• Best Practice Advice
  Social Media Monitoring – Listening is the new marketing! – eCircle

We’ve been saying this for a while. The customers are talking, are you listening?

• Wish List for Social Marketing Metrics – Half Rose Blog

Some good ideas for Social Media Metrics as they relate to marketing.

• Blogs and Social Media: Moving From Monitoring to Networking – yhteiskuntaetiikka.net

Great, you’re listening to the conversations about your brand or issue. What’s next? Join them.

• Social Media Metrics
• Social Media Metrics Tips from Experts
• Listening & Trust

Emerging Technologies Librarian knocked it out of the park this week with three great posts on Social Media Monitoring

• Answers to Social Media Questions You Should Know – Online Marketing Blog

Lee Odden answers questions on some Social Media basics including monitoring and third party data metrics.

Read last weeks top posts.

Photo courtesy of D Sharon Pruitt

Public Relations Measurement 2010: Five Things to Forget & Five Things to Learn – Metrics Man

Public relations measurement is at a crossroads. Old techniques are no longer sufficient. Old metrics are no longer applicable. Old thinking must be replaced by new. The need for accountability, and to prove the value of PR and social media programs, has never been greater. As we look to the next year, here are five things to forget and five things to learn about public relations measurement in 2010.

• Enough With ROI, Already - Dave Fleet

So, please – enough with “return on influence” and other variations on the term “ROI.” The fact that you’re not measuring ROI doesn’t mean you’re not measuring success or impact. In fact, it may just mean you’re measuring the right thing.

• The Importance of Social Media Audits – Web Strategist, Jeremiah Owyang

Just as brands conduct audits of inventory, employees, and budgets on an often annual basis, they should also survey the landscape to find out what customers, influencers, partners and employees are participating on the social web. Audits are key for identifying priorities, benchmarking previous efforts, and planning for future efforts; the same applies for social media.

• Measuring Social Media Campaigns: It Don’t Mean a Thing, if it Ain’t got Ker-Ching - iMedia Connection

Companies are now requesting and social media companies are delivering control-group studies to evaluate the impact of social media campaigns. They want to understand precisely how these campaigns make the cash register ring. Consider this example of a campaign we just completed on Gather.

• Time vs value of social media monitoring - Outside-In

The issue is the balance between the ‘information farming’ – simply sucking up mentions and comments – and ‘value hunting’ – using that information to advise clients and deliver actions that use it to deliver reputational or sales value.

• Social Media Metrics That Matter - Molstad Consulting

By now, most companies are aware that there is a discussion about their brand going on. They also know that they can track and monitor this discussion via a wide variety of tools such as Radian6, Techrigy’s SM2, Twitter Search, Twitalyzer, Social Mention, and many more. The question now is, “What should I pay attention to? Which metrics will actually tell me something about my business?”

• John’s Twitter Engagement Index - John Moore

Okay, I have shown you my sinister nature by revealing some of my goals. How do I measure how well I am doing in moving along the path to achieving these goals? I use John’s Twitter Engagement Index.

• Managing an Online Reputation - The New York Times

Your customers are talking about you — and the whole world is listening.

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Media Monitoring Tools Lists

• The Best Social Media Monitoring Tools Used by Today’s Top Creative Agencies & Brands - Jon Samsel
  
• Useful Social Media & Online Reputation Monitoring Tools- Lime Exchange
  
• Digital De-Tox: Collection of Lesser Known Tools for Help Gaining 2.0 Clarity- ScoopDog
  
• Social Media Monitoring Tools - Jon Chin

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Slides and Presentations

• Yes we can measure social media and transparency – KD Paine

• Social Media Monitoring for Business – Social Gumbo

• How To Measure ROI For Social Media – Vanina Delobelle

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Read Last Week’s Top Posts

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Follow Hannah on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Lumaxart.

• Social Media R.O.I. – Part 9: From activity timelines to outcome timelines and Social Media R.O.I. – Part 8: An introduction to timelines The Brand Builder – Olivier Blanchard

Yesterday, we went over the need to create an activities timeline that basically plots every relevant action your company takes across all media. Press releases, product launches, blog posts, white papers, ad campaigns, Twitter engagement, etc. Today, we are going to look at creating outcome timelines. Same basic process, but actually easier based on what you choose to measure.

• How To Measure Your Web Presence – bMighty

Web Metrics Guru says it’s one thing to generate online buzz. It’s another to know how to use it. These tools can help.

• Measuring Social Media: The L.A.C.E. Method – MicroExplosion

I recently launched the LACE method you see below with a client and I’m beginning to implement it with other clients as well. I’m already finding it to be helpful in setting expectations and goals from the outset of a social media initiative.

• Start making sense: Mechanics under the tip of the social media monitoring iceberg – Far North

At the end of the day though, the victor or viable entrant at the very least will have to satisfy what I have come to define as the Five Precepts of Social Media Monitoring.

