Business Metrics

Hard Metrics vs Soft Metrics

posted by Laurenc on May 7th, 2009

Business Metrics: Hard Metrics vs Soft Metrics

Marketing Prof’s recently posted an article from Ardath Albee discusses an ongoing debate between “Hard” and “Soft” marketing proponents on the best way to measure ROI.

The Hard Marketing Camp, she says, “wants to tie everything to sales metrics saying anything that doesn’t result in a revenue measurement doesn’t count.”
The Soft Marketing Camp, on the other hand, “is focused on initiatives that drive engagement, conversations, interactions, awareness and brand.”

Albee argues that you need both. “In [any sale] you can’t get to revenue without Soft Camp initiatives,” she says. “In fact, the more ’social’ marketing becomes, the higher a degree of Soft will be needed to generate Hard results.”

The trick is using hard evidence to demonstrate its importance. “With marketing measurement becoming more sophisticated,” she continues, “imagine the ability for marketers to know the factors that cause buyers in specific segments to become sales ready.” She envisions, for example, the ability to show that Persona A has a 70% probability of making a purchase if their history includes these actions:

Downloading a whitepaper.
Engaging in three personal interactions—for instance, a comment left at a blog or a Twitter exchange.
Opting into an email program, and having a click-through rate of 60% or more.
Viewing an on-demand video for their vertical.

“What [marketers] ultimately [need] are progressive metrics that help them prove Soft initiatives drive Hard results,” says Albee. “That’s what creates solid ROI.”

Source: Marketing Interactions. Click here for the full post.

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FireFox Social Media Metrics Plugin Script

posted by Jeanannv on April 20th, 2009

There are so many reasons why I love FireFox, one of which is the seemingly endless number of ways I can customize it to fit my needs. True, I often find myself completely overloading it with a variety of gadgets, which slows the browser’s functionality down to a snail’s pace. I then go in and remove a few, then I am right back on track.

One of my most recent finds is the Social Media Metrics script that can be added via the Grease Monkey application. This script essentially turns Google Analytics into a social media measuring machine. Though the measurement capabilities are somewhat limited, it really can’t be beat for ease of use and efficiency.

Here’s a screenshot of how it works…by going to the content section, and clicking on the page you want to view, you are able to see the detailed information about that page.

Below the tradtional Google Analytics info is the social media metrics plugin. Essentially, it measures major social bookmarking sites, plus backlinks via Yahoo.

Now, before you complain that this is not enough information, remember that it is a whole lot more information than you had before…and while it is not the answer to life on the planet, it is a nice way to quickly scan for reader response to your posts.

I was happy to find this Firefox plugin. I love the idea of being able to do a quick check to see how my readership responded to a post. I will definitely be using this in the future.

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Online Market Research: Competitor Analysis

posted by Jeanannv on March 26th, 2009

Online market research can take many forms and use a variety of tools. Part of the purpose is to see if there is an existing customer base for your product…which makes sense as 1) there are fewer wholly new products, most are similar or relateable to something that already exists and 2) products or services that are completely new can be hard to sell as a market will have to be created. And, even if you have a “no one has ever seen anything like it” product, you still have to identify a pool of likely customers. One of the most important steps in doing so is the competitor analysis.

When you are researching companies with an online presence, there are specific sites that can help you gather the data you need. I have a list of four that I use regularly, but there are certainly more out there.

Quantcast: Without a doubt, I always start here. If a company is large enough or is “quantified” (which means they have added a tracking code to their site) Quantcast will have completed the market research for you. They will have demographic and traffic information, common search results, customer affinities for other products and lifestyle information. This site is a goldmine.
Spyfu: This site is great for identifying keywords used for competitors and establishing if those are paid or organic keywords, as well as their advertising spending trends. And it identifies top organic and paid competitors of that site, as well as subdomains and parent companies.
Compete: I like Compete for it’s comparative abilities. By entering up to three domains, you can track traffic patterns for those sites. Like Quantcast, it also has information about referring sites, and search terms…the bonus is that you can compare up to three sites at a time.
Who’s Talkin’: This social media search engine will identify web chatter and brand visibility for competitors. It can also help you spot new or emerging businesses or trends that are applicable to your product or service. This search is critical if part of your marketing efforts will occur in social spaces. And, it is good to know what conversation is occurring around the web. These conversations can identify trends long before they hit the news or standard search engines like Google.

The information on these sites can have varying degrees of accuracy, rather than focusing on exact numbers, look for trends. And generally, sites with a higher traffic count that are well established will have more information. But by combining information from all three, you will be able to create an overall profile of your competitors. This is a critical step in the development of a business plan or in market research for a new product or site. Understanding your market is critical to the success of your business, so take a bit of time to find this deeper level of information.

