Category: think

Measuring, Metrics & Automation | Asking the Right Questions

measuring tape

How do you measure social media? What are the effective metrics you focus on? And, how do you automate the whole damn process?

Questions I’m currently wrestling with. They act like a fibonacci spiral, floating outwards, replicating into other questions. I like this.

Whilst most look to social media to provide answers, I search it for better questions.

For example, the number of Twitter followers will tell you how many people clicked the follow button not who they are, if they share your tweets / values, how much traffic you get from them, if they even like you, if you’re adding value to peoples lives etc (need to look at the back-end web stats for this or deeper still with funky little tools like Twtrland and Tweetstats).

Measuring social is a design challenge: what is left out is as important to what you leave in.

My approach is by starting with the end in mind, by exploring ‘what does success look like?’.

This is a one of those questions which never fails to connect a few synapses, and in terms of my role it’s the following (lifted directly from my job description):

  • CORE Education is recognised as key player in effective use of social media in business
  • CORE’s profile and reputation for understanding of use of effective social media is increased, especially through increased publication and dissemination activity
  • Social media activities throughout the organisation are embedded and sustainable throughout CORE
  • Improved (wider/deeper) brand awareness enables CORE to reach into existing/emerging market segments (especially into corporate market)

So that’s the result but what now needs to be crafted and applied is a change based approach. A layer of social media monitoring tools / platforms / metrics and some kind of reviewing structure to track impact.

So this is where I am. Opening up this line of questioning and hoping you the reader will offer guidance. Some ideas. Steerage and influence on how you are measuring it for your organisation, what metrics prove success and, how is it repeated.

Also keen to hear from people like Radian6 and Brandwatch or any other companies offering the above (especially for non-profits)…

“If you focus on results, you will never change. If you focus on change, you will get results.”
Jack Dixon

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Levi’s Go Forth 2011

Words by Charles Bukowski and his poem, The Laughing Heart:

your life is your life
don’t let it be clubbed into dank submission.
be on the watch.
there are ways out.
there is a light somewhere.
it may not be much light but
it beats the darkness.
be on the watch.
the gods will offer you chances.
know them.
take them.
you can’t beat death but
you can beat death in life, sometimes.
and the more often you learn to do it,
the more light there will be.
your life is your life.
know it while you have it.
you are marvelous
the gods wait to delight
in you.

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Working Yourself Out Of A Job (And Other Bold Public Statements)

Do Something That Matters

In two years time I will no longer be the Social Media Manager for CORE Education.

It’s not due to a limited budget or a time-specific contract but making a public statement like the one above focusses intent. Creates an end. A cut off point. A window to get things done.

Of course there’s danger in this. The idea that in two years time my approach would have succeeded, all the tasks will be completed and the organisation will be social media superheros, one and all (especially in this fluid space), is a bold forecast.

The reason for this strategy can be summed up in one word: sustainability.

Some of you will be old enough to remember working in places which had ‘typing pools’. A group of (usually) women whose soul task all day was to type unending letters and transcribe recordings of meetings from others.

With the advent of cheaper technology/software, the distribution of these new tools plus the burgeoning rise of professional development in the workplace, meant typing became a skill which quickly dissolved into expectation and one which now isn’t even questioned.

Social media managers are typists. A function which will soon become obsolete as the understanding of tools/platforms, adoption of practises and their execution become commonplace.

Any approach has to have a sustainable core and a comprehension that the measure of success is not how awesome my job is but how awesome I make other peoples jobs (through their elevated appreciation and use of social media).

This is what matters.

And I have two years to do it.

How much time have you given yourself?

Wisdom from Hugh MacLeod.
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What Does A Social Media Manager Do…?

“The best leaders… almost without exception and at every level, are master users of stories and symbols.”
Tom Peters

The above just got sent out to the 100 or so employees of CORE Education as an attempt to introduce their new social media manager and my approach to the role (YouTube version).

Like any newbie I’ve been busy for the past month acting like a sponge, taking it all in, finding out who’s who, where are the opportunities, the needs, the toilets, and stuff like that. Now it’s time to earn my wage.

This morning I presented the above to the exec team along with other initial ideas of social media adoption, exploration and management. One of the things they agreed was allowing me to share on this blog the whole development and implementation phases of what I’m doing here, the likes of which will include :

  • baselining—creating a clear benchmark plus track and review process of social media activity and its impact relative to the overall aims and goals (quantifiably and qualitatively plus some other big words)
  • gamified training—skilling up the employees in a funky, systematic way (using game theory as a model)
  • ambassadorial networks—finding and establishing champions and creating hubs of knowledge around them (especially relevant as our colleagues work nationally across nearly 30 different geographical locations)
  • creating a social permaculture—basically working myself out of a job in the next two years whilst ensuring sustainability
  • productising our approach—hoping to transfer the learning and successes across to MediaSnackers at some point to package and sell on further

Over the coming months this is what will appear here and would love to hear from you, especially if you’re a new or established social media manager, head of digital content, director of educational technologies, online communication leads, chief bloggers etc. on your approach, pitfalls, mistakes and successes. Does the above sound like a good ‘start’?

Big thanks to the picture takers : plindberg, cousinali, vatobob, jb-london, x-ray_delta_one, kurtxio, azrainman, andrewmorrell, simonehudson, melissaadret, redroom, rosauraochoa, neilrickards, olpc, dantaylor, torley, birgerking, _fabrizio_, booleansplit, 40006794@N02, 94801434@N00, findyoursearch, markwalker, pip_r_lagenta, ref, gareth1953, jaako, 25023895@N02, ryanr, bossco, chrisdlugosz.
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