Sunday 8th November 2009 by Stuart Glendinning Hall

In my last post I explored how to integrate social media metrics into key performance indicators, to help drive performance.

In my last post I explored how to integrate social media metrics into key performance indicators, to help drive performance. Of course it's easier said than done, as I was reminded recently at ‘MeasurementCamp’ an event where market researchers, corporate PR folk and humble social media people gather to try and make sense of metrics. From the morning's discussion it's clearly a subject which can easily generate more questions than answers. For example consider some of these thoughts which I jotted down:

• Everyone wants to show some kind of return on investment for their social media spend
• A lot of data and a powerful computer can do great things but most people aren’t in that fortunate position when getting value from metrics
• There’s a lot of jargon and pseudo science around which can be confusing, misleading and plain off-putting
• You don’t need a big bag of cash to make use of social media tools like Twitter and Facebook, but it’s easy to spend a lot of time without measuring, or seeing the results
• You can get blinded by the need for numbers, but when it comes to conversations and relationships online this is only half the story, you need to qualify the qualitative too!
• Communication tools such as blogs are easy to set up but often take time to see a return – so finding quick wins for your social media spend can help

Our approach at SiftGroups is to try and make sense of the metrics, to make measurement as simple and relevant to a client's needs as possible. I had chance to put my money where my mouth is when one of the event participants, Samantha Souter from development charity FARM-Africa said she’d been given the task to promote a new fundraising idea (in the shape of a dressing up a goat no less) and needed expert help.

Do you know how to pimp your goat?

I held back from a conversation about how to ‘Pimp this Goat’ which was the task she’d been given, using a blog, Facebook, and Twitter to get people to upload images of their efforts. But when Sam said she had no metrics, and little budget, I suggested she should take a step back and to consider ‘what success looks like’. That simple question seemed to do the trick, with a number of simple measures of success in reply. Building on that I said each measure should be captured in a document, and then in discussion quantitative and qualitative metrics set together with clear targets –  in the process creating simple KPIs understood and owned by Sam and her team. Of course as with our healthcheck programme what I didn't get chance to say is that by creating a tool to monitor progress and not just record success, and by keeping them simple, it has the added benefit that the results reviewed on a regular basis can be used to take corrective or value-added action. For example targetting online communities for mothers such as Mumsnet as a way to treat under-performance in response to Facebook engagement.

Indeed in another presentation from a holiday lettings website a community-led pattern had already emerged – in the shape of customers posting up pictures of themselves with the company’s blue bag on Facebook. The discussion there revolved around how best to take part in the independently run Facebook group and support it.

Increasing the value of your metrics

Talking of seeing the value of patterns from your stats reminds me of an interesting post on the subject of metrics from Kate Niederhoffer the other day: “There’s a flaw in the design of how we measure ‘things social’ today. Like kids with full bags of Halloween candy, we’re impulsively reacting to what can be measured without thinking about what should be measured and how. Our obstacle is our gut. We rely on it at the cost of validity… enduring value for a business.” She puts a strong case for looking behind the routine stats to find the real value. She recommends the value of patterns before simple counts of numbers, the value of the quality of comments to blogs and posts as opposed to the quantity, and the value of monitoring trends over one-off snapshots assembled for the typical SMT meeting for instance. That's all well and good but how might that translate to our work with online communities?

I agree with that approach to build online communities, but the challenge is how to convince our clients to look beyond the traditional web stats; and of course this need is found in demonstrating ROI for your community spend. As I’ve written before in 'Taking the hard work out of measuring the success of your community' the approach (similar to the one outlined with FARM-Africa) is simply to start at the beginning. While the phrase 'KPI' may strike some as more jargon, what it really boils down to is to ask what it is you are trying to achieve, then asking yourself what would success look like. Here then are two elements of basic KPIs, the objectives and the targets. At SiftGroups we’d then look to find appropriate quantitative and qualitative measures for these targets (metrics), and set a review date to monitor results as part of our healthcheck programme.

And delivering ROI

If your objective as a member organisation is to achieve a certain % of guests converting to full paying members over the course of the year, with a specific success target of 'x' number of conversions, then the standard response is to look for a quantitative set of metrics. But of course proving the community contributed to meeting this important target is not always easy using quantitative metrics. But a qualitative measure such as a relevant discussion, for example where the output of an online conversation where the issue of why students aren’t converting to full membership is discussed and a way to respond to that issue is identified, can deliver value. In turn this kind of discussion is most likely to emerge as part of a ‘trend’ where the community manager is enjoying good conversations with members, rather than as a result of a  snapshot type of question ‘what do you think of our membership offering…’ which comes out of the blue. It's in the context of a lively community where in-depth conversations are a matter of course, encouraged by a community manager who is working hard behind the scenes to help make introductions and ask 1-2-1 follow up questions.

Of course in this example the ROI is unlikely to happen in the form of a ‘quick win’, but then the actual return is far greater for your organisation.  Connected to making this happen is the task of the community manager in working internally with other departments, for example highlighting the importance of re-designing the membership form to ensure it asks if online community is one of the benefits that attracted you to becoming a member. This could then form one possible quantitative measure for conversion.

Starting off by thinking what success looks like, figuring our reasonable targets, and finding qualitative and quantative ways to measure it is the first step. Putting this into practice as a community manager by ensuring a regular review, linking up behind the scenes with other departments and in communicating with community members is the second. Being able to show ROI also helps take some of the stress out of the job, particularly where the role of the community manager is relatively new and uncharted. The combined result should be a practical and comprehensive means to measure progress - demonstrating ROI for both internal stakeholders and better able to deliver value for your community.