Finally – A Measurement Plan for Social Media Marketing

by Dan Bailey

I was fortunate enough last week to be a panelist in a webinar on Social Media Analytics put on by The Experts Bench. I enjoyed the discussion and was with some very knowledgeable co-speakers. A poignant topic, as so many like to think that social media ROI doesn’t exist, that it’s not measurable… Part of the problem here is that most social media marketing plans I’ve seen don’t address analytics until the end – when tactics are already being executed.

About a quarter of the GSU Social Media Marketing and SEO course classes I teach are focused on web metrics and analytics. My primary tenants of social media measurement are as follows:

Social media marketing objectives must be identified upfront and should be in compatibility with overall digital marketing objectives (yet realizing that social media’s “engagement” factor makes for different goals and results).
A measurement plan should be formed simultaneously with the social media marketing plan and SEO plan – and there should be executive sponsor buy-in.
Social media KPIs should be identified upfront, aligned with the social media objectives and web marketing measurement overall.

To begin with, here is my plan for upfront web exploratory research and monitoring identification:

Situation – e.g., online brand buzz has increased in recent months
Problem – e.g., brand is unaware of its online reputation
Measurement objectives – e.g., identify quantity and ratio of existing online “brand fanatics” vs. haters
Measurement questions – e.g., what tags (such as “love this brand”) and channels best fit our problem and objectives?
Hypothesis – e.g., the brand has more social media promoters than detractors
Action Standard – e.g., a Net Promoter Score over 30% in Twitter
Measurement method & tool – e.g., NPS, Twitter and SAS

And here’s my campaign/brand Social Media Measurement Plan template:

Campaign/Brand Overview & Objectives
Communications Calendar Overview & Consumer Journey
Tracking mechanisms – e.g., Webtrends tags, Google Analytics, Omniture Tags, social media monitoring, Twitter hashtags, etc
Diagnostic Metrics – e.g., CTR, Interaction Rate, Mentions
Success Metrics – e.g., ROAS, ROI, Conversion Rate
Dashboard – showing the key metrics help to understand the performance of the campaign.
Reporting Frequencies

Follow those guidelines for upfront measurement strategy and the path should be clear and successful.

For reference and additional reading, see my presentation slides for the webinar and my additional SlideShare.net content, also see Amit Prakash‘s web measurement blog and Exploring Marketing Research by William G. Zikmund and Barry J. Babin.

Have thoughts on what you read? Wish to discuss with me? Comment & connect with me!

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