Page 93 - Social Media Marketing

Social Activity 71

In addition to the measures of what is happening within the community, brand outpost ■ ╇ E mployees as C hange Agents
or the internal online workspace, where the activities are occurring also lends itself to
measurement.

Starting with social profiles, one of the easiest (and as it turns out most impor-
tant) metrics to keep track of is profile completeness. Long ago, LinkedIn implemented
an easy-to-understand indicator of profile completeness: Does a specific profile include
a picture, an address, and contact information, for example? Because this informa-
tion is often central to creating a relationship, the average state of completion is worth
knowing. Profile data, actual content production, and community reputation are the
primary visible attributes on which a decision to accept a connection request are based.
Be sure that you have a way to assess these.

Relationships themselves are also worth tracking. To what extent is a commu-
nity driving the creation of relationships? How many are being formed, and between
whom? This can be understood by tracking the number of unidirectional (think “fol-
lowing” in Twitter) relationships as well the number of mutually affirmed friendships
or other similar connections that exist. Add to this the relative number of communica-
tions that flow between mutually connected profiles to create a measure of the impor-
tance of relationships in day-to-day activities.

Outposts and communities—the places where social activity happens—are a
final source of quantitative data that leads to an assessment of value. Within these
social spaces, tracking the number of member versus nonmember interactions (if the
latter are permitted), the number of times members log in, membership abandon-
ment (for example, members who have not logged in for 90 days or more) all provide
a basis to understand—quantitatively—what is happening inside social communities
and by extension with the organizations that implement social media-based business
programs.

Chapter 6 provides an in-depth treatment of these and additional metrics: As
you work through the next sections, keep these initial measurement techniques and
sources of data in mind. Rest assured that when you’re implementing social computing
and social media techniques as a part of a business strategy, the outcomes can most
certainly be held to quantitative performance standards.

Employees as Change Agents

Getting social business right depends on more than understanding what your custom-
ers or stakeholders are talking about and how that relates to your firm. Social business
depends as well on connecting your employees into the social processes. For example,
the learning vis-à-vis the social data collected may be routed to and applied in market-
ing, to operations areas like customer support or to other departments within the orga-
nization where it can be acted on.