again, saying Velocity is A Metric to Watch doesn’t quite have the same ring. Regardless, you’re introducing a new way to think about influence, which I think is important and adds to the conversation. But, long-term, does velocity matter as much? I start to think of viral videos and the like, which have a surge of attention and then fade into oblivion with little or no conversion. That said, at the rate you produce content (and at the rate you recommend generating content), you’re probably fine continuing to produce content, endure the velocity effect, and as it fades, produce more content with the same or more velocity. Sorry for the rant, but clearly you got me thinking. Now, time to retweet this and add to the push.

Most of the times I have had a major issue with a company it has been because their response time was extremely slow (offline and online).

Like you have mentioned on many occasions if people automate a Tweet and are not near twitter and people respond it might not look al that great if they get many replies and take hours to respond.

I was not tracking velocity and it had crossed my mind from another perspective. The world moves at such a fast pace that if you don’t have the right pace of people responding some of your efforts might get completely lost and forgotten because people are moving on the next thing that is happening.

The one I liked the most was how fast something gets hot or cold. If we measure and stay along with the ones that get hot first and stay that way for a while we can have a better idea of what readers and people interacting really are interested in. If the time in between mention and response get shorter or smaller there is more probability of more people jumping in.

This post really made me think of a few things I had not understood yet. Thanks.

This is something many of us have to work on from many aspects. I see how many companies going into social media are more worried about responding to negative comments by having a polished response and by the time the fix their response it might have lost its effect of defusing a situation because more people joined up or the person is angrier.

Chris,

I could not agree with you more regarding velocity. Here is another slant on the critical nature of velocity.

The competitive landscape of business shifs faster than ever. With that, organizations, from executive leadership through front line performers, need more flexibility and agility to serve customers, create raving fans, and drive sustainable profits. Getting the right information to the right people at the time of need, so those people can perform at high levels can either increase knowledge velocity, or create performance drag.

Organizations that embrace this concept of knowledge velocity will outperform competitors day in and day out, in every way possible.

Cheers,

Andrew

Yes Chris, a powerful metric. Everything moves. Tracking the movement helps you to better respond to velocity in the future.

Thanks for sharing!

Ryan

Chris,

I’ve often thought of velocity as it applies to social media conversations. But also taking it one step further, and extending what Craig Jarrow’s comment.

Speed is the base quantity; if I take a snapshot right now, how many mentions are there on a particular topic. Now, in measuring velocity, you’re looking at how many mentions have there been this hour, today, this week. Take a couple of measurements to see if the velocity is increasing or decreasing. But (drawing on physics, not math) what if you look at the rate of change in your velocity? A change in velocity over time is acceleration. So is your conversation/message/topic/etc. increasing in velocity or decreasing? Are you accelerating, decelerating, or just coasting along at constant velocity?

Cool thought-provoking post, thanks!

Cheers,
Carl

Having been in communications for many years (a lifetime), I have seen velocity take on more and more significance to what I think is the detriment of substantive thinking and reflection. We are so concerned with the speed at which we respond, that how we respond and what we contribute to the discussion seems to have become less important. This was especially evident in the election.

i found this very complicated since i have been learning about it and reading it took time actually but i will need to know more cause i knew lot of stuff from this post ;,) , i will be reading more so i can”t wait to know more :)

Velocity is a good metric to watch, but as with all metrics, you can’t make decisions based on it in isolation. As an example, if you try to respond to your mails / tweets too fast, the quality of your conversations will suffer, so there is a direct tradeoff between quality and velocity. If we go down this path, we will discover that there is some kind of a tradeoff between all the metrics that you care about and it will eventually boil down to prioritizing one over the other.

agreed that velocity is an important – and interesting – metric to watch. but it’s not meaningful until you combine it with reach, influence and other metric – none of which mean diddly without analysis.

Speed of particle flow alone determines power. Think about it, whether that particle is money, people, goods, or ideas the faster they move the more power that person, organization, agency is. You see it in retail, airlines, social media.