Page 346 - Using MIS

314 Chapter 8 Social Media Information Systems

As you learned in Chapter 3, the goals for each organization are different. For organiza-
tions that choose a differentiation strategy, SM goals could include better employee recruiting,
quicker product development, becoming an industry product leader, or increasing customer
loyalty. In general, most organizations include increased brand awareness, conversion rates,
Web site traffic, or user engagement as goals. Figure 8-8 gives you examples of how these might
manifest themselves in social media.

Step 2: Identify Success Metrics
After you know what you want to accomplish using SM, you need to identify metrics that will
indicate when you’ve achieved your goals. These are referred to as success metrics or key
performance indicators (KPI). Metrics are simply measurements used to track performance.
Every organization has different metrics for success. For example, a law firm may measure bill-
able hours, a hospital may measure patients seen or procedures performed, and a manufacturer
may look at units produced or operational efficiency.
The hard part in identifying success metrics is identifying the right ones. The right metrics
help you make better decisions; the wrong metrics are meaningless and don’t positively affect
your decision making. For example, measuring the number of registered users on your site may
be interesting but not really meaningful. What really matters is the number of active users on
your site each month. Twitter, for example, had 883 million total registered users in 2013 but
27
only 232 million monthly active users. Metrics that don’t improve your decision making are
commonly referred to as vanity metrics.
Figure 8-9 shows examples of possible success metrics for the goals mentioned in
Figure 8-8. Remember, in some circumstances you want to maximize the metric, while in
others you want to minimize the metric. It’s similar to sports in that respect: Sometimes you
want a high score (basketball), and other times you want a low score (golf). It just depends
on what you’re measuring.

Step 3: Identify the Target Audience

The next step in creating an effective SMIS is to clearly identify your target audience. Chances
are, it’s not going to be everyone. For example, if you’re Caterpillar Inc. trying to use social
media to sell more D11 dozers, your target audience probably won’t include many teenagers.
Organizations go to great lengths to identify their target audience because it helps them focus
their marketing efforts.

Goal Description Example

Brand awareness Extent that users recognize a brand Organization’s brand mentioned in a tweet
Conversion rates Measures the frequency that Likes the organization’s Facebook page
someone takes a desired action

Web site trac Quantity, frequency, duration, and Trac from Google+ post mentioning the
depth of visits to a Web site organization’s site
User engagement Extent to which users interact with User regularly comments on organization’s
Figure 8-8 a site, application, or other media LinkedIn posts
Common SM Strategic Goals

27 Jim Edwards, “Twitter’s ‘Dark Pool’: IPO Doesn’t Mention 651 Million Users Who Abandoned Twitter,” Business
Insider, November 6, 2013, accessed June 20, 2014, www.businessinsider.com/twitter-total-registered-users-
v-monthly-active-users-2013-11.