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Social Media Metrics: The Struggle Continues, Part III

posted by Jeanannv on March 12th, 2009

This is the third and final installment of the social media metrics series. We started by talking about existing challenges that make quantifying social media data an ongoing struggle. Yesterday, we talked about a variety of platforms that can be used to cobble together a methodology for measurement. Today, I want to spend a bit of time talking about what to do with the glut of information you are likely to gather as you start using all of those sites.

There are two levels of information available. Basic user numbers, demographics, % of increase in followers, one way mentions of a product or service, all of these will help you develop a sense of the effectiveness of your messaging and the potential for your product. Connecting these numbers to actual engagement and spending creates a deeper level of information. Monitoring and analyzing them both will create a broader picture of campaign effectiveness and outcomes.

I like to use the basic level of information to for:

general brand likeability/visibility
basic market research for a new product
monitoring web chatter
identifying influencers and niche audiences

The deeper level of information helps me determine:

the effectiveness of campaign strategies
brand loyalty
ongoing product/service updates, test marketing
relationship mapping, potential evangelists, community support
the likes and dislikes of my customer base or target market

The critical issue here is to remember that the information needs to be analyzed and used to hone the strategy. Clearly, the basic level of information is much easier to assess on a real-time basis. But both can be synthesized to create a strong picture of spheres of influence, market response and overall sentiment.

Building this methodology will take time and patience…and more time and patience. Then, when you have it in place, you will find 18 new tools that will make it easier, more effective, and on and on. If you start with the understanding that a) this is a moving target and b) this is a new field, it may stave off some of the inherent frustration. Can’t say I’ve been too successful on that front…

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Social Media Metrics: The Struggle Continues, Part II

posted by Jeanannv on March 11th, 2009

Yesterday, we started the discussion of social media metrics and the imperfect nature of gathering data and assigning it value. Today,we will take a look at creating a system that will help you more effectively collect relevant information. Tomorrow, we will discuss more about analysis and interpretation.

Since there is no one perfect information gathering system (yet), I have created a hack that allows me to get the most of what’s available. It involves using several types of platforms together to gain the greatest understanding.

Here’s a list of the types of data measuring/information gathering tools I use:

Alerts: Yes, the standard Google-type alert system. Today, most social media sites offer an RSS feed that can be used to track all kinds of information. These alerts aren’t as real time as others, but often catch conversations that other systems miss. They are particularly helpful for tracking name or brand mentions.
Pipes: I have talked about my love for Yahoo Pipes as an information aggregator. It is also a great source of information tracking. It is like a “meta alert” in that you can create a giant search and filter process that will scour multiple sources, kick out the unwanted, and provide it all to you in a feed. You can even place it right on your igoogle desktop.
Social Search Engines: There are several search engines that offer results based on trending topics. This is a good place to go to check your level of visibility for certain keywords. I have written about OneRiot and its potential for brand research.
Social Media Conversation Measuring Sites: There are a ton of these tools. Some are specific to a certain type of social media (Technorati Blog Search), others are more broad (Who’s Talkin’, Social Mention). There are also a number of paid sites (Radian6) that have multiple features combined in one platform.
Site Specific Metrics: Many social media tools have their own measurements and demographic information that is available for the user. Also, keeping track of followers, conversations, group membership is all helpful in measuring effectiveness.
Traffic/Demographic Metrics; We have all heard of Google Analytics…which is still a great tool…but there are other sites that take it a step further. Quantcast is my favorite of these. For high traffic sites and sites that install its tracking code, it assesses the demographics and offers market segmentation and profile creation.
Miscellaneous: Sites like Compete.com, Spyfu.com and Alexa can also be helpful. But, the accuracy of the information is not so great for sites that don’t receive a lot of information. I use these as supplemental support, not as the foundation of my measurement efforts.

This is my list of places I am likely to visit in order to cobble together data. Tomorrow, we will talk about what to do with all of it once it is gathered.

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Social Media Metrics: The Struggle Continues

posted by Jeanannv on March 10th, 2009

I have written about several social media metrics packages that do a decent job of capturing conversations. And I have tested maybe ten or so additional and know there are still more out there I have yet to explore. All of which has led me to the conclusion that a single stop solution for data mining, conversation monitoring, influencer identification and visibility monitoring just doesn’t exist…yet.

There are a couple of things that make tracking and quantifying social media campaigns a challenge. And it may be that until those factors change, the measurements will continue to be imperfect.

