What's Your Social Media Baseline?

Photo by Caveman92223

I'm enjoying how Robin Broitman aggregate links about social media. Take her ROI and Measurement list. (I've definitely added that link to my social media metrics personal learning space)

She recently pointed to a blog post called "Ten Ways To Measure Social Media Success" by Chris Lake.  What I found most valuable was the tip about getting a baseline measurement before you begin.  A baseline is a measurement that you can use as a comparison to measure progress against a goal or do before/after comparisons.  Chris suggests:

Before you start the clock it is a good idea to benchmark where you’re at...

1. Make a note of the obvious numbers (number of Facebook fans, Twitter followers, Digg links, Delicious bookmarks, and referrals from social media sites, plus existing website traffic).
2. Make a note of the less obvious benchmarks (such as SEO rankings and referrals, customer satisfaction scores and other business data). 
3. Make a note of ROI benchmarks. How much are you paying to acquire customers via other marketing channels? How vast is that advertising budget, and how is it being split up? And what proportion is being directed into channels that you cannot accurately measure? 
   

There is a comment in the post from Dan McQuillan who has been mulling over measurement of social media from the nonprofit perspective.  His post "The Apollo and Dionysus of digital evaluation" talks about finding the right mashup between numbers and stories using mythology metaphors.  

What's the technique that converts the Apollonian distancing of neatly printed tables to the DionysianSavvy Chavvy - then, maybe, it'll be pretty clear what's working and what the impact really is. celebration of shared sensations of change? I think one of the consultants at the CES session cracked it when she said that the lab coats of traditional expert evaluation were starting to give way to self-evaluation and user-led evaluation. Maybe what makes the difference is not just the social media but the people who's hands it's in - when the cameras are held by the young people (as they have been at some Make Your Mark events), where users are making the podcasts and the online communities are as self-managed as as Savvy Chavvy - then, maybe, it'll be pretty clear what's working and what the impact really is.

Dan points over to the Measurment Camp Wiki that I need to explore further.

Comments

[Charlie Quirk]

Hey Beth,

Great post. I agree with you that it is vitally important that there is substance behind the figures. I think having metrics that are astronomical in social media (unless one is a weblebrity like Armano, Kawasaki or Scoble) can be a bit of a warning sign someone commits to much of their time to getting more connections for the sake of it.

As valuable as Twitter and other networks are is, there is a lot of whitenoise made by a ton of cotntributors that don't add a ton of value.

[frank]

Hey Beth ... thanks for sharing this!

In all your work with nonprofits have you figured out how to help build a good baseline set of measurements? Are there specific things you look for? questions you ask?

I'm curious because i wonder how many nonprofits have good data to create a baseline and if not, what can be done to help build a baseline creatively?

would love your thoughts?

http://twitter.com/franswaa