New Metrics in Social Media Listening and Monitoring

Introduction:

                                                “When you are not listening you are not learning”

Companies now have spent approximately more than 6 years in the social media landscape; it is indeed interesting to see how this space has evolved over the period of time. Now we have luxury to express our likes, dislikes, what we want, when we want and from whom we want. Many individuals all over the world are having conversations about the brands, products, services, online users discuss about your product quality or service quality in a blog, mention your name on Twitter, share your press release on Facebook, leave a comments on a review sites, but with all the talking happening around in this virtual world shouldn’t there be someone listening to it?.

Listening

“When you don't listen you will not be heard”

Millions of online users share opinions and how they perceive about the brand or products. Companies trying to develop better relationship with customers should start engaging in a conversation and a basic of good conversation is to listen. Listening to conversations on what being said on the social space can provide critical insights that companies need to leverage their marketing activity.

Metrics in Social Media

Is social media all about share of voice, sentiment, media Type?  If it was asked before five years, my answer would be YES. But we are in the era of Social Media and already observed its growth, direction and challenges in terms of Marketing, Implementation and Execution. Analytics plays an important role across all the different aspects of brand image. The most difficult task is to convince and influence our clients (marketers). We see different service providers come up with different methodologies and framework to derive meaningful insights with different parameters. When a client look at the frameworks independently it may be hard to digest, however it makes sense if we provide cumulative insights.

Conversation Impact Matrix

In today’s scenario we have realized the importance of brand presence and visibility which will drive reach and awareness. So, now at a broader level, we can easily emphasize on two areas which would play significant role in increase brand visibility and presence, a marketer would also like to analyze its competition based on these factors or metrics:

·         Unique Sites                                     

·         Unique Authors

As a social media professional I have been working with these metrics for quite a long time and have understood how unique websites and unique authors would impact in increasing brand awareness and reach. However, I was trying to figure out a simple framework which would be easily understood and makes sense for marketers/companies to get a quick glance of their overall social media Activity Landscape. I have come-up with the below framework which is a three dimensional chart that describes competitors the exposure level comparing unique authors and sites.

I tried to incorporate all the learning from four broad areas, Educate, Engage, Entertain, and Empower. The size of the bubble represents the Brand Visibility (total no. of articles/news/posts during the period of consideration). Brand Reach (number of unique sites) and Brand Awareness (number of unique authors) can be shown either in X or Y axis. When the brand has more number of unique authors participating in the discussion, Brand Awareness increases. Similarly, when number of unique site increases, the potential Brand Reach increases.

What should a marketer/company do when they are placed in?

Educate: When the conversations emerge from less unique authors and less unique sites, the brand should educate the audience in the respective influential sites. This activity would help the brand to increase brand presence.

Entertain: If the brand has more unique authors and less unique sites, the brand should entertain the audience by providing rich content. This activity will help the brand to retain its audience.

Engage: If the brand has less unique authors and more unique sites, the brand should engage with the influential sites. By doing this there is an opportunity for new audience acquisition.

Empower: When conversations originate from more unique authors and more unique sites, the brand should try to empower influential authors and sites. This activity would help to increase positive awareness and reach through brand advocates.

This framework can be used an indicator and can be enhanced further. Analyst can develop more valuable frameworks, keeping this as a benchmark while providing Social Media Analysis reports.