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Social media measurement misnomers, part 1
By Justin Goldsborough | December 23rd, 2009
I don’t claim to be an expert when it comes to social media measurement. Not even close. I’m definitely still learning like everyone else. But there are a few theories I’ve been hearing for a while now about measurement that don’t tell the whole side of the story. It’s not that they’re wrong, but moreso that they’re not completely right, IMO. So let’s talk about them. I’ll give you my two cents and then the comments are yours to agree, disagree, call me crazy, tell me about your favorite payday loan scam (oh sorry, that’s for the spammers :)).
1. The number of fans and followers a person or organization has doesn’t matter. You can see this comment or one like it almost every day on Twitter or in a blog post. I’ve heard it from PR pros and thought leaders I have a lot of respect for. But it’s not true. At least not the way it’s written here.
Fan and follower numbers absolutely do matter. Here’s why. Consider the 350 million Facebook users or 55 million Twitter users. Maybe 5-10 percent of them spend a fair amount of time studying the ins and outs of social media measurement. These are people who will look beyond the numbers for a deeper meaning. You may be like me and tweet with members of that 5-10 percent on a daily basis. But step outside our PR pro bubble for a second and think about what the other 90 percent sees when they check out a Twitter profile or Facebook fan page.
What they see is a number. We’re a society that seeks numbers. We respond to them. And we let them form our perception, right or wrong. The way our society views numbers plus the fact that information overload has given many of us the “first glance disease,” as in, we often only give information we find on the Web a first glance, has me convinced fans and followers do have some correlation with authority.
Now we can help educate our clients and peers about why there’s much more behind the ROI of social media than just these initial numbers. In fact, I think it’s our responsibility to talk about how people should engage with their fans and followers, and to share best practices for finding those people who are truly influential and/or passionate. But it’s also our responsibility to level-set for our clients and to let them know fans and followers numbers do affect the perception of their brands.
2. Conversations and engagement alone do not ring the cash register. I took this one from a recent post by Jason Falls called “Why Social Media Purists Won’t Last.” Jason’s not the only one I’ve heard say this or something similar, and there was a lot of truth in his post, especially the part about how we need to fight through the fluff and show how social media can impact the bottom line. I agree with all that.
But here’s the thing…conversations and engagement absolutely do ring the cash register. The problem is it can be difficult and time consuming to measure when and how much. Plus, when conversation and engagement drive the bottom line, it’s often a more long-term benefit of a relationship a brand has established with customers, relationships that are best nurtured today via social media.
For example, here is part of the comment I left on Jason’s post last month:
I flew Southwest Airlines initially because the fares were cheap. But I have formed an affinity to Southwest, champion them at any chance I get and try to never fly any other airline (except when I have to for work) because of the people and the experience, both online and offline.
For those reasons, I will fly Southwest over another airline even if it’s a bit more expensive. But how is Southwest supposed to know that (unless they read this comment and one like it for all similar cases) or track when I made that conscious decision.
Finding that ROI isn’t worth the effort, isn’t exact and doesn’t translate to the “what have you done for me lately” business world we live in. But that doesn’t mean that ROI doesn’t exist.
Jason’s comment back raised some valid points about the conversation ROI we can track for clients, such as clickthroughs on links from their social Web presences that lead customers to a purchase opportunity. I’m also becoming a bigger fan of counseling clients that they should be considering ways to show short-term ROI so the long-term ROI benefits conversation and engagement provide have time to manifest themselves.
What might that look like? Well, now when “Jack’s Widgets” creates a Twitter account to be accessible and engage with customers talking about the brand, Jack’s should also be prepared to manage a second account promoting it’s offers, deals and anything else product-related and include some type of code or monitor clickthroughs to track how that engagement drives sales. Actually, what might be a really interesting experiment would be to offer the same “Widget” deals via both of Jack’s Twitter accounts and to see which one, the account based on conversation or the account based on coin, drove more to the bottom line.
