Dave - What I think you've hit on here is what we tend to lose sight of when we're debating social media measurement -- while the metrics for traditional and social are different in many instances, the process by which you determine the metrics are not. It's a process of benchmarking, determining measurable goals, developing your strategy, implementing your strategy all while measuring/tweaking along the way. I agree with the three things you've outlined above to get started, but would argue that all of that is necessary. Social monitoring, while powerful, is only one piece of a broader data "pie" necessary to make the best decisions you can make when developing your strategy. Thanks again for the quality post.

Good talking points Dave, context is definitely key with the analysis of any data (including that of social media). It’s also important to look further into the qualitative aspects of social media data; where were the comments made and who were they made by (I.e. If a negative comment was made by the editor of a big publication then this is obviously a larger issue than if a fairly anonymous blogger decides to post a short negative article). Looking at the traffic volume for each ‘mention’ means you can build up a more useful picture of the overall negative vs positive exposure of your brand.

Funny that we were just talking about this today in the office. For the last couple of years everybody has been talking about "just having a conversation" but those days are gone and you do indeed have to have context like you say. All businesses know there is a conversation going on now and it is how the brands engage that matters

Great point Dave. Many people that sing the praises of social media (myself included) always talk about the importance of the brand conversation but without this context we are just flapping our gums. Thanks for the talking points.

Dave -

What I think you've hit on here is what we tend to lose sight of when we're debating social media measurement -- while the metrics for traditional and social are different in many instances, the process by which you determine the metrics are not. It's a process of benchmarking, determining measurable goals, developing your strategy, implementing your strategy all while measuring/tweaking along the way. I agree with the three things you've outlined above to get started, but would argue that all of that is necessary. Social monitoring, while powerful, is only one piece of a broader data "pie" necessary to make the best decisions you can make when developing your strategy.

Thanks again for the quality post.

Good talking points Dave, context is definitely key with the analysis of any data (including that of social media). Itu00e2u0080u0099s also important to look further into the qualitative aspects of social media data; where were the comments made and who were they made by (I.e. If a negative comment was made by the editor of a big publication then this is obviously a larger issue than if a fairly anonymous blogger decides to post a short negative article). Looking at the traffic volume for each u00e2u0080u0098mentionu00e2u0080u0099 means you can build up a more useful picture of the overall negative vs positive exposure of your brand.

Funny that we were just talking about this today in the office. For the last couple of years everybody has been talking about "just having a conversation" but those days are gone and you do indeed have to have context like you say. All businesses know there is a conversation going on now and it is how the brands engage that matters

Great point Dave.

Many people that sing the praises of social media (myself included) always talk about the importance of the brand conversation but without this context we are just flapping our gums.

Thanks for the talking points.