Measuring Ourselves...in the new world.

I recently read an interesting article from MIT Sloan about measuring social media investments.  The article discussed the real-world question of the impact of social media on our marketing strategies, marketing investments and how does it all reconcile with our planning and need for an ROI.

The bottom-line?  Measure -YES, quantify the investment -YES, traditional measurements -NO

As with most things (and this is where we completely agree) the impact of social media CAN be measured, but the key is in what you measure, when, and the activities that each measurement drives toward your goal.  Traditionally, we have measured units sold, balances of new accounts, new applications, etc.  This "traditional" measurement approach is more than likely either falling apart of departing dramatically to the why we need to use social media.

Social media is no longer a passing wave...it is the present and future of communicating and interacting with our customers and market.  However, with the change of the communications also comes the change of what we are intending to communicate or the expected outcome.   We may very well be trying to simply have people pass along...in a credible, referral-type way...a message of our capabilities vs. an outright sales pitch for a product.  Social media is a different animal and calls for not only its own set of strategies but its own set of measurable variables, too!  Here is an interesting chart that MIT Sloan shared in their report...

They key here is determining what to measure and that the "what" is actually indicative of the end-result you are trying to achieve...and then getting everyone on-board to measure and monitor and change accordingly... sound complex or yet another thing to add to your day??

Worry not...we can help!

Cheers...

Bruce Clapp