Jennifer Stein, B.Sc., M.I.St., FPinfomart.ca

Social media is one of the biggest game-changing innovations of our time. We are bombarded with information—and we are expected to not only locate all of the information that’s relevant to us, but more importantly, to make sense of it.

The most common answer I give to the question, “What should I measure when tracking social media?” is: “It depends.” While this may sound like an avoidance technique, the truth is that what YOU should measure in social media may be completely different than someone tracking in another industry, another company, or even another department within your own organization. So where to begin?

The best strategy is to begin where you wish to end: in other words, what decisions or actions to you hope to take based on the information you gather? In that perfect world, just over the horizon, picture the ideal report. What is on it? Who is your audience? What do THEY want to know? Most importantly, what information do you require in order for these metrics to translate into strategic decisions on how to conduct your business (or your social media activities) in the future?

You may be able to answer these questions yourself, or you may need to consult with colleagues to do so. The key, however, is that the only way to construct a social media monitoring strategy is to know and understand your business. Even if you’ve engaged an outside consultant or service to monitor and measure social media, you’ll need to be intimately involved in the process to ensure that the strategy employed results in metrics that are relevant and actionable in your particular context.

This method of designing a social media strategy can be thought of as a reverse pyramid.

Here is a sample scenario you can use as a template to navigate this pyramid:

1. Social Media Monitoring Goals
• We want to ensure our social media presence is as active as that of our competitors.
• We want to engage with our customers in social media.
• We want to ensure product discussions about our brand include accurate information.
• We want to make product decisions based on proven customer concerns and desires.

2. Business Knowledge
• We are one of 3 top brands in Canada.
• Our competitors are company abc and company xyz and their products are gadgets and gizmos. Their spokespeople are John Smith and Jane Doe, and abc company Tweets with handle @abc_co
• Our competitors are using social media already to promote their products and interact with customers.

3. Identification of required metrics
• What percentage of the share of voice of the conversation surrounding our industry mentions our brand (products, services, company, spokespeople) vs. that of our competitors?
• What is the sentiment of the conversation mentioning our brand vs. that of our competitors?
• What is the most prevalent conversation type within mentions of our brand and that of our competitors?
• Are people discussing the same issues for our brands vs. that of our competitors?

4. Social Media Strategy
• Monitor for any mention of our brand (must include products, services, company, spokespeople)
• Monitor for any mention of our competitors (must include products, services, company, spokespeople, social media handles)
• Monitor for issues within our industry (e.g. customer satisfaction; price; ease of access, etc.)
• Use a tool which allows content to be tagged across various dimensions such as who is mentioned, what is being discussed, and sentiment of the post.

5. Outcome
As a result of implementing our social media strategy, above, we find the following:
• In conversations surrounding our industry, our company is mentioned 22% of the time. Our competitors are mentioned 35% and 43% of the time, respectively.
• Despite losing the Share of Voice race, mentions of our brand have positive sentiment 95% of the time, vs. 75% and 81% for our competitors.
• Our brand is mentioned in context of customer satisfaction more frequently than any other issue.
• Our competitor brands are mentioned most frequently in context of price.
• Out competitors have lively communities on their Facebook pages.

6. Business Decisions & Strategy
• We will dedicate 50% of one employee’s time to managing our online presence. This will include responding to customer inquiries; Tweeting timely and relevant information; and posting to a corporate blog three times per week.
• We will continue to engage with our customers online to maintain our positive perception online.
• We will promote other aspects of our products and services online but will continue to emphasize the customer satisfaction aspect of our product as it is clearly important to our customers.
• Price is important to potential customers, and so we will examine the impact of our products’ prices on our customers’ willingness to buy our products.
• Promote our Facebook page through a contest to increase our follower count by 15% by next quarter.

Where do I go from here?

Now that you’ve got a better idea of how to create a social media monitoring strategy, your next step is to identify what tool(s) you and your organization will use to meet these goals. It’s a good idea to create your strategy first, so that you can ensure that the tool you’ll ultimately select will allow you to create these metrics conveniently. If the task is too onerous, it won’t get done – so evaluate the available tools carefully, with your end goal in mind.

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