But back to the original point, brands like Southwest Airlines have a culture of conversation and engagement. So posts like this one I just found on Facebook come naturally to them:
Not only do these posts create the airline’s brand reputation, but riddle me this: What do you think the chances are that Meg Campbell flies Southwest next time? And how many people do you think she tells about this post? Better yet, how many customers does Southwest retain everyday because their culture of conversation and engagement promotes this type of interaction with customers. I guess they could survey or even track people who react like Meg and watch to see if they fly Southwest more in the future. But isn’t part of what we’re talking about here the “I know it works because I’ve seen it with my own two eyes and experienced it” measurement? Where does that fit in on the P&L?
The first social media case study I remember seeing was one like the “seen it with my own two eyes” example above. Shel Holtz, who I consider a social media mentor, told a story about how he came home from traveling late one night and went to catch the Park ‘N Fly bus to his car. He used Park “N Fly because he had an affinity card with them. Nevertheless, it took two phone calls and 20 minutes for the shuttle to come while several competitors shuttles made the rounds two and three times. That experience was frustrating enough for Shel to blog it and include this sentence at the end:
Maybe it’s not worth the free points. Next time, it’s probably going to be Park SFO for me.
When Shel awoke the next morning, Caryn Healey, a Park ‘N Fly admin, had left the following comment on his blog post:
I can see that your experience was less than satisfactory and less than our desired level of service. While I can’t change what has already happened, I would like to ask if you might let me make it up to you. Park ‘N Fly is a good company, and we are really trying to get our Customer Service levels to the highest standards. Info like this helps us. I do apologize for the service you received, and would LOVE to have that drivers name, or any other drivers name that has treated you less than satisfactorily. I would like to send you some free parking too, can I do that? There is absolutely no reason for this kind of thing to be allowed. And we thank you for sticking with us this long.
As Shel said the multiple times I’ve seen him present this case study: “Can I send you some free parking? Uh, absolutely.” Now I don’t know if Shel stills uses Park ‘N Fly, but here’s an example of how conversation and engagement can retain a customer…sounds like the cash register ringing to me :).
What do you think? Do you still think fans and followers are just insignificant numbers we all need to look past? And am I being too much of a social media purist with this conversation argument? Or do you have a great example of how you’ve seen conversation drive the bottom line?
Looking forward to your thoughts…
December 23rd, 2009 at 8:48 am
Love these thoughts, Justin. I completely agree with you on all of these points. I actually get asked these same questions and came up with the same answers you did - yes…and no. Thanks for the great post. Can’t wait for part two!
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:16 am
Thanks for the comment, Sara. Good thoughts. I think as PR pros we are the victims of our own devotion to social media and analysis of how it’s ROI can and should be measured.
At least 90% of the people we work with our clients or companies to target don’t live in our world and come to conversation with varying backgrounds. Therefore, we have to run the “self test” when we talk measurement and take into account what components of social media impacted our perception of brands in the past and what are our target audiences telling us impact their perceptions currently?
Looking forward to part 2 as well and hoping to discuss some great examples of applied measurement as well as misnomers. So if any come to mind, please share. Happy holidays!
December 23rd, 2009 at 9:36 am
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December 23rd, 2009 at 12:36 pm
I think quantity and quality of followers are both important. The transaction of business (purchase of a product or service, donation to a charity, etc) is not only price-driven but relationship-driven. I think social media is the best link between a company and its customers. For many people I know, price is not always the major reason to engage in business with a particular company. Southwest is a particularly good example of this, and how they engage with their customers and — and this is critical — their employees. Good use of social media can build a company both inside and out.
December 23rd, 2009 at 1:04 pm
Good thoughts, Amy. I agree that “price is not always the major reason to engage in business with a particular company.” The Southwest and Park ‘N Fly case studies show that. But I think most executives would ask us to “prove it” as it relates to their specific business. And that’s where showing ROI can get tricky, because the results are going to be mostly qualitative.
I like your last point as well that good use of social media can build a company inside and out. I’d add to that by saying a company’s primary goal in adopting social media can definitely be to change the company culture and reputation, which in turn should increase consumer affinity to a brand. But to get there, you may need to provide leadership some more concrete results in the short term to keep their support.