Metrics

For our last blog assignment this week we are looking at metrics.  Just what do social media metrics entail?  I found this handy list I am sharing with you below on a site called The Social Organization


Activity Metrics

• Pageviews
• Unique visitors
• Members
• Posts (ideas/threads)
• Number of groups (networks/forums)
• Comments & Trackbacks
• Tags/Ratings/Rankings
• Time spent on site
• Contributors
• Active contributors
• Word count
• Referrals
• Completed profiles
• Connections (between members)
• Ratios: Member to contributor; Posts to comments; Completed profiles to posts
• Periods: By day, week, month, year
• Frequency: of visits, posts, comments

Survey Metrics

• Satisfaction
• Affinity
• Quality and speed of issue resolution
• Referral likelihood
• Relevance of content, connections

ROI Measurements

• Marketing/Sales
  
  • Cost per number of engaged prospects (community vs. other initiatives)
  • Number of leads/period
  • Number of qualified leads/period
  • Ratio of qualified to non-qualified leads
  • Cost of lead
  • Time to qualified lead
  • Lead conversion
  • Number of pre-sales reference calls (to other customers)
  • Average new revenue per customer
  • Lifetime value of customers
• Customer Support
  • Customer satisfaction
  • Number of initiated support tickets per customer per period
  • Support cost per customer in community
• Product Development
  • Number of new product ideas
  • % of ideas from customers/prospects/community
  • Idea to development initiation cycle time
  • Revenue/Adoption rate of new products from community vs. traditional sources

• HR
  • Retention/Employee turn over
  • Time to hire
  • Prospect identification cost
  • Prospect to hire conversion rate
  • Hiring cost
  • Training cost
  • Time to acclimation for new employees

Individual Metrics (for members)  NEW

• New 'friends' after 30/60/90 days
• Number of friends met online that users have met offline
• Number of friends met online that member has subsequently collaborated with
• Number of ideas that the user has gotten and then used in their work

General Internet Tracking (outside of enterprise-sponsored communities)

• Net Promoter Score
• Meme Lifecycle
• Number of mentions (tracked via web or blog search engines)
• Positive/Negative listing ratios on major search engines

Once I had a better understanding of what metrics entailed, I searched around for some articles to help me understand what this is all about.

Folk Media had an interesting article called Social Media Marketing Metrics.  It speaks of social media marketing experts who claim that the value of social media cannot be measured.  To that statement they say "bull crap."  It points out that yes social media is "free" but for a company to do it correctly it takes an investment of time and money.  It lists some suggestions for those companies wanting to start measuring right now:

• Set up a monitoring system (their first step in measuring).  Measure what is already there.  Use Facebook's ability to see fan page hits and demographics and other similar systems.
• Decide on messaging and monitor response. What is your core business message?  They use the example of Starbucks $4.00 latte that they promote and can easily track.
• Tag team the response.  Basically by having your employees understand what is going on and the platform, they will be able to help monitor things online.
• End at the beginning.  Bookend your strategy with a monitoring system. Continue to follow through on conversations.  Tweak your messages based on click-throughs and comments.

Social Times has another good article called The Ten Social Media Metrics Your Company Should Monitor. As you may have guessed, it lists the ten metrics that it believes your company should measure.  It shows the following top three things that most companies measure:

• Visitors and sources of traffic
• Network size (followers, fans, members)
• Quantity of commentary about brand or product.

These are obviously the easy to understand metrics.  The list of ten is quite thorough and can be adapted to suit your business objectives.  As measuring social media becomes more of the norm, more complex methods, custom tools and custom reports will become necessary.  If you really want to attempt to determine your ROI on specific goals, then you are going to need to adapt to the more complex measurement methods that this article summarizes.

