Are You Counting The Numbers Behind the Numbers?
Sunday, February 22, 2009
(As I post this, I'm flying at 38,103 feet over Nevada, aboard Virgin America, on my way to San Francisco. In-flight wi-fi = awesome.)
I finally got around to reading this fascinating article from the Feb 15th NYTimes Magazine, “The No-Stats All-Star,” by Michael Lewis, author of Money Ball.
If your work has anything to do with marketing on the internet, then this should sound familiar to you (if it doesn’t, 2009 is going to be even rougher than you feared).
As budgets shrink and companies demand closer accounting of every penny they spend, “measurement” has suddenly become the hot new industry buzz word. Clients are demanding a new level of accountability from their digital agencies, and it’s long overdue.
The implications of this shift, though, go well beyond a renewed interest in metrics that the client should have been getting all along. Clients are also seeking a greater level of detail in statistics across all marketing disciplines and executions. More granular statistics can uncover a world of new insights about a brand’s health online. Best of all, tracking these additional metrics over time can give brands an incredibly deep and well-rounded long-term perspective on their overall success.
Combined with standard online metrics like display advertising click-through, website visits, and length of engagement with a branded experience, new numbers from social environments will begin to give brands an idea of how relationships work together with reach and awareness to create a successful online marketing campaign.
There’s more to Facebook than fans.
There’s more to YouTube than views.
There’s more to Twitter than followers.
There’s more to blogs than mentions.
These details are just the beginning, and they should be thought of as the basic package.
The real fun starts when you can begin to analyze these metrics in order uncover indications of higher quality interactions, connections, and impressions.
What is the ratio of fan activity on your Facebook page compared to the total number of fans? (Is the community alive?)
What is the ratio of subscribers to your YouTube channel compared to the total number of video views or channel views? (Is you content genuinely compelling?)
What is your ratio of @replies and ReTweets on Twitter compared to your total number of followers? (Are people inviting you into their conversations?)
How many repeat positive mentions of your brand are you getting on the same blog? (Are you creating brand advocates?)
Not all brands are ready for all of this. But, all of these numbers are waiting to be counted. And in tough times like this, it’s more important than ever that companies build systems and devote resources to getting smarter. Some short-sited brands are going to blow their budget on lavish short-term spectacles. Let them. They may win the battle. Other brands are going to give themselves a view from 30,000 feet, and in the process discover their strategy for winning the war.
Comments welcome.
I finally got around to reading this fascinating article from the Feb 15th NYTimes Magazine, “The No-Stats All-Star,” by Michael Lewis, author of Money Ball.
“We now have all this data,” Alexander told me. “And we have computers that can analyze that data. And I wanted to use that data in a progressive way. When I hired Daryl, it was because I wanted somebody that was doing more than just looking at players in the normal way. I mean, I’m not even sure we’re playing the game the right way.” ... The games are games of odds. Like professional card counters, the modern thinkers want to play the odds as efficiently as they can; but of course to play the odds efficiently they must first know the odds. Hence the new statistics, and the quest to acquire new data, and the intense interest in measuring the impact of every little thing a player does on his team’s chances of winning.
If your work has anything to do with marketing on the internet, then this should sound familiar to you (if it doesn’t, 2009 is going to be even rougher than you feared).
As budgets shrink and companies demand closer accounting of every penny they spend, “measurement” has suddenly become the hot new industry buzz word. Clients are demanding a new level of accountability from their digital agencies, and it’s long overdue.
The implications of this shift, though, go well beyond a renewed interest in metrics that the client should have been getting all along. Clients are also seeking a greater level of detail in statistics across all marketing disciplines and executions. More granular statistics can uncover a world of new insights about a brand’s health online. Best of all, tracking these additional metrics over time can give brands an incredibly deep and well-rounded long-term perspective on their overall success.
Combined with standard online metrics like display advertising click-through, website visits, and length of engagement with a branded experience, new numbers from social environments will begin to give brands an idea of how relationships work together with reach and awareness to create a successful online marketing campaign.
There’s more to Facebook than fans.
- Are you counting wall posts?
- Are you counting fan photos?
- Are you counting discussions?
There’s more to YouTube than views.
- Are you counting comments?
- Are you counting subscribers?
- Are you counting embeds?
There’s more to Twitter than followers.
- Are you counting @replies to your account?
- Are you counting ReTweets of your messages?
- Are you counting mentions of your brand in the public timeline?
There’s more to blogs than mentions.
- Are you counting positive sentiment?
- Are you counting relative authority of the blog?
- Are you counting referral clicks from blogs to your website?
These details are just the beginning, and they should be thought of as the basic package.