We don’t know what “success” means. We know that online marketing increases brand awareness and brings in new customers, but it isn’t a typical ROI marketing model. How do we quantify success and set benchmarks that are realistic and effective? Social Media Marketers are still creating common definitions and acceptable standards for our burgeoning profession.
Search engines and HTML: Search engines and coding language are not social media monitoring friendly. Computers read web pages differently than humans. The relationships they identify are based on repetitive language, coding and web page connectedness. In order to effectively measure web 2.0 interactions, we also need to look at complex relationships, context, and influence.
Volume of information: In order to measure the information, it has to be gathered. With more and more user generated content being produced and published, the task of finding this information becomes more challenging. And, if we are already working with an imperfect search function and an inability to measure more complex factors, a glut of information certainly won’t make it better.

I have no doubt that there are other issues that affect our ability to quantify our impact. But just these three make it a formidable task. Still, we must set benchmarks and attempt to measure our marketing campaigns with as much accuracy as possible. Tomorrow’s post will contain a work around that offer a social media measurement workaround that I use to try and capture as much accurate information as possible.

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How to Set Benchmarks for Online Marketing, Part II

posted by Jeanannv on March 4th, 2009

Yesterday, we started discussing the use of benchmarks in an online marketing campaign. We’ve already established that benchmarks serve a different function with this marketing channel. But how do we build goals that are reasonable and effective?

There are several factors that can be measured and used to direct interaction. Remember that social media marketing efforts take time to build results. Relationships don’t happen over night.

There are also millions of people generating content and interaction, just as you are. Your message has to rise to the top in order to be noticed. Quality, consistency, connectivity and longevity are your best tools in social media marketing. Depending upon the amount of time and money, and number of staff, it is likely to take a good six months to solidly establish your presence.

Start by taking a look at response rates. This can be in the form of click-throughs, site traffic,and comments. This is a fairly traditional way of quantifying effectiveness. The difference here is in connecting this to online marketing tactics in real time in order to inform future behavior. Over time, these responses will help hone your interaction and content in a way that is most appealing to your target market.

Creating benchmarks around referral sources can help you narrow down the choices in the sea of social media sites. In order to set this type of goal, you must have completed the preliminary research in order to identify sites that appeal to your target audience. This type of benchmark can be tied to basic numbers (ie, % of increase in followers, comments, traffic) or conversions (50% of consumers referred from this source will purchase services).

Tracking followers is a very simple, but very effective, benchmark for success of both a tactic and an overall campaign. Additionally, this measure is a good indicator of the consumers interest in your companies online persona.

At some stage in an online marketing campaign, the balance of interaction should shift from wholly business initiated to partially consumer initiated. The speed and effectiveness of this process is a good indicator of buy in from your community. This is another benchmark that is very helpful in directing content and engagement efforts. Connect this benchmark in a real time feedback loop to your daily marketing activities.

Create expectations about the level of social media chatter around your products, services and keywords. In addition to measuring general buzz, also watch for positive (and negative) reviews. Set reasonable goals to monitor chatter that connects your targeted keywords to your site. Also watch for an increase in popularity around specific platforms (ie how much chatter is developing around that MySpace group you developed?).

Monitoring search engine rankings and backlinks is still a viable measurement for online marketing campaigns. As you build community, searches, backlinks and traffic should all increase. But remember, this won’t happen overnight. Set your expectations according to social media marketing, not search engine optimization. Increasing your ranking or backlinks in a much more organic process…but also tends to lead to stickier traffic.

This is likely an incomplete list of possibilities for creating benchmarks, but it is a good start. Try just building out a couple of goals and using those to measure and direct your tactics. As a business person, your time equals money. Use benchmarks to optimize your time spent online.

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How to Set Benchmarks for Online Marketing, Part I

posted by Jeanannv on March 3rd, 2009

Setting benchmarks for an online marketing campaign is just as important as for any other marketing effort. But just because the word “marketing” is in the title, don’t think that they should be set according to standard ROI measures.

The fluidity of interactive marketing demands that any measurement strategy be flexible and informative. It must also provide real time value as part of a feedback loop that continuously adapts to the environment.

It is important to understand how benchmarks function in the world of social media before you start creating. Benchmarks serve to:

Create reasonable expectations: Quantifying the benefit of an online campaign is very different than standard measurements for traditional marketing. This is not about dollars invested and numbers converted. By creating reasonable expectations, you are helping your clients shift their marketing paradigm to one that is compatible with social media strategies.

Guides strategy: Because conversations and online engagement is an ever-changing process, it is helpful to start with some guidelines. This will help you spend less time in the black hole of social media and more time implementing campaign strategy.

Builds feedback loop: Benchmarks are used in real time to evaluate the effectiveness of your efforts. As you engage and drill down to specific niche communities, you will likely find your benchmarks need to be adjusted. This creates a feedback loop of action, measurement, adjustment of action. Social media marketing strategies and measurements are fluid and constantly evolving.

Measures effectiveness: How effective is your campaign? The most traditional use of benchmarks is in measuring the effectiveness of your efforts. And despite the fact that this is an evolving process, benchmarks can, and should, still be used to gauge success.

