8/9/2019 White Paper: Why Measure Social Media?
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The names and logos for SocialTalk, SocialSync, SocialSupply and
Syncapse are registered trademarks of Syncapse Corp.
All text is copyright 2009-2010 Syncapse Corp. All rights
reserved.
www.syncapse.com
You cant improve what you cant measure. You wont improve what
you wont measure. That second sentenceis harsher, granted, but
true. Measurement is essential to learn rom past experiences and to
improve the
eectiveness o anything.
We learn through cause and effect.
In many organizations we are rewarded because o cause and eect.
How can we ever hope to know the eect
social media has unless we measure it? In sum, you wont improve
what you wont measure, since the decision todo otherwise is a
strategic decision that explicitly precludes real improvement over
time. Im incented to view that
as an unacceptable decision, naturally. I do head up a
Measurement Science group ater all.
Measurement is the act o gathering salient data. Science is how
we go about learning and isolating cause andeect. Both measurement
and science in social media are complex. We acknowledge that
complexity. And yet,
were confdent we can march into it and emerge on the other side
with an elegant model.
What is the source of this complexity?
Take what you know about the problems with Nielsen TV Ratings,
search engine marketing, web analytics, direct
marketing and data mining. Mash them together to get an idea o
how complex social media measurement is.
Take, for instance, sentiment analysis.
Weve been trained over the years to think o all customer buzz as
being grouped into three groups: positive,neutral, and negative. Im
dissatisfed with the accuracy o such metrics. I you take 200
statements and ask 3perectly rational people to code them by hand,
youll get 3 dierent versions o what they regard as an accurate
count. Each person reported his or her own truth. It is very
easy to dismiss such subjective metrics especially whenthey dont
mesh with your own version o truth. What real learning can come rom
that? The science part can be
equally complex. Perhaps the relationship between business
objectives and sentiment is non-linear.What i a certain degree
onegative sentiment rom a handul o detractors is necessary to cause
the polarization
around your brand?
Is such polarization benefcial to the objective? I so, how much
is necessary beore it becomes detrimental?Every person, whether
theyre aware o it or not, has a working mental model o how social
media works with
multiple channels - shaped by the organization theyre rom and
their personal experiences. Somebody rom astrong TV background will
perceive TV being the cause o social media buzz. Somebody rom a
strong data mining
background will perceive social media as causing higher rates o
retention. Somebody rom a strong ecommercebackground will always be
unimpressed by the direct conversion single session conversion rom
Twitter. Somebodyrom a strong measurement science background will
perceive social media as being all o the above: its just a
matter o which model o the world will enable our partner to
succeed and improve.
8/9/2019 White Paper: Why Measure Social Media?
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The names and logos for SocialTalk, SocialSync, SocialSupply and
Syncapse are registered trademarks of Syncapse Corp.
All text is copyright 2009-2010 Syncapse Corp. All rights
reserved.
www.syncapse.com
A measurement strategy is required given the inherent complexity
o an organizations goal structure and o socialmedia itsel. We must
start with what is important to you and the organization. What is
it that youre trying to
achieve? Reach? Acquisition? Awareness? Deeper engagement?
Conversion? From there, we align an elegantmodel with that goal and
measure whats important to that goal. We use that understanding o
cause and eect
to improve the eectiveness o social media over time. Since
social media is continuous, it lends itsel particularly
well to such improvements. My point o view is that the purpose o
measurement isnt simply to generate reports.It is to gain an
understanding o salience, cause, and eect. Its about generating
answers to the question: knowing
what we know, what is possible next?
Christopher Berry,
VP Measurement Science, Syncapse Corp