The real fun starts when you can begin to analyze these metrics in order uncover indications of higher quality interactions, connections, and impressions.
What is the ratio of fan activity on your Facebook page compared to the total number of fans? (Is the community alive?)
What is the ratio of subscribers to your YouTube channel compared to the total number of video views or channel views? (Is you content genuinely compelling?)
What is your ratio of @replies and ReTweets on Twitter compared to your total number of followers? (Are people inviting you into their conversations?)
How many repeat positive mentions of your brand are you getting on the same blog? (Are you creating brand advocates?)
Not all brands are ready for all of this. But, all of these numbers are waiting to be counted. And in tough times like this, it’s more important than ever that companies build systems and devote resources to getting smarter. Some short-sited brands are going to blow their budget on lavish short-term spectacles. Let them. They may win the battle. Other brands are going to give themselves a view from 30,000 feet, and in the process discover their strategy for winning the war.
Comments welcome.
5 Comments:
The best thing is, that most of this data is publicly available and little or no cost. This means that no matter what size of business you run, you can use this data in a productive and targeted way - to improve your customer experience, your product or even the morale of your employees.
great post Mike.
I think the major problem behind stat perception is that most non-social media savvy folk believe that social media can be used a simple lead generation tool where posting more will generate leads.
What they fail to realize is that if a company tweets and a follower clicks on the link, they aren't clicking to buy, but to familiarize themselves with the brand.
Interaction is key.
A few recent examples:
1) I tweeted about finding a good CRM/Pipeline system for our company. Asked if PipelineDeals was good.
Result: I got a casual email from one of the senior people first complementing my site and photography work, then offering a phone call or live demonstration.
After an extended conversation over the phone we came to the conclusion that PipelineDeals was no the optimal solution for me.
I was VERY impressed with the level of personal interaction and would not hesitate to recommend Pipeline Deals to ANYONE. Great team. Great product. As their feature set expands I see myself recommending their system to more and more people.
They won me over. If not today, they already have me tomorrow.
2) I had a very frustrating experience with UPS Dubai. After two days of forms, phone calls, bothering the NYC office, staying up late to talk to UPS US I signed up our company with FedEx. We've spent thousands with them now.
I tweeted about this.
Result: I got a tweet from a UPS twitter rep asking me whats up. I briefly (in 140 characters :) ) described what happened. I was then invited to fill out a form on the UPS website and wait for someone to get back to me.
um... no... I'm frustrated enough with the company. My email is 1 click away from my twitter page. They should email ME.
I didn't end up emailing them. Still happily using FedEx.
3) I was at the newly opened Dubai Marina Mall and walked into the Desigual store. I loved the store when I was in Barcelona 2 summers ago and tweeted my excitement.
Result: I got a follow and a brief exchange. No one asking me about whats good/bad about the store. Suggestions. Comments.
I am clearly one of the few people to actually go there (new store, new mall). I'm not saying they should have thrown me a discount code or anything like that... but no continuing interaction with me is a wasted opportunity to find an evangelist for the brand in a new market.
All those are from Twitter... but the point carries to other social media sites as well. If I'm a fan of something on Facebook... interact with me. If I write about it on my blog get in touch so I can help spread the word. I love brands that get it right and would love to help them get bigger... if only they let me.
bam
wow... this turned out to be very long. Heh. Maybe ill post this comment as a post later.
cheers
g
The problem with many of these metrics, specifically for Social Media, is that they are so disconnected from the bottom line. Wall posts and discussions are surely a measure of engagement...but can you prove that X engagement leads to Y sales? I have no doubt that they do, but Money Ball isn't based on assumptions, but rather hard data.
For companies to get Moneyball savvy, they need to find the stats that correlate with winning $'s (i.e., slugging percentage vs. batting average).
Aah, but therein lies the rub, Matthew; Money Ball is based on assumptions. Correlation is not causation, and one of the biggest challenges the industry faces is the confusion between, or substitution of, one for the other. If the data available suggests anything, perhaps it is a probability of success, as slugging percentage vs. batting average would as well. Success, however, might need to be reframed beyond a direct, measurable, and scalable (and replicable) relationship between 'X engagement and Y sales'.
Agree with both (shit, am I playing it safe it or what?) Matthew and Joshua here. Measures need to be redefined/reframed I'm sure. But Richard Huntington is right over at Adliterate about digital agencies having to measure/track/correlate back to the bottom line. EVERYONE does. This is the greatest challenge. All these stats can be compared to good ol'l fashioned intermediate measurements (and I agree with you Joshua) and money ball assumptions need a common ground, more clarity around it.
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