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June 20, 2018 @ 7:30 am - 9:00 am
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It’s the bane of every CEO to be handed a mish-mash of metrics and be expected to translate the numbers into results.
That’s what steered Lauren Teague into a quest for meaningful metrics, especially in regards to the ever-elusive impact of social media on the bottom line.
Lauren presented an update on her quest during “Social Media + Statistics = Not Your Average Metrics Discussion” at the Social Media Breakfast event on June 20 at Madison Turners. It was an impressive display of the art of making measurement relevant to your organization. Download Lauren’s full presentation slides!
Getting Past Social Media Metric Miasma
During the presentation, Lauren shared a story that occurred when she worked with the PGA Tour. She had been reporting on social media to her higher-ups, which consisted of packing all her metrics into a sprawling Excel spreadsheet.
Her manager told her that wouldn’t fly. She had to make it relevant to VPs and Execs. Using a pizza analogy, she summarized: “They want to know how the pizza tastes. They don’t care about the sauce recipe or the amount of the ingredients.”
The “A”s Social Media Reporting Framework
Fast forward to present day, where Lauren works with Jay Baer at Convince and Convert Consulting. She and Jay have been working on a report that shows how the pizza tastes, and it’s largely based on the following “A”s Framework.”
It breaks down like this:
Audience – For measuring followers, subscribers, etc. This is the audience you’re reaching.
Applause – Cumulative social reactions, including likes, comments, link clicks, etc. Lauren refers to these as a “light touch,” which are nice but may not achieve business goals.
Amplification –Social shares that signal virality – when your audience takes your content and shares with their own networks. These are “medium touch” engagements.
Action – These are micro-conversions, tied to your business goals (and the most direct measurements of social’s impact on your bottom line.) Actions can be leads generated, email subscribers, event RSVPs, or even ecommerce attributed to social media.
Activity – This is a measurement of your social team’s output; their content deployment, social customer care, and even paid budget tracking.
Advocacy – Measurements of meaningful reactions to your social. This includes sentiment scoring, which can be a mix of both qualitative and quantitative results.
Accelerant – The barometer at which content is being produced. This is the engagement rate people are having with your content.
Lauren’s advice was to pick 3-4 of these metrics to begin building your “A”s framework, and then expand from there.
Social Sentiment Index: Two Calculators to Consider
Lauren took on an even deeper dive into really gauging the impact you’re having with your social media initiatives. She shared both a sentiment index, and two index calculators she is in the process of building and refining.
These tools have their specific attributes, but both are designed to deliver a quantitative number to establish:
- The types of response you’re receiving (positive, negative, etc.)
- The impact you’re making on the social media that’s most important to you
Sentiment index is typically measured on most social media tools, using a combination of natural language processing and machine learning to deliver analysis. Lauren noted the tools are being taught to interpret not only nuances in the language, but even emojis.
Measuring Social Impact Next Steps
The As framework is where you start, crawling before you walk. You add to each level of the As, establishing clear, consistent metrics with analysis for your stakeholders. When you’ve reached Ninja mode, you’re employing tactics, like her sentiment index calculators, where the qualitative becomes quantitative.
It was another step forward in a social media manager’s quest to become relevant to the big picture. We know social media works. When using metrics like Lauren’s, we can take another step closer to proving it.
Download Lauren’s full presentation slides!
Join us for next month’s presentation on how to spread the correct content across social media channels when you have too many messages.
This post was written by Greg Mischio, the Owner and Strategic Director of Winbound, a content marketing firm. Winbound provides an all-in-one content marketing and conversion optimization package specifically designed for small marketing departments. Check out his article on how to start content marketing. Twitter: @gregmischio
