Facebook’s “Insights” tab or Twitter’s “Activity Dashboard,” are few examples how the social networks are gradually accepting the importance of measurement for the social marketers. However, majority of the marketers struggle to get the “Big-Picture” of their social media data analysis. To get the view of their social landscape, often they find it challenging to standardize the metrics or analyzing the data in context. To conclude with the deeper insight of any complex social media data, there are few fundamental rules for multi-channel measurement.
The list of social networks that are relevant to marketers
is long and diverse. One of the biggest problems that marketers face with multi-channel
analysis is having access to all of their data across all platforms like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, etc.
Most of the social media analyst measure and report on
Facebook and Twitter. However, to get the big-picture, you should analyze at
least six networks. This breadth of reporting equates to a lot of time and energy
in compiling the data and filtering out the noise. The data aggregation process
is about balance, gathering as much context as possible and put it in the most
simple and practical format possible.
Putting metrics from various channels in context is crucial
to understanding social performance and gaining useful, tactical insights. The
problem is that the growth in number of social channels makes it hard to
consolidate and standardize reporting. The key to putting this massive amount of data in context is
standardization. By standardizing terminologies around similar metrics, you
will be able to look at activity and engagement in a simple format and with
full context. For example, instead of Facebook Fans and Pinterest or Twitter
Followers, use a term like “Audience.”
Once you standardize your terminologies, focus on
benchmarking the methodology. The most effective and commonly used benchmarking
methods for social media marketers are: taking at-least three periods as an
average and apples-to-apples comparison of these periods like pre-campaign
performance measurement to the post-campaign monthly reports. Just average the
last three months to benchmark the most recent efforts and you will get a solid
rolling average. With this type of comparison, it makes the most sense to focus
on rates and ratios. You should focus on measuring things like growth rate and
engagement rate. This approach will allow you to normalize over time periods
without worrying about the scale differences.
Data
has become a central need for social media marketers. No longer are aggregate
totals enough. Marketers need complete, practical measurement that allows them
to review all of their activities. Multi-channel analysis is the key to this
holistic approach while each puzzle piece is crucial. It’s the complete picture
that helps social media marketers do their best work in terms of taking a
corrective measure during a mass-media campaign.
