While killing an hour or two down the rabbit hole of social media last weekend, I came across an interesting post to share with Measurement Matters' readers.  In "Web 2.0 Weenies and Bullshit Social Media Economics", Michael Gray argues forcefully (and entertainingly) that if you're not making real money out of your social media efforts and activities, then you're totally wasting your time. 

It's a well written opinion piece, the basic tenet of which I totally agree with - particularly this quote:

"Social media is filled with false gods and idols, who try to sell you their own “secret sauce” in get rich quick schemes..." 

To back up his point, he highlights the fact that Robert Scoble (as he describes him, one of the 'poster boys' of social media) has recently left FastCompany.TV.  I wouldn't agree with his use of the term 'fired' though, and I have no doubt the Scobleizer has some exciting new venture up his sleeve - which is of course ignoring the fact that his cheery mugshot is still peering out from the home page of FastCompany's site.  I'll certainly still be following his tweets avidly wherever he ends up.

The fact remains that these days most of us in the commercial world are under ever greater time pressures.  Organisations are cutting back and resourcing levels are often one of the first things to suffer.  If this scenario sounds familiar, more than ever you need to be asking yourself whether the time you spend listening, researching and participating on social media is brining you and your organisation real benefits.  And the real benefits shouldn't be measured in terms of numbers of followers, @replies, page views of your website or blog etc, but proper 'tangible' outcome measures focussing on monetising your time and developing your value to the business.

We're often asked by our clients to help them understand what's going on out there that matters, what doesn't, what can, and should be done about it, what the best approach to do this might be, and then what has been the ROI on their PR efforts.  Our advice is always based around this simple premise which holds as true for traditional media evaluation as it does for social media measurement - one size does not fit all.  Different blogs, sites, networks, people etc matter to different organisations. An approach that works for one company may not work for your company. Don't be afraid to make mistakes.  And make sure that you remain focussed on aligning your organisations benefits with your PR and social media outreach objectives.

Into this tough economic climate the vibrant and exponential world of social media has emerged.  The challenge to all of us is to keep it real - to make it work for our specific needs and to avoid the tempting honey traps that run the risk of draining so much of our precious time.  

If you have some tips on how you remain focus, we would love you to share them with us here.

I had a brilliant Business Strategy lecturer at Greenwich Uni.  He used to stride up and down the lecture hall booming: “PROFIT... IS NOT A DIRTY WORD!”  And this is what I’m being reminded of as I digest a veritable feast of online pieces, blogs, webinars, Plurkshops, discussion groups and the such about social media measurement.

Here at the Metrica ranch, we’re running a PR campaign that involves both social and traditional media aspects.  It seems when we get a mainstream piece out there (say, in The Independent) a good few direct calls come off the back of it.  When we interact with online communities, however, nothing seems to happen.  Or does it?

At the latest Plurkshop, David Alston of Radian6 plurked on about how social media is a long term strategy.  Damn right it is; but do you know why?  It’s because you need a load of past social media conversations out and about for people to Google and judge whether they ultimately want to interact with your business.  And that’s the beauty of social media conversations; they are pretty much there forever.  Which is great when consumer decision making is sporadic, and you need to reach a global audience.

There are ongoing (and going, and going…) discussions about the ROI of social media.  Social media measurement will need to jump the same hoops that traditional media did to tie results to the bottom line.  It seems people want to go over the same ponderings PR measurement firms like Metrica did all those years ago… how do we isolate the PR effect?  What about the other marketing tactics?  What about the seasonality etc etc?  This is where econometrics comes in and will always be needed.  We just have another piece of PR data to tie into the marketing model and assess why people are buying things.

I’ve also seen folks making up wooly metrics around social media (see aforementioned Plurkshop) that still are only outputs, with fancier hats.  Outcomes will always be king and social media just needs to join the party to help us figure out what is driving those outcomes, be it changes of attitude or actions.  That, after all, is why we’re here.  Thanks to Katie Paine for pointing me to this great piece from Metzmash about how people are getting it wrong. Lot’s of good points.

And here’s a spot on piece from Marketer’s Lab about social media and ROI that I couldn’t have written better in a million years.  And I love that film!

Integration’s what you need

The whole debate about how to treat and measure CGM and MSM really does take me back to my uni days.  I studied Integrated Marketing Communications and had it drummed into me that PR, advertising, Sales Promotion and Direct Marketing were just all mix-and-match toys we could use to fulfill differing marketing aims.  The same is true of CGM and MSM -- they do different things.  It's not a case of either / or, it’s just another channel to add to the mix.

David’s point about the ‘listening’ side of social media is spot on.  But this takes it outside the realms of PR.  It’s about feeding into customer support, product development and other such stuff throughout the business – which is exactly what good marketing should do.  And now we have these feedback tools at our disposal, it puts PR firmly in the middle of business decision making.  And may be just what we need to swing the balance of power in the boardroom our way.