A Social Media Measurement Nonprofit Guinea Pig: Thanks Tim! Please add your thoughts!

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I'm doing a workshop on Social Media Metrics, Measurement, and ROI at PodCamp Boston tomorrow.  This is work in progress. I'll be doing a presentation on a panel at the Museum Computer Network Conference in two weeks on this topic and in early 2008 for the Legal Services Corporation.   I still feel like I haven't totally wrapped my brain around all this.

When I blogged my preliminary thoughts and set up a wikispace, I was seeking a specific nonprofit example to make it more real.  Tim Davies from the UK volunteered to be the guinea pig and test the thinking process (a logic model of sorts) for his newly launched web project that incorporates social media strategies. 

I'm hoping that some of us can have a conversation about what Tim has done or perhaps try to apply to their own social media project.  But, here are a few comments:

• Kudos to you for setting clear goals and starting off with measurement from the beginning.
• You've done a terrific job in identifying benefits(outcomes) and some metrics - you might want to consider paring them down even further.   What data matters most?  You're almost there.
• I'd like to see how you are going to specifically look at success/change and metrics for your blog.  You talk about aggregating content, but what about comments/conversation on the blog? 
• I like how you are weaving together both number data and qualitative data and how you plan to collect stories.  I think that's essential and it is a big point I'm making the presentation above.

Tim also wrote a reflection and it is enormously helpful.   

• I think your pyramid approach is spot on.  You want to focus on the goals and outcomes (benefits) first - not the metrics.
• The definitions for metrics are "attributes that are important to understand" and measurement is the process of collecting data to determine a result.   Maybe another way to think about it is measurement as data collection, but focused data collection.  You only collect what you need to answer the question - have reached our result or intended outcome/benefit.
• Good point on the "when to take measurement" - I'd put that in the "measurement" section and I would look at trend data - and not get too granular -- after all you don't have to spend all your time collecting data and if you collect too much it will make the analysis piece time consuming.  And, it will make your brain hurt!

You should read two articles that will help inform your thinking.  Look at this one by Jeremiah Owyang, "From the Boardroom to the Drawing Room."   And then go read Charlene Li's ROI of Blogging.  See her chart specifically.  It seems like your next step -- after you launch - is to do the ROI computation.   Translates your results in a value, if you can and compute the ROI.   Her example is a marketing example, of course, and business oriented.  So it may get totally lost in translation to the nonprofit side of things.

Any other guinea pigs out there that want to try this model?

Comments

[Kelley-Sue LeBlanc]

Excellent! Thanks so much for sharing, I'm going to forward the link to several.

I worry that we need to break it down a bit still for easier consumption. The majority of fundraisers are not yet comfortable using terms like podcast, blog (or vlog), social network, and new media, it is simply not part of their vernacular, but the activities around relationship building, donor cultivation, and mission achievement are core. We need to help relate the two sets of terminology. If the CONFR conference I attended yesterday in New Hampshire is any indication, many fundraisers are interested, and excited, about these new ways to expand their campaign initiatives and relate to their constituencies, but too removed from the thread to know who to ask to get started.

[joitske]

Hi Beth, since I might be working with an NGO to introduce social media (web2.0 tools) to support their organisational processes, this helps me think about measuring success! We could be a guinnea pig for that matter. I need to have the first meeting still with them. But good to know this beforehand, I may introduce the idea of measuring success from the start onwards...

[Kevin Gamble]

This is really an excellent framework. Thank you for sharing. I'm going to suggest to our folks that we conduct a do-over of our metrics and how we are calculating the ROI. I think we've got it all wrong.

[Connie Crosby]

Hi Beth:

Thanks so much for your presentation and sharing your slides. There are lots of pieces to the puzzle I didn't have that you have figured out. Much appreciated!

Connie

[Paolo Ferrara]

Hi Beth,
thanks for sharing your presentation. I always learn something from your work.
paolo

[Beth Dunn]

Thanks so much for the thought-provoking presentation this morning. It's an ongoing conversation and exploration for all of us. I'll be interested to see where the conversation is in a year.

[Jeremiah Owyang]

This is killer, great use of slides, I wish I could hear you or see you live.

great job!

[Jane Quigley]

Beth - your session was one of my favorites at PodCamp. Thanks for giving your time and for such a great presentation. During my Social Media pitches to clients, tracking metrics are a primary concern to my clients.

BTW - besides Feedburner and Google Analytics, I also use a free tool called 103Bees.