The Three O’s
of Social Media Measurement
“How do you measure social media programs?”
You know, I try not to, it’s a buzz kill. I’m kidding…
This question surfaces all the time. It’s hands down one of the biggest challenges we marketers face, but come on, it’s not impossible. Yeah, we need better weights and measuring sticks for new media — they will come — but don’t let that stop you from adapting and customizing an approach that works for your business.
There are three things you should think about when it comes to measurement, each I’d argue are equally important:
Outputs
Pretty self explanatory, right. Is content being created? It could be a blog post or a forum topic or a video, you get the gist. Try not to get too hung up on the “how much” part of the output. Focus instead on the quality and relevancy of what’s being produced and the utility of the medium for you and your customers.
Outgrowths
Again, pretty simple. What stems or grows from the content that was created? It could be comments, links, tags, diggs, votes, etc. How people choose to participate with the content will vary so try to think about the value and weight you place on certain actions — and how you might better enable them.
Outcomes
Basically, the net result or response to the first two things. It could be attention (influencers, media), amplification (memes), engagement (quality/quantity of comments), sentiment (positive/negative), this is where you have to simply interpret and weigh the shake out. And then compare your analysis to whatever the hell your goals were to begin with. Oh, and then pray they line up.
Keep in mind, all of this is just one approach to measurement — an admittedly simple one for an increasingly complex web. I tend to think social media measurement will always be half science/half art, and maybe for that reason, always be a headache too, but hopefully this gives folks a framework to pivot and build on.
Related Post:
Social Media Measurement Deconstructed
Also Read:
PR Measurement Blog (Katie Paine)
Like Nailing Down a Shadow (Brian Oberkirch)
Social Media Measurement (Jeremiah Owyang)
[Cross published on Voce Nation]
5 Comments, Comment or Ping
Kami Huyse
Mike; It may be simple but it works.
Katie Paine has long measured PR campaigns by Ouputs, Outakes and Outcomes. The ways to measure each of these are more complex than meets the eye, as you well know.
Dec 7th, 2007
Mike Manuel
Dec 7th, 2007
KDPaine
Thanks for this, it’s a great, and much needed simpler explanation of the three “O’s” . The point isn’t to measure for the sake of measurement sake, but to get the data you need to make a choice between doing more of one thing or less of another depending on what works or doesn’t work. The benefit of measurement is that you finally have ammo with which to say no to the things that don’t work but that some mucketmuck says is a great idea that you have to implement.
Feb 22nd, 2008
Bob LeDrew
Mike, I love your “Three O”s. It also occurs to me that they would make a neat framework around which to create an explanation of what this social media stuff actually is, which I find myself doing a lot, even in a facebooked, googled, and twittered world.
Apr 22nd, 2008
Clara
Manuel, thanks for this post and some newer others…I’ve been looking into stuff like measurement for PR recently and some PR colleagues had a hard time answering this question. Avinash Kaushik has done a deep, deep dive into web analytics as well (www.avinash.net) -C
Aug 1st, 2008
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