Social Media Metrics: 4 That Matter, and 3 That Are Dangerously Distracting

OK, now, if you have any interest in social media metrics, here's a post you have to read. Over at {grow}, Shrinivas Rao has written “The Three Most Dangerous Social Media Metrics” where he lists 4 metrics that really matter, as well as 3 metrics that are sucking you down a rabbit hole of uselessness. And because his advice is so excellent I'm giving you the gist of it here:

Dangerous Metrics that Don't Matter:

Traffic -- You don't just want visitors, you want the right visitors. 

Here at The Measurement Standard, we've had a Stumbleupon similar experience to the one Mr. Rao relates: One of our interesting but somewhat off-topic articles got picked up and brought in tremendous traffic -- but few visitors who read anything else. That traffic was and continues to be a pain because it skews our stats.

Tweets, Likes, Fans and Followers -- You want to be popular, or you want to do business? They’re often not the same.

Comments -- Again, I second Mr. Rao from experience: It's so tempting to think that commenters are a focus group of your readers. But people who comment represent a tiny fraction of readers, and most are motivated by something other than what moves the majority of readers to enjoy your material.

Metrics that Matter:

Subscribers -- Mr. Rao says, “...your email list is what generates your money... this is who you need to cater to.”

Agreed. But, but I wonder -- at least for The Measurement Standard -- if they represent the same audience as blog visitors. Sometimes I get the feeling that we have two somewhat separate audiences: Email subscribers who mostly just respond to the emails, and people who browse blogs and use social media links to find us without waiting for the emails. 

Conversion Rates -- Use a custom landing page when you write guest posts so you know what your results are.

Open Rates -- Mr. Rao says, “It’s nice to have a list, but if nobody is opening your emails then it doesn’t matter.”

Yes, but... I myself am inclined to think that some people like to get email newsletters but only read them occasionally. Is that bad thing? I think there is some value in getting the subject line and the preview in front of them.

Revenue -- Like he says, "If you’re in this to make money, then this is the only metric that ultimately matters."

Go read Mr. Rao's excellent post “The Three Most Dangerous Social Media Metrics” right now. --WTP 

And if you'd like to learn more about measuring what matters, head on over to Amazon and purchase Katie Paine's book Measure What Matters. Or go to the Measure What Matters blog and read some free excerpts.

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(I just love that graphic above. It was included with Mr. Rao’s {grow} post. I think it's a logo for Electronic Arts.)

--Bill Paarlberg is editor of  The Measurement Standard blog and newsletter, and of Katie Paine's new book Measure What Matters. The Measurement Standard is a publication of KDPaine & Partners, a company that delivers custom research to measure brand image, public relationships, and engagement.