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