On the site Social Media Today, I found an article called 5 Social Media Metrics You Should Be Measuring. I liked this one a lot.  It made sense to me.  It talks about dashboards and bit.ly accounts which I knew nothing about prior to this class.  There is a social media monitoring tool that can be used to create charts to represent comments over time.  Another new word for me was Klout.  The Klout Score uses data from several of the big social media sites and measures:

• Your true reach (how many people you influence)
• Amplification (how much you influence them)
• Network score (how influential they are)

A very simple measurement that this article mentioned was sentiment.  Sentiment is whether people are saying positive, negative or indifferent things about your brand.  There are tools to measure this as well.  Although it is argued that a computer simply cannot measure irony and the like so sentiment would be impossible to measure with a tool.  

The bottom line is that there is an overwhelming number of things that you can measure.  The key to success in finding accurate metrics is going to be to align your measurement plans with your objectives.  I don't know if I personally believe that you will ever be able to accurately measure ROI.  I feel that the best thing that you will be able to take away from all of your efforts is going to be very general.  You will know if what you are doing is working and what is happening.  I just don't know if you will ever be able to be extremely precise and accurate.  Some may spend too much time and money chasing after the perfected metrics report, and some will have to accept that they are monitoring what is going on and are pretty aware of whether or not it is working.

I found a presentation on Slideshare that I liked.  Check it out here if you have a chance.  

Whole Foods Market

This week we were to follow another company and do a case study similar to the one I posted last week about Clif Bar & Company.  I decided to stay on my health food kick (perhaps to keep me in a good "healthy" mindset as the holidays are fast approaching) and have been studying Whole Foods Market.  My wife is a strict vegetarian and is all about healthy eating.  The days of driving through McDonald's or Taco Bell as a means of acquiring dinner are a part of my bachelor history.  While I have not become a vegetarian, I have changed my eating habits completely since meeting my wife, at first out of necessity (our first few dinner dates were quite interesting) then by choice.  Whole Foods Market was discovered when we took a routine trip to The Fresh Market in the Beachwood, Ohio area.  Now both stores are stops for us.  Whole Foods Market is all about high quality natural ingredients and organic foods.  I did look at both The Fresh Market and Whole Foods Market for this project, but Whole Food Market was hands down the winner as far as a successful social media marketing plan.

Whole Foods Website

Whole foods has a very easy to navigate, interactive website.  It is most definitely the core of their online presence.  The first thing I checked out was their company values which are clearly and simply laid out.  I went further into their declaration of interdependence:

"Our motto — Whole Foods, Whole People, Whole Planet — emphasizes that our vision reaches far beyond just being a food retailer. Our success in fulfilling our vision is measured by customer satisfaction, Team Member excellence and happiness, return on capital investment, improvement in the state of the environment, and local and larger community support."

The site also has an entire section dedicated to product information which explains their organic outsourcing, quality standards, food safety, product recalls and more.    They were very smart to include an extensive section on recipes where you can subscribe their their rss recipes feed and create your own recipe box to keep your favorite recipes in.  My wife had fun creating her recipe box which just goes to show that she will now visit the site again.  

My favorite part of the site was the health starts here section.  Not only are they doing an excellent job promoting their name, they are also providing useful information for the common person.  If you did not know a lot about eating healthy and organic foods, this would be a great place to start.  And because this resource is connected directly to the brand, chances are you are going to shop there.

The links to their other social media outlets are clearly accessible from any part of their site making it easy to hop over to see what else they have going on.

Whole Foods Market Blog

Whole Foods blog did not disappoint.  With Thanksgiving coming this week, of course their blog is full of holiday tidbits and recipes.  One of the things that I like the most about their blog is the way that it is written.  I am the first person to ignore something that is too "wordy" or "technical."  Its not that I don't like big words, I just don't like when they are used out of context.  Whole Foods blog entry about cooking a turkey speaks to me in a way that I appreciate.  With lines like "how long does this thing have to cook" and "my turkey caught on fire. now what?" I feel like I am listening to an old friend.  

They seem to average about two entries per day by several different contributors.  All articles are nicely categorized in the right margin.  Trust me when I say you can loose a good amount of time once you start going through the different entries.  They are all useful and some even entertaining.  I was very pleased with this portion of their media. 

