Lots of talk, less measurement and even less meaning

The Buzz Bin has launched "the Measurement Meme." to promote further discussion of Social Media Measurement. It's an interesting discussion but sadly short of actual case studies of where and how people have used social media measurement to make better decisions. Because isn't that really what it's all about --making better decisions? With the plethora of social media options, communicators today need tools that help them decide what's working and what's not working and where they should put their resources. When we ask our audiences who is monitoring social media, most will raise their hands. But when you push people to find out what they're doing with the data they collect, most don't have a good answer. They read the reports, or the blog postings, and panic when they see something negative. But that's not measurement, that's monitoring.

Measurement means looking at cross tabs, diving into data, and coming to actionable conclusions. That's what Epson does. If you were lucky enough to be at her presentation at the Conference Board last week, you would have heard how Denise Offut has used consumer generated media to listen to Epson's customers for over a decade. They've heard about problems, solved them, and over the years continuously modified their measurement program to tease out the information they need to make better decisions. That's good social media measurement. Look for the full case study in The Measurement Standard.

Comments

[Tom O'Brien]

Hi KD:

Here's a measurement case study - with a link to sales:

Online Promoter Score

TO'B

[Jeffrey Catlin]

One of the more "spot on" and succinct posts I've seen on the subject. The goal is to understand what the posts mean, not just what they say.

[Geoff Livingston]

Thanks for adding Epson to the case study portion of the discussion. And doing more than just complaining, but actually providing an example to look towards. So many folks just kvetch, rare is the blogger who follows through with a solution.