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Social Media Measurement Framework

May 28, 2012 By 3 Comments

Originally posted on Social Media Explorer

As social media becomes more widely accepted as a business tool, organizations embracing the medium are slowly becoming more adept at creating content and engaging with their audiences. The next step for organizations that are comfortable with the content side of things is the development of a strategy and tactics to measure the performance of their social media activity.

The following model is a work in progress that aims to build on a social media measurement framework developed by John Lovett and Jeremiah Owyang. Here are some notes about the model components:

  • Business Goals – In order for data extracted from a measurement initiative to be useful or effective it needs to connect back to the business objectives of your organization. These will vary by company and situation – but there are a handful of goals that are universal to most businesses or non profits. These include optimizing marketing programs, generating revenue , cutting costs, building brand equity and developing new ideas, products or services. For more information about the goals that I’ve included in this model check out the Social Media Measurement Compass in a report about social media analytics by the Altimeter Group.
  • Metrics – These are the general measurement categories for each objective. For example, under marketing optimization, one common metric would be Awareness.
  • Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) – For each metric, list relevant performance indicators. For example, for the Awareness metric above one KPI could be Reach.
  • Channel KPIs – Because each social media channel uses different analytics to measure performance it’s important to identify which unique KPIs will be measured for each platform. Continuing with the example above, channel KPIs for Awareness >> Reach could be as follows:
    • Facebook – Total reach.
    • Twitter – Potential reach, effective reach.
    • Blog – Page views
    • Youtube – Views

The most important steps in the measurement process takes place AFTER you collect your KPI data:

  1. Establishing effective ways to report social media performance data so that information is easy to digest, understand and act upon.
  2. Building time to analyze social media measurement reports into your social media workflow.
  3. Using data to help inform decisions about social media activity in order to develop new program or improve existing efforts.
  4. Acting on insights in order to achieve business objectives.

Do you have a social media measurement program in place? What metrics and KPIs are you tracking? The comments are yours.

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The Sunflower Social Business Model

September 23, 2010 By Leave a Comment

social business model - the sunflower

Originally posted on Social Media Explorer

In order to tap into the true potential of social media, businesses will have to make a cultural investment – and begin the process of evolving into social organizations. This integration of social communication within/across organizational ecosystems is becoming a more tangible possibly as companies and non-profits begin to embrace emerging technology while developing more strategic approaches to social media.

There has been some great thinking and model development in the area of social business design. David Armano developed a compelling Hive Mind Visual during his time at the Dachis Group – it speaks to the need to move away from the information silo mindset towards a more collaborative approach, where sharing information across the organization becomes the norm. Jeremiah Owyang at Altimeter Group has presented some excellent analysis of the five primary social business models. His social business framework and matrix delves into pros and cons of each model and offers great “behind the scenes” insight.

The Social Business Sunflower Model might be considered a hybrid:

Social Leadership

Similar to hub and spoke models, there needs to be a social organizational leader that feeds the internal core. Depending on the size of the organization this role could be C-Suite i.e. Chief Social Media Officer, or simply a social media manager in a smaller business. The key here is to empower a role that becomes responsible for key strategic social business elements such as social media strategy, education/training, guidelines, etc.

Internal Structure

The structure around the social leader is more organic in nature, similar to the honeycomb model – where functional social teams work within their departments (under the mentorship of the social leader) to craft initiatives that are relevant to their respective audiences.

Here are some examples of what that might look like within an organization:

  • A group of employee blog ambassadors that facilitate the exchange of communication and ideas across the internal staff audience
  • A person in HR that helps drive recruitment and engages/manages online dialogue with potential candidates
  • A CEO or small business owner that fuels conversations via a personal blog
  • A group of corporate bloggers that share insights from different departments
  • Front line employees that connect with customers via Facebook or Twitter
  • A distribution manager that posts shipping schedules or notifies customers of delays via social tools
  • A sales manager that crowd sources product improvement ideas from customers and prospects
  • and so on…

Audiences

The final layer is made up of the distinct audiences that each organization serves. Each petal represents stakeholders that influence (or are influenced by) the organization – it’s products/services, social media initiatives, business objectives, etc. It’s critical to build deep knowledge around each of these groups – understand demographics, where and how they play in the social media sandbox, what content are they interested in, what buying questions they have, etc.

Social media shouldn’t stem exclusively from one department – it needs to reach out from across the organization, touching audiences in manner relevant to their information needs, social channel preference, etc.

The sunflower represents an organic approach to social business – Relevant content stemming from the center of a collaborative, educated and socially aware organization reaching out towards select, deeply understood audiences.

Make sense? Is your business evolving in this direction? What are some of your real world challenges?

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