The Struggle To Measure Social Media Effectiveness

Rachel Happe has a good post about how to look at the value part of social media ROI equation.  She identifies some good questions to get at defining the value:

- What is the value of having a better conversation?
- What is the value of meeting someone?
- What is the value of getting more accurate information faster?
- What is the value of being able to drive consensus around an idea faster?
- What is the value of building trust?
- What is the opportunity cost of not innovating?

I would have liked to have added these questions to the Social Media ROI Case Study Slam panel, maybe for future reiterations.   I'd like to see variations on the Justin Perkin's Social Media ROI Calculator to incorporate some of those.

Rachel goes on to say, that "The things he can measure easily (activity) are not the things that provide insight into the real value to the organization."  Ah, yes, was going to ask about the intangibles.  She points to EMC blogger talking about the difficulty of measurement.  Doesn't sound too much different from nonprofit or not?

At some point, our free ride will come to an end.  The company will realize they're spending a big chunk of change on this stuff, and there will be a clear need to formalize metrics around the paybacks we're getting from a multi-headed investment.

But, I'm not quite sure what we'll measure, or how we'll measure it.  Some real work will need to be done around an "E2.0" balanced scorecard, and how well we're doing against it.  And, I don't think anyone has really done this yet, as far as I know.

Sure, we're poking around with "buzz measurement" tools, and anyone can capture page views, but I keep thinking we're missing the real value of having people meaningfully engage with each other. 

Sometimes, I think we're trying to measure a great conversation, or a wonderful party.  The qualitiative aspects seem to outweigh the quantitative ones.   Sure, we could construct a quantitative case, but that'd miss the point of what's turning out to really matter.

 

Rachel has a page listing social media metrics.