Social Media Metrics & Analytics

Sandra Beshay, Jessica Torres, Stephen Gibki

Introduction“Prove your point with numbers, but make sure you attempt to do so with numbers that matter” - Jay Baer 2013

How does social media measurement serve basic business goals?

● Raising Revenue

● Lowering Costs

● Increasing Satisfaction

Reliability

Social scientific measures of consistency or reproducibility of results.

Using sampling to generalize about larger population.

Validity

The determination that measurement is conceptually what it was planned to be.

Transparency

The social medial approach of disclosing all relative interests and not having a hidden agenda.

Social Media MeasuresBuzz based upon number of

impressions at a given time, on a specific date, time of year, channel, etc.

Popularity

Mainstream media mentions

Number of fans, followers, friends, etc.

Reach, or second-degree impressions

Likes or favorites

Sentiments

Number of interactions or engagement rate

Conversions to purchases

Important TermsAnalytics - measurement of social media behavior through a variety of metrics.

Metrics - the measurement of behavior within social media

Return of Investment (ROI) - calculation of a financial gain minus the cost of an investment. ROI is expressed as a percentage or ratio and is sometimes considered a measure of efficiency.

Cost of Ignoring (COI) - introduced as a way to say that social media comes down to missed opportunities, you need to question your opportunity costs

Conversion - marketers convert social media activity to sales

“See” Measures - See, Say, Feel, DoSee Measures

Facebook Page Like totals

Twitter Follower Totals

Website traffic

Email sign-ups

RSS subscriptions

Advertising impressions

Earned media impressions

Say Measures

Likes, shares, re-tweets, email forwards, and Google +’s are all measurable data - Quantative data

Feel Measures

Social media users may have emotional responses to what they see or comment about, and the reaction, or the sentiment, may be important.

Example: Presidential Election, Flint Michigan, Puppies, babies, and etc.

“DO” measures

Allow us to track behavioral outcomes, such a purchase - which is conversion

Google Analytics Google Analytics puts a tracking code on a page, and owners are provided with data on the sources of web traffic, such as search engines, referrals from other sites, direct traffic and social media linkage!

Who would use Google Analytics ?

Google Analytics Cont.This campaign can produce a spike in traffic of more than 10%

Keywords are vital and strive for Search Engine Optimization.

Identifying popular searches, content creators can focus on some words and avoid others

Words such as “Sale” generate new traffic and interest

Referrals are online traffic that comes from a link on another page - are an important way to generate interest.

An analysis of referrals on a site might reveal that visitors clicked on a link while spending time on Twitter, Facebook, or a blog site.

An Ad on facebook of those sneakers you’ve been searching for online.

How did they know ?

Facebook Insights Facebook has more than one billion users worldwide

For each facebook page created, a site manager can download and analyze real-time data compared each week

A site continues growth in the number of likes, increases, in the reach of posts beyond those user liking the page and following it on their feeds.

What were some of the reactions to Mileys 2013 MTV performance?

Miley Cyrus’ sexually charged MTV Video Music Awards Performance was considered BUZZ in terms of reach and engagement on Facebook and Twitter.

Twitter AnalyticsHow many Twitter followers do you have?

How many people do you actually want to reach via Twitter?

Early 2014: Edelman Digital created TweetLevel.com to give Twitter users a score based on influence, popularity, engagement & trust (think: RTs)

The TweetLevel tool places active Twitter users into five possible roles: viewer, commentator,curator, idea starter, & amplifier

Viewers: observe but “do not leave a footprint”

Commentators: have minute influence on popular topics

Curators & Amplifiers: those with large followings

Idea Starters: authors behind a popular idea aka the “creative brains”

Which do you identify as?

Twitter Analytics Cont.Other top Twitter tools include

ReTweetRank (http://retweetrank.com), tracks re-tweets & the number of influential followers

WeFollow (http://wefollow.com), generates a “prominence” score for users

TweetReach (http://tweetreach.com), measures exposure, accounts reached, and general activity

Topsy (http://topsy.com), compares recent Twitter activity of brands and links to specific tweets

Social Media Tools https://youtu.be/KFrGML2nFAw

Network Analyses

For the past 50 years a systematic study of online behavior has been conducted to see how people interact in social settings.

Social media develops branding, influence, trust, & the spread of ideas whether it’s through Twitter or Facebook it gives users an opportunity to be opinionated and seen as a leader despite who they might be behind the keyboard.

MetricsConsumption metrics: How many people viewed, downloaded, or listened to the content?

Sharing metrics: How resonant is this content, how often is it shared with others?

Lead-gen metrics: How often does content consumption result in a lead?

Sales metrics: Did we even make any freakin’ money from this?

The Theories

Buran & Davis (2006): suggested that the influence of opinion leaders may be understood through similar interests and social stratification of leaders and their followers

Gumper & Carhean (1986): concluded that “every type of communication, from face-to-face to mass communication is still basically an interpersonal communicative act.”

Data Analysis!Data analyses can be performed using NodeXL software. This is a

social network analysis tool built into Microsoft Excel in current versions and is specifically designed for non-programmers to collect, analyze, and visualize network data from social media sites

Russo & Koesten (2005): address the concepts of centrality and prestige

Centrality- represents the ability to touch others in the network & is a measure of potential influence

Prestige- represents the degree to which others seek out a particular site in a social network

Discussion Questions

1.If you were advising a CEO who had never been in Twitter to create a profile, which key concepts would you discuss with him?

2.Consider ways to use social media to improve trust and influence. Which Twitter measures would you want to track?