Measuring Social Media Success

by Mary Kate Smither, Vollmer Social Media Practice Leader

One of the most frequent questions I’ve heard throughout my career in public relations is about the tangible value of our work.  Understandably, clients want to “see” and understand their return on investment and  measurement is a major component of every campaign we develop.  As we achieve successes for clients, it is as important to us to see the value or return on what we’re doing as it is for them.  Not only does it help us prove our worth; it also helps us quickly figure out when and where campaigns might need to adjust and evolve.  Sometimes measuring  our results is easy – we can calculate print and broadcast media hits, tally the number of new reporters or influencers who have engaged with the client and even judge the impact of events we’ve coordinated through attendees, media coverage and increases in foot traffic.  As media has continued to evolve, first into the online world in general and now into the form of social media, measurement has become increasingly difficult.  It seems as though just as we mastered calculating accurate totals for online websites successes, we were tasked with figuring out the value of tweets, comments and views. 

We are interacting with each other online more and more, yet often with more personal interest and two-way conversations than ever before.  Campaigns are no longer limited simply to traditional media coverage and in-person interaction, but now more than ever before include up-to-the-minute grassroots elements of location, experiences, feelings and feedback.  Measuring these intangibles has added a new twist to understanding the success of a campaign. For example, many of Vollmer’s travel and tourism clients, including Travelocity and The Joule Hotel have created campaigns based solely on social media.  Whether voting on Facebook to send the Roaming Gnome on vacations around the country during Travelocity’s “Summer of Possibilities” program or providing scavenger hunt clues completely over Twitter in the Joule’s weekend giveaway “Golden Easter Egg Hunt”, we have measured their success through the engagement with target audiences, including increases in fans and followers, photos taken with the Gnome, comments, promotional code usage and, most of all, the addition of second phases, such as the Travelocity Roaming Gnome’s “Cure Cabin Fever” winter tour.  In addition, Vollmer’s client, Texas Tourism, recently launched its “Be Our Texas Lone Star” Facebook contest (http://www.beourtexaslonestar.com/), which will award a customized Texas trip to one lucky winner based on one of five “Lone Star” types – beach, Western, sports, adventure and food.  As part of the campaign, the winner  will issue social media posts throughout their Texas experience.

While measuring pure social media campaigns like these may be more challenging, we have effectively shown our clients that these campaigns indeed do provide ROI and do have value.  While tools like Radian 6 and Cision exist to measure social media, we have created our own guidelines for clients who prefer that we do campaign measurement in house by building upon our existing Vollmer Measurement Model to create one that fits social media.  As with a traditional media campaign, our overall goal with any social media campaign we develop is to achieve success for our client’s objectives, and customized measurement specific to those objectives.

Social Media in 2010: Getting a Glimpse into What's Next

by Mary Kate Smither, Vollmer Public Relations Dallas

Over the last year, social media has proven its sticking power, demonstrating amazing growth for sites like Twitter and Facebook with Twitter alone achieving 21 million unique monthly visitors this June, a 1,928 percent year-over-year increase according to Nielsen . Most everyone has jumped on the bandwagon in one way or another; whether they're updating  friends through Facebook, tweeting away about the day's activities, sharing videos through YouTube or Digging stories that they find interesting.  Businesses too have recognized the value of social media, using it to promote events, announce products, provide customer service and raise awareness and connect with and educate consumers and media about their services and products.  The past year has truly created a boom of excitement and a new method for meaningful conversations and engagement as the world of social media has expanded beyond the experts into everyday activity for the mainstream population.

Now it's time to take a look into the crystal ball and see where we might be headed with social media in 2010.  The past year has provided some great indicators of what might be next as we've experienced improvements and changes on now mainstream platforms like Facebook and Twitter.  The great wide open space that is social media has begun to narrow as Twitter now offers the ability to create and categorize follower lists.  Likewise, Facebook recently altered its format to help us all wade through our news feeds by prioritizing friends' updates.  The good news for all of us as individuals is that we still have control over how much we see, when and where while being able to sort through the clutter that we don't need.  The even better news for the business world is that by offering this more narrow focus, brands now have the ability to utilize their marketing dollars more effectively than ever by honing in on their exact target audiences or grouping various audiences together for specific messaging.

On the flip side, with the increased use of social media by businesses, PR agencies will be further challenged in 2010 to show clients the value of their social media investments. Professional services such as Cision and Radian6 have added social media monitoring to their offerings.  Likewise, agencies have begun to develop ROI calculators to demonstrate to clients the importance of social media campaigns, Vollmer included.  We've looked at the different ways that we measure media for clients, ranging from interviews secured, relationships developed and the reach of media coverage, to evaluate the ways in which we might also measure our social media campaigns and develop a process for doing so.  Just like the multiple platforms that continue to grow and develop, so will our social media measurement model continue to evolve with the needs of our clients.  While we can see exactly what the future holds, we can know that no matter what it will be an exciting time filled with challenges and new opportunities.

To find out more about more about Vollmer's social media measurement or how to put social media into action for your brand in 2010, contact me at marykate@vollmerpr.com, 972-488-4790 or on Twitter @mksmither.

Many Happy Returns: How Companies Measure Their Social Media

by Mauren Kunz, Vollmer Public Relations

So you’ve decided to venture into the social media realm, but how do you know if it’s making a difference and reaching your audience? We talked to some companies leading the way in social media to find out how their outreach through up-and-coming avenues is making an impact in a real way – the bottom line.

The General Motors family of brands was among the first to adopt social media when it launched its FastLane blog in January 2005. GM now utilizes a series of blogs, along with Twitter, Facebook and other tools, to spread its good news and educate its audiences, even throughout the bankruptcy process.

Rather than assigning social media aspects a numerical value for measurement, GM takes a different approach – measuring quality over quantity. That includes anything from first-class conversations to comments from people that say their outlook on the company was changed by a GM social media intervention. GM also utilizes a paid program to track page views and clicks on the various GM blogs, and even piloted a software program that measures the tone of GM-related blog posts to identify which are most influential.

“The piloted software streamlined the process of responding to posts, which we try to do on a regular basis,” says Adam Denison, assistant manager, Chevrolet Communications. “That allowed us the opportunity to be involved in the dialogue from the beginning. When it comes to measurement, we look more at how the conversation is changing as a result of our efforts, and we see it working.”

Southwest Airlines, another social media veteran, first jumped onto Twitter in June 2007, shortly after the 140-character site launched. Known for its non-traditional attitude to flying, the low-fare air carrier uses a combination approach to measure its outreach efforts on Twitter, Facebook and YouTube.

“We measure many of our social media channels similarly to how we measure PR,” says Christi Day, emerging media specialist, Southwest Airlines. “There are a ton of free tools that can help us gauge followers on all three outlets, but we also subscribe to paid analytical tools that help capture the entirety of the conversation.”

A combination approach seems to be working for the company, which now boasts more than 115,000 Twitter followers, more than three times the number it had on June 1, 2009.

“We’ve found that the best way to measure is to be in the tools every day, using them to build relationships with the audience,” says Day.

No matter what your company values, there are tools to measure your outreach efforts and ensure you’re contributing to the bottom line. Turn to the experts at Vollmer, and let us help you determine what makes the most sense for your business!