Making the numbers count

Sullivan McIntyre • 6Consultingtwitter.com/Sullivan6c

linkedin.com/in/SullivanMcIntyrewww.socialmediamonitoring.co.uk

Making the numbers count:

SMM & ROI

Social Media Monitoring

Social Media Monitoring

• Automated mining of data

• Collation of information

• Gaining of knowledge

• Generation of insight

Data

• Raw keyword matches

• Relevancy is key:

– Good = 10% irrelevant

– Bad = 91% irrelevant!

Information

• Relevant mentions with metadata

• Demographics

– Ages

– Location

– Occupations

– Gender

• Sentiment scores

Knowledge

• Comprehension of

Key Themes

• Trends in sentiment

• Specific links between

cause and effect

Insight

• Actionable – what do we do about it?

• Examples:

– Asset Optimization

– Personalisation

– Engagement Strategies

• Strategic and Tactical

ROI

The basics

• SM needs to justify its existence

• Operational costs:

– Money

– Time

– Staff

• Two overarching approaches

Fundamentalist

• Concerned with the fundamentals

• Utilise hard metrics, all financial

• Influential proponent:

@thebrandbuilder

Fluffy

• Concerned with qualitative aspects

• Unclear of link between soft

measures and return

• HITS /Clickthrus

• Brand Awareness

What to measure

Business outcomes are key:

• Sales

• Leads

• Prospects

‘Hard’ metrics that can be proven

But...

Measures should be bespoke to client

And, what about:

• Public sector?

• Charities?

• Brand awareness measurements?

And...

• How can you prove a negative?

– Preventing brand damage through engagement can be a key goal

• Confounding variables

– Charts of SM activity assume correlation is causation

Conclusions

DOs and DON’Ts

• Do tie SM engagement back to CRM

and business processes

• Do measure business outcomes

• Do make up your own mind!

• Don’t expect SM to be ‘free’

• Don’t be afraid to call BS!