MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009: Measuring Social Media's Value

The following notes were part of the Tales from the Trenches, How Organizations Are Measuring Value in Social Media session, at the MarketingProfs Business to Business Forum (June 8 & 9, in Boston, MA).

Presenter: Katie Delahaye Paine is CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and author of Measuring Public Relationships, the Data-Driven Communicator’s Guide to Measuring Success. She is also a member of the IPR Measurement Commission.)

What Do You Need To Measure? Impact versus ROI

KD Paine distinguishes between measuring impact versus measuring ROI.

With impact, you are measuring outputs and outtakes:

• Did your relationships improve?
• Were your messages communicated?
• Did you get the exposure you wanted?

With ROI, you are measuring outcomes:

• Did sales or revenue or profits increase?
• Did your relationships change?
• Did the right people show up?
• Did audience behavior change?

The 7 Steps to Social Media ROI

The bulk of KD Paine’s presentation provided lots of specifics on how to complete the seven steps of social media ROI:

1. Define the “R” – Define the expected results?
2. Define the “I”  – What’s the investment?
3. Understand your audiences and what motivates them.
4. Define the metrics (what you want to become).
5. Determine what you are benchmarking against.
6. Pick a tool and undertake research.
7. Analyze results and glean insight, take action, measure again.

Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)

KD Paine recommends defining your Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) carefully because “you become what you measure.” She defines the perfect communications KPI this way:

• Gets you where you want to go (achieves corporate goals).
• Is actionable by individuals as well as departments.
• Continuously improves your processes.
• Is there when you need it. 

Examples of KPIs

Here are examples of different KPIs:

• Cost savings
• Efficiency: Cost per message communicated. Cost per new lead/customer acquired.
• Productivity: Increase in employee engagement/morale. Lower turnover/recruitement costs.
• Engagement: Ratio of posts to comments. % of repeat visitors. % of 5+min vistors. % of registrations.
• Trust: Improvement in relationship/reputation scores with customers and communities (Loyalty/Retention).
• Thought leadership: Shares of quotes. Share of opportunites. 
• Message Penetration: Positioning on key issues. Improvement in favorable/unfavorable ratio. Improvement in Optimal Content Score (OCS).

More Information

For the complete presentation from the MarketingProfs B2B Forum, see KD Paine’s handout. For information on measurement, these additional resources are also helpful:

• KD Paine’s PR Measurement Blog
• The Measurement Standard

Paine’s presentation, especially the distinction she makes between measuring impact versus ROI, reminded me of these related, recent posts, which throw a healthy dose of debate, into discussions on measuring social media’s value:

• ROI vs. “Impact on X” – Understanding what Social Media ROI is and isn’t.
• Social media success doesn’t start with ROI 

Related Links

• My Take On  MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009 ~ re:invent, re:charge, re:engage
•  MarketingProfs B2B Forum 2009: Making the Case for Social Media