Measuring Social Media's Not So Tough, as Long as You Know Your Objectives

Jason Falls at Social Media Explorer makes a point I have heard several times before: "The problem with trying to determine ROI for social media is you are trying to put numeric quantities around human interactions and conversations, which are not quantifiable." And Katie Paine (who has probably forgotten more about PR measurement than I will ever know) says she's in "violent agreement," which makes me hesitate (but not for long) about challenging Jason.

If a company launches itself into the social media realm with the objective of "having human interactions and conversations"--and I suspect many do--then Jason is right.

But if companies think through what they want those interactions and conversations to achieve, there's no reason the impact of those interactions can't be measured, at least as well as the impact of advertising, earned mainstream media coverage and other forms of public relations can be measured.

There are (as Katie indicates in the video interview accompanying Jason's article) many legitimate objectives for social media engagement. Some companies might want their conversations to positively impact the loyalty of existing customers; others might want to generate favorable word-of-mouth; others might want to build long-term relationships with consumers or other key stakeholders; others might be interested in driving sales. I'm not sure the last is a particularly sensible use of the medium, but all of those objectives are measurable.

I guess there are two key points I'd make about this. The first is that all communication is about "human interaction," even advertising. I don't think advertising is a particularly satisfying form of human interaction, which is why I think it's long-term future is pretty bleak. But the point is that there's nothing that makes social media interactions unique, or uniquely difficult to measure.

The second is that all communication measurement depends on setting meaningful objectives at the outset, and this is where many companies fall down. I suspect many marketers are "doing" social media without any clear idea of what they expect it to achieve. But again, I don't think that makes social media unique.