Whole Foods Market Facebook

Whole Foods Facebook page has earned an impressive 752,895 likes (the last time I checked).  There is not as much personal interaction between the company and the people as I would like to see.  However, the page is wildly successful.  Different things are posted throughout the day; contests, special sales, recipes, fyi health and food articles.  The posts gain a lot of comments, but I did not see all that much interaction from Whole Foods.  Every so often they will respond to a comment, but I do feel it should be more consistent.  While really looking into their Facebook page, I discovered links to social sites that I was not at all familiar with: Gowalla, Yelp, Foursquare and SCVNGR.  What I liked the most about their Facebook site were the special side tabs like recipes, wellness club, newsletter and local loans (a loan program that they offer to small, local producers).  One could spend quite a bit of time on this page as they have done an excellent job keeping you coming back for more.  

Whole Foods Market Twitter

Whole Foods Twitter page has an even larger following than their Facebook, 2,105,422 the last I checked.  Followers are blasted with four to five posts each hour.  Most tweets are food and/or recipe related and contain a link to another twitter page specific to that particular and/or similar tweets.  The main page that I explored is just the beginning to Whole Foods Twitter presence, almost all of the individual stores as well as some of the products themselves has their own Twitter space (these links can be found on their website).  This company is by far the largest the I have explored on Twitter.  

Whole Foods Market Youtube

By this point I was not at all surprised to see the well laid out Youtube page that Whole Foods has.  They joined Youtube in 2006 and have amassed 3,563 subscribers with over 2,165,700 upload views.  I really appreciated the diversity of the videos that they offer.  I learned about one of their suppliers from California, then I watched something about pasteurization, I learned how to carve a turkey (not that I'll ever get the change to), I learned some things about gluten and more.  The Whole Foods team has put together a diverse, interesting video channel that shows so much more about the company than just delicious food.  Through this media outlet, you can really learn a lot and appreciate Whole Foods that much more.

Whole Foods Market Flickr

Something that I just could not resist checking out wasWhole Foods Flickr site.  Now I can't say that if I was not doing this research that I would have been interested in checking it out.  There are almost 10,000 pictures posted on this site.  They take you on a trip to just about every Whole Foods that there is I believe.  I was super impressed with the photos and while there are not many comments on them, the number of views is high (up to 2,500 for some) which I found to be quite surprising.  Not that I don't appreciate the photos, its just that they offer so much of an online presence already that I don't have the time to look through 541 pages of photos.  But some loyal fans clearly appreciate the site, which makes the effort worthwhile for Whole Foods.

Conclusion

It does not take much to impress me but I was truly blown away by the extensive social forces of Whole Foods Market.  I was up so late some nights on their page that my wife accused me of being overtaken by their cult.  I know that it is a larger company than some, but the backbone for a successful social media campaign that they have can be followed and reduced to fit any business plan.  It starts with organization, clarity and simplicity and these are things that we all need to thrive.  

Clif Bar & Company

This week I spent some time looking at a company called Zappos' use of social media.  I was quite impressed by what I learned.  For so many weeks here we have been focusing on all that is social media when all of a sudden I was listening to the CEO of Zappos talk about how much he dislikes the social media.  Now don't get me wrong Zappos fully utilizes different social media channels, they just prefer to be "real friends" with their customers first.  With all that I learned in mind, I set out to find a company of my own to evaluate.  I decided to follow Clif Bar & Company for the week.  I must admit, choosing a company at first seemed daunting, but then I thought about my own personal life and the things that I buy and use.  With my busy schedule I have come to depend on Clif Bars.  Clif Bar & Company is a leading maker of nutritious and organic food and drinks that help people do better in sports and lead healthy lives.  Here is a link to a good interview about the founder.

