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Community management under the bonnet: 23 things « Innovation Cl. Online communities have been around for as long as the internet itself, but the path technology has travelled in the last decade means the options for what you can offer and what you can do with them today have exploded. Despite this, they’re still viewed as a bolt-on or feature of a brand’s web presence. This has led to what’s been termed as the “iceberg effect of community management”. Image courtsesy of Rita Willaert, Greenland, 10th September 2005 on Flickr The full-spectrum of web and social media tools is now being vacuumed up into and integrated with communities: so beyond forums and chat, we now have blogs, RSS, aggregation, email, polls, Q&A, photos, video, audio, virtual worlds, groups, ratings, attachments, events, microblogging, profiles, focus groups, networking, widgets and wikis, to list only the most obvious… These tools protrude the ocean’s surface, along with the reams of content created by community members.

Image courtesy of The Brain Toad on Flickr 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. Social Network Statistics | Brian Solis - PR 2.0. InShare0 Source: Shutterstock Social Networks are among the most powerful examples of socialized media. They create a dynamic ecosystem that incubates and nurtures relationships between people and the content they create and share. As these communities permeate and reshape our lifestyle and how we communicate with one another, we’re involuntarily forcing advertisers and marketers to rapidly evolve how they vie for our attention. Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, Yelp, and other online communities transformed the regimen and practice of marketing “at” people into an opportunity to engage and interact with us – on our terms. But, the people who define each network are reticent to the hollow attempts of faceless friending and in-network marketing. As marketers, it’s your responsibility to peel back the layers of each network to observe and eventually interact with the very people you wish to reach.

So, how will you use this information to engage more effectively and genuinely? Age Household Income. More Truth About Twitter. In-Depth Look Inside the Twitter World. Turn Social Intelligence Into Smart Crisis Prevention Find out how to prevent a social media crisis and protect your brand's reputation with your most powerful PR tool: social intelligence. How to Get Social Media Influencers Talking About Your Brand 6 tips to help you identify and build strong relationships with social influencers.

How to Track Social Media Buzz Are you looking for buzz in all the wrong places? Read how to set the right goals and then meet them. 8 Ways to Build Your Brand with Social Media Quick tips for using social media to strengthen your company's brand. 6 Best Practices For Influencer Marketing Getting the right people excited and talking about an organization's products or services has always been one of the best ways to improve brand recognition, expand customer base, and ultimately drive more sales. 5 Tips For Setting Measurable Social Media Goals Too many companies dismiss their social efforts as a failure, simply because they don't know what success looks like. The Twitalyzer for Tracking Influence and Measuring Success in T. The Importance of Active Community Management - Proved With Real. I think most community experts would agree that active community management and ongoing strategy are vital to a community’s health.

However, I don’t know if anyone has been able to fully quantify the impact using actual community metrics. Until now – when I decided to analyze some of the 2008 data for my former community during the period of active management and the period of passive management. I was the community manager for a professional community from January 2007 through July 2008. During that time, the community grew from zero to 4,000 members. We were rigorous with the tracking of metrics and updated community analytics weekly through a combination of our platform reports and Google Analytics. During the time of my involvement, active community management and consisted of: It’s interesting to discover that a neglected community will indeed continue to function without a dedicated community manager. Google Analytics - 1/1/2008 to 12/31/2008 So what does this mean? Like this: Tools and Metrics You Need to Measure and Monitor Social Media S. If you want to be able to track the success of a social media campaign (and for that matter any online marketing campaign) you have to benchmark and measure against something.

If you want to start a social media campaign tomorrow then you need to make sure you have the tools and metrics to measure, today. You can’t just use a tool that gives you a snapshot of your overall social media presence, you need something with numbers that you can compare and benchmark against. This is what corporations and executives are looking for. Keep in mind that there plenty of other things to measure that don’t have a specific quantifiable number, however the focus of this post is just on quantifiable metrics and the tools to measure those metrics.

First thing’s first, outline all of your goals and expectations and make sure you understand them. Once you have that down you can open up an excel spreadsheet and start benchmarking. The Tool Google Analytics This is an absolute must. What you should measure. Value Based Management.