This past thursday, the DC chapter of the Social Media Club met at the Edelman offices in downtown Washington, DC to discuss measurement of social media.  The turn-out was one of the largest ever for the DC chapter, with a range of people from local start-ups, PR and marketing firms, and a host of other areas represented.  The discussion was fast-paced and covered a wide variety of topics (perhaps a bit too wide for some). 

We started out by reviewing some of the social media highlights from the past month, which I’ve encapsulated in a previous blog posting.  Specifically, here are some of the key points that were made in reference to social media developments for March 2007:

Continued development in Second Life:

1. SL helps provide an enhanced ‘Web 3.0′ communications experience.
2. There are continuing technological infrastructure issues with SL: frame rendering, freezing, etc., which represent a substantial obstacle to continued diffusion of SL.
3. SL might benefit from the introduction of some form of console or controller beyond the keyboard.
4. SL’s primary benefit is community-oriented.
5. As for measurement, there is code that will track when other SL users visit your territory and interact with objects you have created.

Viacom vs. YouTube

1. As with SL, there are continued technological issues associated with the viewing experience of YouTube, most notably the low resolution of the video.
2. Copyright continues to be one of the most prominent issues facing development of YouTube and other video sharing sites.
3. Google could benefit from further outreach to the television and video content providers.
4. Viacom’s move is in large part strategic posturing in preparation for the launch of their own video sharing site.
5. YouTube could benefit from looking at a pay-per-view model.

Before we knew it, we were at the half-way point of the discussion and had not yet even gotten to the meat of the conversation: social media measurement, although we had broached the topic in reference to some of the past month’s social media highlights. 

The core of the social media measurement conversation revolved around the fundamental questions of ‘why,’ ‘what’ and ‘how.’  Here are some highlights from the conversation:

Why measure social media?

I began this part of the discussion by throwing up some stats from the 2nd European Survey of PR Professionals that assert:

1. 89% of PR professionals surveyed think that blogs and social software will be widespread and integrated into communications as websites are today.
2. 69% say they do not have the skilled personnel to handle them and 42% are unable to demonstrate the ROI of blogging.

We then began to discuss reasons why we should measure Social Media.  We came up with the following:

1. To provide accountability to the work we are doing.
2. Quantitative information brings form and meaning to abstract concepts, to those unfamiliar with the terrain.
3. To make determinations about when to and especially when not to participate in social media.
4. To improve the quality of your interactions within social media.

What to measure in social media?

The discussion of what to measure in social media encapsulated a wide range of topics, particularly on the relative value of the page view as a metric.  There seemed to be a general consensus that although the page view was declining in importance, it was still one of the key metrics in assessing social media.  In addition, many of the participants agreed that one of the key indicators in social media is the quality of relationship created through a social media interaction.

For the final section of the discussion, I threw up a quote from a paper drafted by the Independent Sector and the Urban Institute entitled “Outcome Measurement in Nonprofit Organizations (PDF).” The quotes reads: “Outcome measurement involves the identification of outcomes; development of appropriate outcome indicators and data collection procedures; data analysis to better understand organization achievements; and user-friendly, regular reporting of the findings.”

Unfortunately, we had run out of time and didn’t get a chance to delve into this part of the discussion.

Until next time…

 Other blogs about this event:

1. The Webpreneur
2. Oatmeal Stout