This is a post by Katie Delahaye Paine, Chief Marketing Officer at News Group International and leader in international measurement and monitoring. Katie will be speaking at Social Media Measurement & Monitoring on the 26 & 27 March in London.
There are three reasons why you’re reading this and I hope attending Social Media Measurement & Monitoring 2013 (London).
1. Social Media has thrust so much opportunity into your arms that you haven’t a clue what to do and you need way of making a decision about what will bring you the best return on your investment.
2. Your board/ED/GM/ has bought into the myth of “big data” and told you that “of course the data is there, you just need to pull it into a dashboard”
3. You’re sick of reading about horsemeat and the topic of measurement is actually more appealing
Regardless of the reason, there is little argument about the need for measurement standards. And, surprisingly, there is relatively little disagreement about what those standards should be.
A bit of background first. About 20 years ago, a bunch of people on both sides of the pond realized that there was a need for standards for public relations. They got together at a series of meetings and from those meetings AMEC and the Institute for Public Relations Measurement Commission were born. After years of muddling on their own throught the standards morass, they came together along with other communications associations to form a Coalition to establish measurement standards for social media.
Realizing that simultaneously a number of other organizations including the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA), the Advertising Research Foundation (ARF) and the Digital Analytics Association (DAA, were all working on their own standards and the last thing the world needed was multiple conflicting standards, I invited them all to my house in October 2011, to hash out their differences in what came to be known as the Social Media Measurement Standards Conclave. At that meeting, we hammered out a framework for Social Media Measurement Standards, defining six areas of confusion that we felt were most pressing to standardize:
1. Content
2. Reach & Impressions
3. Engagement
4. Influence
5. Tone & Advocacy
6. Value
As of this writing standards for Content and Engagement have been finalized. Reach and Impressions as well as Influence should be entering the comment phase shortly. You can find the latest version of all standards at www.smmstandards.org. The rest will be complete by June 2013 and announced at the AMEC Measurement Summit June 6th in Lisbon.
Katie will be delivering the keynote at Social Media Measurement & Monitoring (London) on 27 March and hosting a workshop on 26th. Book tickets and read more about Katie’s sessions here.