Clif Bar & Company Website


Through the Clif Bar & Co. website I learned a lot about the company.  The website itself is very well laid out and easy to navigate.  I wanted to learn more about the company values and philosophy so I first went to the "Who We Are" section.  There I was impressed to see their 5 aspirations listed:

1. Sustaining Our Planet
2. Sustaining Our Community
3. Sustaining Our People
4. Sustaining Our Business
5. Sustaining Our Brands

There is a very large personal presence on this site as they explain how the company came to be.  The company started on a bike ride when the founder Gary took a bite of an energy bar and thought to himself that he make one so much better.  The name of the company comes from his father, Clifford.    It goes on to describe how the Clif Bar itself was born in his mom's kitchen.  They were very smart to personalize things in such a way that will make customers feel more connected to them.

They have a page describing what they are doing in the community, for the environment and for food.  There are many ways that someone can become involved.  Their food philosophy is clearly explained.  I really enjoyed their website and think they did an excellent job putting it together.  There were links to follow them on Facebook, Youtube and Twitter so that is what I did.

Clif Bar & Company on Facebook

Clif Bar & Company's Facebook page has over 82,500 fans.  The first thing that I noticed was how very large and involved the page really was.  They are extremely interactive with their fans.  Just today I noticed that someone complained that they had a few "bad bars" lately and Clif Bar & Company responded almost instantly asking for his contact information.  They have their company mission clearly stated on the info page as well as a list of rules and guidelines to follow when posting on their page.  This is something that I have not seen before.    They seem to be very involved with cyclists and runners and that presence is very large on their page.  There are several video links as well that I enjoyed watching.  This was a very solid, well laid out Facebook page that clearly demonstrates the company's strong social media plan.

Clif Bar & Company on Twitter

Have I mentioned that I don't really like Twitter?  I know that it is not going anywhere anytime soon, but I just don't like the concept of it.  If I was obsessed with an actress and wanted to know her every move, I would be all about Twitter.  With that being said, Clif Bar & Company has their Twitter page on their Facebook page, something I did not know you could do.  I went through the normal Twitter site and found that they have a very large following on Twitter.  So much so that I think that I need to rethink my negative opinion of Twitter.  Throughout the week, they did not actually tweet that many things, mostly used the site to respond to others (which happened a lot).  There is a link to their blog there which is an idea that I support because you are so limited with what you can say on Twitter.  I feel that perhaps they could have tweeted more content themselves, but for the most part it was a very well maintained page which is so important in the world of social media.  With over 75,000 followers, I can imagine that they have a team assembled just to deal with Twitter.  It was clear to me that Clif Bar & Company is not using Twitter as a marketing platform as much as it is using it as a social maintenance platform which makes perfect sense to me.  I did take some time and explore their blog through the link on Twitter and can't even being to describe how well organized and complete it is.  

Clif Bar & Company on Youtube

The Youtube channel page was very informative and also very entertaining to explore.  There were videos about the environment and different project that they are involved in as well as office shenanigans that give the company a fun vibe.  I smiled a lot, which to me is a very important factor.  The page has been in existence since April of 2010 and has had over 635,000 total upload views.  I simply cannot find any fault in this page.

I will leave you with a few videos that I found very interesting and useful in understanding this company:

Twitter and Beyond

This week we focused on Twitter.  I can't say that I had an easy time with Twitter.  It seemed really confusing and hard to follow for me at first.  I had to stop and realize that Twitter is all about instant and/or time sensitive news.  If someone does not read your tweet right away, it is going to get lost in the shuffle.

Link to my Twitter page

I am following three businesses right now and have ranked them below:

Abercrombie & Kent.  This was the favorite for me for sure.  Abercrombie & Kent is a travel company that specializes in luxury vacations.  Any trip you could imagine, they can plan for you.  This obviously comes at a price, so I expected their Twitter page to be geared exclusively towards the luxury traveler.  It was in some ways, but it also kept me interested all week with tidbits of information and stories from around the world.  They were extremely consistent with their tweets and like I said the content was so varied.  They had me hooked when I saw a tweet about Egyptian temple designs where I was able to click a link to a larger article.  The page also had some very nice photography which I enjoyed.  This is a page that I will continue to visit and should I ever have the means to take such a luxury trip they will have my business for sure.