Tomorrow, we will create a couple of benchmarks and take a look at their use in a campaign.

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Marketing Metrics: Site Traffic and Geographic Targeting

posted by Jeanannv on February 11th, 2009

Previously, I posted about Quantcast and its benefit for market research. But this platform is so packed with possibilities, I expect I will do at least a couple of posts further explaining its use. Today’s focus is on its value for measuring site traffic.

First, let me make mention of something that you need to know in order for these numbers to be accurate. If you do not sign up as a Quantcast Publisher, your results will all be estimates. And, it will take a few weeks after signing up for Quantcast to interpret market segmentation.

In the mean time, it is a great breakdown of information about your site traffic. Here’s the first few days of traffic for a new site. Here the charts show 452 US visitors and 584 global visitors. Charts located on the right side of the page indicate site and network frequency. And what we can see here is that there are a lot of new visitors to the site. In this case, it is an indication of site growth. In six months, it would be good to see the “regulars” number increase…showing that some of that traffic is sticking around.

The lower half of the page is traffic predictions. They take the ten days and extrapolate to 30, resulting in some interesting numbers.

Now, I’ll admit, I don’t know the formula that they use to create these projections, but it seems a bit low. Still, that is entirely possible…and most definitely within the range of cautious optimism.

Below this, there is a comparison to prior period chart. This will be a very handy tool when more of the data has been collected. Right now, there a month’s worth of solid numbers to serve as comparison points.

I include this here because I like looking at this information all in the same location. I particularly like the US/Global comparison. And, I can click on the Geographic tab at the top of the page for more specific information about what city, state, and country are directing differing levels of traffic. Again, once this feature is fully populated, the content will be more specific.

Why would I be so excited about this information? Because it is the critical knowledge that allows you to determine if you are attracting your market segments. Let’s say you are a shoe store in Minnesota…if all of your site traffic is from Texas, then you’d better have a strong online sales force…otherwise, the locals will never know you are there.

Measuring the impact of your efforts is a critical component of a successful online marketing strategy. Knowing the demographics of visitors to your site will help you assess and respond flexibly to real time market shifts.

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What Marketers Have Gained from Using Twitter

posted by Laurenc on February 4th, 2009

Business Metrics: What Marketers Have Gained from Using Twitter

Twitter has been called one of the most “open, flexible and dynamic communication system ever invented.” With it’s ease of use, and simple messaging, it is a tool that has the ability to create meaningful relationships online. It also can have it’s limitations, but if you know how to use the tool properly, you can achieve great success. Mr Tweet, a twitter personality who helps you easily build meaningful relationships by looking through your network and tweets, recently sent out a poll asking what value marketers were gaining by using Twitter. For all of those who do not believe that Twitter can be a valuable tool in brand awareness & growth, you may be a little surprised at the findings below.

1.) Twitter helps marketers understand the social circles in our industry

Mr Tweet explains: “Tim O’Reilly is well networked, generous with information sharing, and most importantly, he is on Twitter 24/7. As such, his Twitter stream was a valuable source of industry information. By using the “Show Conversations” his followers can clearly see what he and his colleagues are discussing, what they are concerned about, etc, and as a result, they can begin to understand at a much better level the type of people and conversations happening in his social circles, which is a highly valuable networking resource.”

2.) Twitter Helps Build Valuable Business Relationships

Mr Tweet explains: “I first discovered @Shayang when we were analyzing Twitter data sets. Looking at his bio, I realized he was the founder of Zoosk, one of the largest dating social networking sites around with 11 million users. Since I had been a big fan of Zoosk (I featured Zoosk quite a bit in my slideshow about discovery), I connected to him on Twitter using the @reply and went for coffee in San Francisco. Now I chat with him regularly for advice on starting up, catering to users, life in SF etc. And of course, I keep track of all his adventures on Twitter too, including chasing robbers, winning awards and erm, persian dolls.” This is a valuable business relationship that would not have come to fruition without using Twitter.

3) Uncover Opportunities for Online Collaboration

Twitter can also be a great resource for finding partners for online collaboration. “While the eventual outcome of the collaborations are no different from typical business collaborations, the reason why these relationships happened is a enormous testament to the power of Twitter in initializing relationships…The open-ness of twitter allowed us to discover them simply because they were talking about us, and the medium allowed us to understand them even before connecting, and then of course touch base easily. There is just no other platform where you would be able to do the same,” writes Mr Tweeet.

The key to using Twitter to produce these kind of results, is understanding the right way to use Twitter for your business. No two strategies are the same, because no two people converse the same way. Twitter is a conversation…Remember that. You cannot become successful in this medium without understanding that simple fact. Stay tuned for more tips n how to use Twitter to build and grow your brand, and check me out on Twitter: @LaurenCandito

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