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Richard Stacy has written a great post about how all the people wringing their hands about Social Media Measurement are looking at the wrong thing.
I would take it one step further and argue that all of marketing is looking at the wrong things.
Every morning, I grab a free copy of The Berlin Daily Sun from the kiosk in front of our building. I read it for the local news and gossip and real estate transactions, and its great. But every day I have to dig thru a foot-deep layer of flyers and coupons to get to the actual paper. Clearly I am not alone in ignoring those flyers and coupons. It looks like most of the folks that get the paper from this kiosk grab the paper and leave the coupons behind. But somewhere out there there's a marketer who has been sold on the notion that his insert into the Berlin Daily Sun "reaches" all the eyeballs in Berlin, when in fact, the only eyeballs his/her ad is reaching are those of the mice in the recycling bin.
I sat in on a discussion of the value of "coupons" which are clearly a step up from flyers because you can actually count the number of people that redeem them. But somewhere along the line haven't we missed the point. It's not about reaching eyeballs, or even about reaching people who redeem coupons, or for that matter respond to coupons delivered via a cell phone.
Isn't it about driving sales/revenue/business/donations or what ever you are trying to achieve IN THE MOST COST EFFECTIVE WAY POSSIBLE. What does it cost to drive sales via coupons vs text messages vs banner ads. If it costs you $100 to get that one person in your store via a coupon, and $.15 via a text message or $.001 via Twitter, where are you going to invest in in the future?
Isn't it about time that we looked not at the "CPM" -- or the cost to REACH a thousand people, but at the cost per sale or cost per engagement? It's all fine and dandy to wish for the "ROI" Holy Grail, but come on folks, isn't it really about delivering better, more cost-effective programs. I'll go out on a limb and suggest that you should be commparing the ROI for your various programs not based on how many eyeballs you reached but on sales, engagement and how many relatioships you improved.
Katie Delahaye Paine, CEO, KDPaine & Partners
Customized Research from KDPaine & Partners
- KDPaine & Partners offers customized research and consulting services for public relations and social media programs. KDPaine & Partners provides its clients with the insight and knowledge they need to measure the effectiveness of their communications efforts, and to help them make better, more informed decisions for their organizations. We can help you with your existing program, and we can help you develop a new program. We have over two decades of experience helping clients define Key Performance Indicators (KPI's) and establish measureable goals. Half-day and full-day workshops available. Click here for more information on KDPaine & Partners' services.
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My favorite blogs
- Client Service Insights...(CSI/Season 2)
- Does It Sell Stuff?
- Measurement Matters - Get the buzz on social media and PR measurement and analysis from Metrica
- Sure Woman
- RepMan
- Onalytica Blog
- cgm
- Run Free or Die
- The Diva Marketing Blog - Marketing and Corporate blogging for innovative companies
- The Marketing Excellence blog by Eric Kintz
- Guest Columnist: Losing an Arm vs. Losing a Pinkie.
- /Message: The Social Scale of Social Media: The Conversational Index
- New Communications Review
- Marketing Roadmaps: PR Measurement
- POP! PR Jots: A Day of Acquisitions
- Some Damn Good Life Experience(through the eyes of Stephanie): "Adventure is the pursuit of life." -D.R. Wiarda
- David Hendersons guide to media
- Lubetkin's Other Blog
- Marketing Roadmaps: PR Measurement
- Holmes Report Blog
- Communication Overtones
- PR Evaluation: Reality or Pipe Dream?
- Mike Paul's Blog, The Reputation Doctor
- a shel of my former self
- gapingvoid: fred wilson is a genius
- Kristin Zhivago's Revenue Journal
- Doc Searls' IT Garage | News, ideas and real world stories about how IT folks solve their own problems
- Andrew Lark
How to introduce me
- For those who bear the burden of introducing me at a conference...Katie Delahaye Paine (twitter: KDPaine) is the CEO and founder of KDPaine & Partners LLC and author of, Measuring Public Relationships, the data-driven communicators guide to measuring success. She also writes the first blog and the first newsletters dedicated entirely to measurement and accountability. In the last two decades, she and her firm have listened to millions of conversations, analyzed thousands of articles, and asked hundreds of question in order to help her clients better understand their relationships with their constituencies. People talk, we listen..
Best sources for more measurement info
- Measuring Up
- PR Evaluation � intelligent measurement
- InPeRspective
- Proving the Value of Public Relations
- BusinessBloggingBootCamp: So, How Do You GET All that Blog-ROI?
- The Measurement Standard, KDPaine & Partners' Newsletter of Public Relations Measurement
- Intelligent Measurement
- LeverWealth
- My podcast at the New Communications Forum
- Institute for Public Relations
- DIY DASHBOARD HOME
- KDPaine & Partners
- The Measurement Standard, KDPaine & Partners' Newsletter of Public Relations Measurement
Favorite reads
Penelope Rowlands: A Dash of Daring: Carmel Snow and Her Life In Fashion, Art, and Letters
- Katie Delahaye Paine: Measuring Relationships, the Data Driven Communicators Guide to Success
- David Moore: How to Steal an Election
Mark Albion: True to Yourself: Leading a Values-Based Business (Social Venture Network)
- Christopher Locke, Doc Searls, Rick Levine, David Weinberger: The Cluetrain Manifesto
- Carolyn McIntyre: Caring Today Magazine
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Measuring the Networked Nonprofit
- The new book by Beth Kanter and Katie Paine teaches nonprofits of all sizes how to use, value, and evaluate the effectiveness of social media. You'll find reviews and news on this page. See this page for a calendar of appearances by the authors. Click below to purchase the book.
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April 09, 2009
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Measure What Matters
- “A tremendously good book… it’s a treasure... An absolute doozy of a read.”
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Katie Delahaye Paine's great little book Measure What Matters shows organizations of all sizes how to evaluate and improve their public relations and social media efforts. Order Measure What Matters now.
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Posted by: Amie20Garrison | January 30, 2012 at 07:24 PM
Exactly. Build people and people will build your business. A quality product combined with social media marketing is a perfect attraction marketing strategy to establish your presence in a number of different places on the Web and reach potential customers anywhere in the world. Just imagine the social media profits you can have in being able to recruit people from different places.
Posted by: Authority Networker | May 11, 2009 at 06:23 PM
Couldn't agree more, Katie. Great post!
Posted by: melissa | April 11, 2009 at 11:31 PM
I recently came across your blog and have been reading along. I thought I would leave my first comment. I don't know what to say except that I have enjoyed reading. Nice blog. I will keep visiting this blog very often.
Ann
http://racingonlinegames.net
Posted by: Ann | April 11, 2009 at 04:17 AM
I agree to point.. I think the data that is used to determine that CA (Customer Acquisition) cost could be fruitful in determining reputation as well.. lower CA would be better reputation score compared to higher one for a competing brand..
anyways just a thought..
Posted by: blendahtom | April 09, 2009 at 01:21 PM
So Steve, how does the cost per customer acquisition compare to other tactics?
and Tom, it's the holy grail for marketers, but may not help your reputation.
Posted by: KDPaine | April 09, 2009 at 11:43 AM
The Jewish Community Voice of Southern New Jersey (www.jewishvoicesnj.org) is experimenting with online coupons. Print them and take them to the store. Saves paper for those who don't want them, and offers added value to advertisers. Also allows people to keep the paper intact (they like to save and share the content, not cut holes in it.)
Posted by: Steve "PodcastSteve" Lubetkin | April 09, 2009 at 11:15 AM
Amen Sista!.. Cost of Customer Acquisition is the Holy Grail!
Posted by: blendahtom | April 09, 2009 at 11:03 AM