Everyone is always looking for the golden rule of measurement. What should I measure & how? The problem is, it depends. It really does. The reason to measure is to see how you’re doing in achieving your goals. Without goals, you don’t know what you should be doing and you don’t know what measurements are the right ones. Measurement really does differ from company to company depending on what it is you’re trying to accomplish.
Standard KPIs
I was once asked by a company that needed help with their e-commerce sites what standard KPIs (key performance indicators) I thought were important. I immediately answers “it depends” and they looked like I didn’t know what I was talking about. I went on to explain that what KPIs are important depends on what it is you’re trying to accomplish. For an e-commerce store, they probably include conversions, conversion rates, etc. But if you blindly look at KPIs without understanding what you’re trying to do, you’re going to miss some very valuable information.
It Depends
What’s important to measure for your company really is different than other companies. Even if you are an e-commerce site, and you have measurements like conversions, conversion rates, visits, etc., what if you’re running a specific marketing campaign to advertise an event you’re hosting? What you’re doing online is going to influence what you’re doing offline (how many people show up)? Conversions may or may not make sense depending on whether people have to sign up online…. So you really need to think through your overall strategy, as well as specific tactics and goals, to figure out what you can measure and what you should measure.
An All-Company Process
Amber Naslund wrote an important post today on The Discipline of Social Media Measurement, which is what got me writing this post. In it, she says:
Your type of company and how your business is structured has tremendous influence on what you can credibly and reliably measure within the social media realm. Measurement of all things—not just social media—is a discipline, not a task, and it needs to be a cultural imperative. If you’re going to ask about the value or impact of social media and how to measure it, you need to know how you determine those things for other areas of your business and translate or adapt some of those practices.
Social media and online marketing doesn’t work in a vacuum. There are often many steps in any purchasing decision, any of which can be influenced online or off. It’s also sometimes difficult to get people to give you the right information about why they purchased from you. “I saw you online” could mean just about anything. The point is, you need to have your entire company working on the measurement idea. Your sales people may need to ask about social media (and ask the right questions). You may need to get a CRM (customer relationship management) system in place so you can actually keep track of what’s going on with your customers. Look at the overall picture of your company to see what needs to be in place so you can get the right measurements about social media (and other business processes).
What’s Possible
The measurements you’re going to be able to get are really going to depend on what systems and processes you already have in place. If the entire purchase happens online, you may be able to create landing pages specific to social media or have some other way to track where people are coming from online. If you have an offline sales process, you’re going to have to see what’s possible with your current process and what may need to be changed to get more information.
Social Media is Part of an Overall Strategy
Whatever your use of social media, it has to be part of your overall business strategy in order for it to be the most effective. Once it’s part of your overall strategy, it will be easier to implement systems and processes to make measurement possible and meaningful.
Thoughts?
(photo by stevenharris, on Flickr)