Applebee's  I work as a bartender at Applebee's so I was happy to follow their Twitter page this week.  I was somewhat impressed with their setup and content.  Veterans Day is a big day for them as all vets eat free so they spent a great deal of time this week promoting that.  There is a picture of both of the guys who are on their social media team on the page which I feel is helpful in personalizing it.  They also did a nice job of responding to others.  To me, it seemed like a good mix of personalized marketing.  When you have a food or drink establishment, I feel that Twitter can be extremely useful in getting the word out about a last minute special or an event that you have going on.  Applebee's did a good job of doing this.

Southwest Airlines  While I enjoyed some of Southwest Airlines other social media outlets, I was a bit disappointed with their Twitter page.  It was not full of the varied news and events that I enjoy on their blog.  They are great at answering other tweets but not so great about tweeting on their own.  But then again I do not know how useful Twitter is for such a large corporation.  It seems to me that Southwest may be too big of a company to really have a Twitter marketing campaign.  They may be doing the right thing just by having a Twitter presence.

Using Twitter in Social Media Marketing


Because it is so very time sensitive, businesses have to work hard at getting the full potential out of Twitter.  Tweets should happen often and be timed to be sent out at the best possible time for everyone.  I feel it is important for things to be kept as brief as possible and for links to be included for more information if desired.      Twitter is going to be a better platform for some business; however, I feel it is necessary for all businesses to participate and establish some sort of presence as not doing so could eliminate a large part of the social market.  I personally feel that the smaller, even local businesses are going to benefit more from Twitter as well as the service industry (restaurants, hotels, clubs).  If a restaurant owner decides to have a weekend special or offer a last minute happy hour special and tweets right before the end of the work day, I feel that he will see more results that the larger "corporate" companies.  Whatever the case, all tweets should be kept short and to the point.  They should begin with something that grabs your attention.  Just make sure to always remain active and pay attention to what is going on around you.

 A Couple More Social Networking Sites


You can almost find a social networking site for any niche these days.  The number of new sites and communities is growing at a rapid pace and it does not show any signs of slowing down.  I looked for a few that we have not reviewed yet.


LinkedIn:  I really like this site.  It is geared towards the professional adult.  So far they are the only platform in the world to have achieved a huge following solely focusing on professionals. It is dedicated to helping business professionals maintain a list of contact and connections.  Job opportunities are a common benefit listed for using LinkedIn.  While listening to an interview with the CEO of LinkedIn (http://cnnmon.ie/mTbBpV) I learned that that Facebook was a horizontal platform whereas LinkedIn was vertical.  A vertical business is going to cut out any unnecessary utilities and features and get right to the point.  Members of LinkedIn prefer to keep their personal lives and the professional lives separate.  I don't see the site as the type to produce a successful mass marketing campaign, however businesses and professionals can certainly market themselves and make connections that otherwise could not have been formed.  I almost see this site as marketing in a very pure form, where you simply need to exist and connect to find success.

Xanga:  Xanga is a social blogging website.  It was launched in 1999 as a way to share book and music reviews and since has grown into a top social network.  The site allows you to create your own blogs and join in other blog rings.  It gives users the best of both worlds by allowing them to create their own blog as well as follow other blogs.  This could be a great platform for the specialized small business to market from.  There seems to also be a lot of product reviews on the site, so all companies would be wise to pay attention to it.

Medical Specialty Social Network:  All sorts of specialized social networks are beginning to pop up.  Some that caught my eye the most were designed for medical professional.  These networks will enable them to talk among other professionals.  The best thing about them as far as marketing goes is that they will enable pharmaceutical and other health care companies to market directly to the proper audience.  One of the largest talked about sites I could find was called ACG GI Circle.