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THE guide to social media monitoring and measurement

by Kristin Wadge (Metrica) 8/13/2008 4:07:00 PM

Pure gold! Nathan Gilliatt at the Net-Savvy Executive has produced the second version of the Guide to Social Media Analysis

How does it warrant being called THE guide to social media? Well, it contains a whooping 63 profiles of suppliers in the social media measurement space. That's twice as many as last year. It clearly sets out the capabilities of each company and explains each competitors' approach. It's a steal for any time pressured communicator looking for the right social media supplier. I guarantee that one hour of flicking through the guide will get you a shortlist of three suitable suppliers. Better than days spent desk researching only to end up taking a punt on the one with the brashest marketing budget / leaving it to chance.

This year we're joined in the guide by more of the traditional measurement suppliers which is great to see, even if it is competition! As communicators around the world start integrating social media into their mainstream media programmes they need suppliers (like us) who can reflect that in the measurement of their activity to give an holistic view of the results. A siloed approach just won't cut it. Expert measurement agencies that have innovated with new technologies are now (rightly) taking a lead over the technology companies dipping their toes into the vast ocean that is PR measurement.

What do you think? Are social media guides like this helpful? Will you buy it?

Tags: social media measurement, pr measurement, social media analysis, social media monitoring

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Comments

8/13/2008 10:21:38 PM

They are as long as they are all inclusive. I think we missed out and/or lost business by being excluded from the guide last year, even though we've been meausuring social media since 1995!
I like this year's version thought

Katie Paine

9/10/2008 4:33:21 PM

I have just recently pondered (in my last post) about if we should try to measure social media presence effect altogether. I don't think the answer is so straigtforward as 'yes we should'.

Now I totally agree that we shouldn't forget that our role in the organisation is increasing profits, whether by improving the image, raising awareness or building relationships. However, there is a big risk in getting stuck with immediate numbers, and loosing the sight over the bigger picture. Social media presence belongs to this big picture. I think it's about an overall brand reputation rather than marketing strategy.

Thinking about it made me draw parallel between having transparent and interactive communication strategy, and having a CSR-policy. It's not so much about constant (and very time consuming at times) measurements of effectiveness, as about good standards to conduct business.

Helena Makhotlova

9/16/2008 12:14:18 PM

Thanks for posting some great thoughts Helena. You're very right, it is all about the big picture and PR's risk losing sight of this by isolating social media. It's one part of the media jigsaw which needs to be viewed holistically, from the eyes of the customer. Hopefully in time social media will become part of the whole, just as CSR was hyped and isolated before falling back into the mix.

Kristin