• The engagement metric, defined (part IV in a series) – Web Analytics Demystified

For those of you keeping track at home, this is the fourth in what will likely be a five-part series on calculating an “engagement metric”.

• Humans do it better – but do they scale?The Dirty Little Secret of Social Media Monitoring – Brendan Cooper

Meanwhile, socialmention is an unashamedly tech solution. But it’s claiming to do what humans do, and I just don’t believe that is the case. If they could, SpinVox would be using them, right?

• How much is sentiment analysis “Worth”? – Dirk Shaw

In summary I think today’s sentiment analysis can save money by replacing traditional methods of research. The larger opportunity exists when the results from sentiment analysis can be used to influence a consumer’s decision to buy.

• The Biggest Lie in Social Media Marketing – Practical Marketing Solutions

Over the next few days, we’ll continue our dialogue on marketing measurement with articles on calculating true ROI, the importance of non-financial indicators and that ever-so-tricky intangible, “brand equity.”

• Social media ROI and the mystery of brand equity – Practical Marketing Solutions

What are your thoughts on brand-building with social media tools? Do they carry as much clout as traditional media? Do you think they surpass traditional media when it comes to delivering on the elements outlined above?

• Monitor Your Personal Brand Using Search Engine Alerts – Web Worker Daily

You don’t need an expensive marketing firm, or even a friend who works in marketing, to manage your personal brand online. Some of the most powerful tools for monitoring your brand are the free email alert mechanisms available at your search engine of choice.

• How-To: Gathering Market Intelligence from Social Media – Marketing Vox

Gleaning data from social media resources is daunting, but not unfeasible. Much of it comes down to knowing what you’re looking for, how to search for it, and where to run the query.

• The Five-Minute Guide to Monitoring Twitter – Geek Girls Guide

A few days later, I tweeted about my lesson and was barraged with requests to post instructions. So, with that, here is my five-minute Twitter monitoring guide.

• just because… – Marginally Subversive

Analytics is far more than just charts, dashboards, indices, and conversion rates. Analytics is making sense of these numbers – the “what” – by asking deeper questions – the why’s, the how’s, the why-not’s, the what-if’s…

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Media Monitoring Tools Lists

None this week.

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Slides and Presentations

Official Rules Of Social Media Measurement – Matt Granfield

Bridge Conference: Social Media ROI: Mapping Metrics to Strategy – Beth Kanter

Measuring the “social” in social media – Dana Chinn

SMCSYD: Measuring Social Media – Switched On Media
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Read Last Week’s Top Posts

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Follow Hannah on Twitter.

Photo courtesy of Anne Nobel.

Determining the ROI of Enterprise 2.0 – ZDNET

Can PR measurement save companies? – Roots PR (Disclosure, we work with this guy’s firm)

Learn to Measure Your Web Presence - Entrepreneur

Spotlight on PR Return on Investment (ROI) – The Cutting Edge

Social Media Measurement is a Must! – Marketing Technology Blog

Make the Case for Social Media through Measurement and ROI – Armory Blog

Metrics, ROI of social media still unclear and Web analytics get social from BtoB

How Many Times Have You Been Favored – Electric Outlet

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See Last Week’s Top Posts

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Photo Courtesy of: Neeta Lind

The trick to Twitter is to keep things targeted, and only Tweet with real “value” — snippets or links that people will actually find insightful or useful. Let’s face it, Kutcher and Oprah have an overwhelming advantage when it comes to Twitter — their own celebrity — and making the platform work for your organization is going to take some strategy, patience, and a bit of luck.

While is is nice to achieve a following of epic proportions, Twitter really won’t do anything for you unless the relationships you make on the site add value to your organization. The first step here is to identify influential Twitterers within our target niche (your organization’s target market) and begin conversing with them. Use Twitter’s search features to find content that relates to your niche or industry. While these people will certainly appreciate a ReTweet, adding insight to their postings and pointing them to relevant, undiscovered slices of the web will be the most direct way to get noticed.

How much  should one Tweet? There’s no straightforward way to answer this, and there are multiple correct responses. An account that has dozens of Tweets a day will annoy users and come off as “spammy”, but an inactive account won’t do you much good either. I would let quality be the barometer for what you should or shouldn’t Tweet; quotas might encourage lackluster Tweeting, or conversely curb quality conversation. As a general rule, if a Tweet doesn’t contain original insight, perspective, or content, I tend to pass on posting it.

Twitter is all about conversation. Responding to direct messages, Tweets, and mentions should become a daily occurrence.  Using a Twitter App might streamline your Twitter-related workflow.

Facebook is a completely different game. While they’ve recently been making efforts towards joining the real-time conversation, Facebook is more about a static presence and providing a reference for addicted users rather than the “here and now” of Twitter. Provide real contact details, and make sure your organization’s page looks friendly and professional. If you prefer, you can integrate Facebook to distribute your Twitter announcements — more on this in part 5, when we orchestrate our social media to work together as a well-oiled machine.

