mastering pr & social media measurement: choosing the right metrics to prove results

MASTERING PR &

SOCIAL MEDIA

MEASUREMENT

Choosing the Right Metrics

to Prove Results

Nikki Little – Account Director, Social Media at Identity

What we’ll discuss:

- Setting goals, objectives & KPI’s

- Measurement do’s

- Measurement don’ts

- Real world example

- Measurement tools

First steps – plus a

few important

definitions…

Set goals: What you want to

accomplish.

Example: Have PR team

successfully use social media to

build brand awareness &

relationships with customers.

Set objectives: Measureable

and time driven. Ties directly

back to goal.

Example: PR team should

achieve at least 2/5 of the

established team social

benchmarks each reporting period.

Set key performance

indicators (KPIs): Metrics

tied to objectives. Used to

gauge performance.

Examples: Clicks on links in

tweets, social engagements,

amplification, conversions, etc.

Without goals &

objectives in place,

your measurement

program will

explode.

(Dramatic, but true.)

Other important first

steps:

- Figure out what PR & social media

success looks like for your business.

- How do you define success?

Build your measurement program

around your goals & these answers.

Measurement Do’s

AKA: The Good Stuff

DO: Tie metrics back to

goals and objectives.

Have I mentioned that yet???

DO: Consider integrating

paid options to generate

results and measure

success.

Blogger partnerships, social

advertising, Google AdWords, etc.

DO: Employ the PESO

model in your comms

program for optimal

measurement

opportunities.

PESO? Are you speaking Spanish now?

I am bilingual, but no…

Source: Spin Sucks -http://spinsucks.com/communication/pr-pros-must-embrace-the-peso-model/

Create a plan/timeframe to move

from just measuring good, into better,

into best.

DO: Define your

good/better/best metrics.

GOOD (low-hanging fruit)

- Sessions and pageviews

- Number of media stories/blog posts generated

- Referral traffic from social channels

- Growth of social communities (likes, followers,

views, etc.)

BETTER (meatier metrics)

- Engagement/action (shares, comments, clicks,

downloads, sign ups, subscribers, reviews,

engaged users on site)

- Connect actions to outputs (connect spike in

website traffic/visits/downloads/purchases with

media story or social campaign)

BEST (Holy Grail)

- Leads generated

- Sales

- Prospects converted to customers

- Switchers from competitors

- Fundraising goals met

- Recruitment

- Retention

- Shift in behavior

Now celebrate.

The best social

metrics,

according to

Avinash Kaushik

– digital

marketing

evangelist at

Google.

Conversation

Amplification

Applause

Economic Value

Always be testing.

Measurement Don’ts

AKA: The $%!# Stuff

DON’T: Focus only on

impressions and AVE’s.

Please. Be better than that.

Your reporting should tell a story. Mix

quantitative with qualitative metrics,

and explain what the data means.

DON’T: Create reports

full of meaningless,

complicated charts and

data.

DON’T: Forget who your

reporting audience is

(often times, C-suite).

What do they care most about? Speak their language.

DON’T: Throw around the

ROI term unless what

you’re measuring is truly

tied to a dollar figure.

ROI = Return (minus)

Investment (divided by) Investment

DON’T: Measure a

person’s influence based

on their Klout score.

Some people’s communities

are smaller, yet mightier. Focus on relevancy.

A Short Measurement Story

AKA: A Client Example

Client goal with social

and content marketing

was not direct sales.

We had to find other ways to prove

value, knowing we didn’t have

proper assets to prove direct sales.

How we measure value:

- Position Twitter as top 3 referral source driving traffic to

blog each month (Twitter is main proactive social channel

client uses).

- Minimum of 50% overall monthly blog visits come from

states we’re targeting.

- Drive traffic from blog to relevant company pages and

sites (measure through outgoing links in Events in

Google Analytics).

- Referral traffic coming to blog from guest contributors

(via a blog badge we designed).

- Anecdotal: How many people who we’ve loaned

products to end up purchasing the product.

Measurement Tools

A few of my faves:

- Google Analytics

- Google Analytics URL builder

- Sprout Social

- Netbase

- Hashtracking

- Rowfeeder

- Bit.ly links

Let’s review.

- Set goals, objectives & KPI’s to properly measure your efforts.

- Define your good/better/best

metrics.

- Don’t hang your hat on AVE’s,

impressions and Klout scores.

- Speak C-suite language.

- Tell a story with data/reports.

Get in touch:

nlittle@identitypr.com

@nikki_little