Data That Tells A Story
As mentioned in a previous post about social and mobile driving big data, social creates a lot of data. But all data is not created equal and marketers struggle to determine which data sets will yield the best information for the business. Of course, each business is different and thus, the data that tells a story about each business can also be different.
But, as a marketer with limited resources, it is possible to structure your social efforts in a way that allow you to not only measure the impact of your social initiatives, but to measure the impact of those initiatives on your brand.
Four Social Metrics to Track
A recent post by Dilip Venkatachari suggests four social metrics that he says will help you measure whether you are moving the needle on your brand. Not coincidentally, inherent in these metrics are ways of engaging socially that are very valuable for any business. Here are the four:
1 | Conversations
Social is a social medium so measuring the number and type of conversations involving your brand is a fundamental social metric. Also, remember that social is not a broadcast medium, but a two-way conversation channel. If you are not having a dialog, you are not going to get the most out of social and the other metrics on this list will indicate that.
2 | Share of Voice
Use this metric to see how your brand compares to competitors across a variety of measures like number of conversations around key topics and whether the tone of conversations is positive or negative with respect to your brand.
3 | Brand Fans
One of the gems of social is being able to identify and connect with your brand’s “super fans”. Prior to social they were harder to find and engage but an increase in advocates is a clear measure of increasing brand strength.
4 | Product Feedback
Ever field a focus group? Expensive, time consuming, minimal data from a few qualitative questions. Social lets you crowdsource product feedback in entirely new ways. Ask complex questions of super fans. Get instant feedback on feature choices. When customers know a brand is listening and incorporating feedback, it builds huge brand credibility and loyalty.
Focus to Build Your Brand
These are just four measures of many but they are good ones. If you are monitoring all of these for your brand, you are ahead of many in focusing on data that will help you move the needle on your brand, and your business.
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