At this point, we’ve begun creating our own original social media with an overall strategy in mind, keeping good etiquette practices in mind. The next step will consist of expanding readership and exposure through news sharing services such as Digg and Delicious, and finally we’ll wrap things up in an involved, step-by-step example of integrating all of these web layers into our home URL.

Study: ROI May Be Measurable in Facebook, MySpace After All – Ad Age

The Future of Social Media Monitoring – ReadWriteWeb

Measuring Social Media ROI: Does size matter? Social Computing Journal

Understanding Digital Media Measurement – Digiday

How to Measure ROI for Social Media and the Long Sales Cycle – Deckers Marketing

The Retweet Is One Of The Best Measurements Of A Brand’s Success – Six Pixels of Separation

Does Twitter Monitor Its Brand? Fake-Twitter.com Suggests No – Danny Brown

Three Steps for SocMed Solution Shopping – Spiral16

How Do You Convince Executives that Social Media Marketing, Blogging and SEO Are Important? – HubSpot

Please leave any great articles that I missed as a link in the comments.

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See Last Week’s Top Posts

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A good starting place for any organization is Check Usernames. At this website, you will be able to check for user name availability at a plethora of social media websites. This will aid us in choosing an appropriate username for professional use. Your username should be the name of your organization or a recognizable variation. I find Check Usernames to be a very convenient tool, because I prefer usernames to be more or less consistent from site to site in attempts to create a consistent online presence. Make sure to use your top level domain e-mail contact (the e-mail service provided by your home page URL) or create one in Gmail.

First, let’s create a shortlist of social media sites that are appropriate for your organization. Twitter is currently universal, and a Facebook page is easy to make. Unless you’re a twenty year old DJ or in a local alt rock band, it would be advisable to steer clear of MySpace, which lacks proper quality control suitable for a professional organization. Social news sharing sites like Digg and del.icio.us (now just delicious.com) can be used to promote home URL blog posts. These four websites will be a good starting point for our purposes:

• Twitter
• Facebook
• Digg
• Delicious

With just registering for these four networks, we’ve already begun our process of using social media traffic to increase our exposure. Make sure to use strong passwords, as company or organizational social media accounts are valuable to hackers. After you’ve registered, take a moment to read through the website FAQ to get an idea about how each functions.

We’ll begin our strategic use of these social media profiles next week, but it could be useful to blog about your newly registered accounts. For a complete newcomer to the social media scene, take a while (more than a day) to peruse the various networks to see how other individuals and organizations are using them. Take notice of any differences you see between professional organizations and individual internet users, especially on Twitter and Facebook.

In the next round of our guide, the raw content will commence. I will take you through Twitter and Facebook etiquette, strategies, and optimization tips. Part four will focus on blog and website promotion through social news sharing websites (mainly Digg and Delicious, though much of the information will apply to others as well). In the last installment of the series, we’ll bring it all full circle and tie our social media accounts back into our home URL using plug-ins and blogging strategies.

Please DON’T:

1.    Jump Right In

Please, please don’t. Whether you’re doing reporter outreach or engaging customers, you can do a lot of damage in a little time. Start by listening and figure out how your objectives fit with the medium and the individual you are targeting.

2.    Go at it willy-nilly

Media management is ineffective when analyzed piecemeal. You need a comprehensive plan, a system to organize your results and someone/team to oversee the efforts. This is still true if you want to start with a small program and scale it over time. It is still true if you break up tasks to different departments. In order to get big picture insights, someone has to draw the big picture.

3.    Expect overnight results

Media outreach – through any channel – requires a big commitment of time and energy. You get back what you put in, so unless you spend the weeks, months and years to build real relationships*, don’t expect journalists, bloggers or customers to line up at your door.

4.    Refuse to ask for help

If you knew everything there is to know about media management, you probably wouldn’t be reading this post. Don’t wait until you’ve made a muck of things to ask for guidance. Consult your PR/Marketing resources. Ask your media monitoring firm. Hire a consultant. Do a Google search. Get some answers.

5.    Look for standardized metrics

I may have mentioned this (in every post I’ve ever written) but it’s absolutely essential for your media management program to be customized to your needs. Just because a number is important to Starbucks doesn’t mean it’s important to you.

6.    Measure, then sit back and relax

Hello? Why did you just do all of that work? Put that data into action. Don’t just measure to see what you’ve done. Measure to see what you should be doing.

7.    Try to control every mention

You can’t. Don’t try. Use negative brand mentions as an opportunity to show the stakeholder (and everyone else watching) that your brand is honest, transparent and attentive. That doesn’t mean you need to let go of the reins. You should strive to be the most relevant and comprehensive source of information about your company and products.

8.    Wait until you have a reputation crisis

You don’t want to start media management on the defensive – it makes you break a bunch of my other rules. If people are talking about you in any type of media, start now. Get some benchmarks, build a reputation, be ready to respond from a position of strength if things go awry.

Any other potential pitfalls I forgot to mention?

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*Or you could make a really sensational product, that works too.

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