1.
SOCIAL MEASUREMENT
BEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK
FOR A SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
A practical, proven approach to integrating social media
with other digital channels and determining its value to the
bottom line.
DIGITAL
MEASUREMENT
WHITE PAPER
2013 © 2013 WEBTRENDS, INC. WWW.WEBTRENDS.COM.

2.
SOCIAL MEASUREMENT
BEST PRACTICES FRAMEWORK
FOR A SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
A practical, proven approach to integrating social media
with other digital channels and determining its value to the
bottom line.
Mind the Social Gap
Altimeter Group reports
that 48% of corporations
made social media ROI a
primary focus in 2011, yet
just 56% of companies who
identified as advanced users
of social media had standard
measurement frameworks in
place to help benchmark ROI.
+20%
riseinsocial
mediainthe
next5years
$1.2BILLIONSPENTON
SOCIALMEDIAINTHEUSIN2011
Merlyn Gordon, Director, Solutions Marketing
Merlyn has spent his career helping leading global brands succeed with
digital marketing, social CRM, and multi-channel measurement solutions.
As Director of Solutions Marketing at Webtrends, Merlyn is currently
responsible for product marketing activities related to Webtrends’
portfolio of measurement and optimization solutions.
AUTHOR BIO
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
TREND
As spending increases in social media, marketing departments
are under greater pressure to prove the value of social channels
and tie efforts to business outcomes and revenue.
PROBLEM
However, most companies who include social media in their digital
marketing efforts do not have a measurement strategy in place to
prove success or return on investment.
SOLUTION
By developing a framework grounded in best practices —
objectives, technology and expertise — companies can clearly
measure the impact of social on engagement, conversion and
revenue, and in context of other digital marketing efforts.
WEBTRENDS® WHITE PAPER. © 2013 Webtrends, Inc. 2

3.
SOCIAL MEDIA AS A BUSINESS DRIVER
It’s fair to say that social media is no longer new – Facebook,
Twitter and YouTube have been around for more than six years,
and internal collaboration solutions, such as Jive and SharePoint,
have been in use even longer. But the volatility, fragmentation
and unique characteristics of social data continue to challenge
many brands. Companies are still looking for ways to quantify the
success of social media initiatives.
As social media ramps up and dollars shift from traditional
marketing channels, there’s a corresponding shift in technology
ownership taking place within many organizations. In fact, Gartner
recently predicted that CMOs will surpass CIOs in technology
spend by 2017. This adds to the pressure marketing leaders are
feeling to justify investments in people and tools, and to tie social
initiatives back to business performance. Proving social ROI is the
primary challenge most organizations face as they adopt social
business programs.
CHALLENGES OF MANAGING SOCIAL
MEDIA MARKETING
In addition to the challenge of tying social initiatives to business
performance, brands face other major pain points in managing
their social business.
1. LACK OF FAMILIARITY APPLYING TRADITIONAL
DIGITAL MEASUREMENT PRACTICES TO SOCIAL
MEDIA CAMPAIGNS.
It’s not uncommon to find social practitioners with public
relations or communication backgrounds thrust into the
position of deciphering how to deal with changes to social
platform APIs, or trying to make sense of which media,
audience and content attributes should be collected and how.
The skills required to design, deploy and manage social media
initiatives really require a unique set of skills and thinking.
This presents a people and process opportunity as brands
organize for social business and look to interact with rapidly
evolving mediums.
Forrester reported $1.2
billion was spent on social
media in the U.S. in 2011.
The CMO Survey on Marketing
and Social Spend (August
2012) shows social media
spending will rise nearly 20%
in the next five years.
Gartner recently predicted
that CMOs will surpass CIOs
in technology spend by 2017.
Social Media by the Numbers*
Facebook
- 618 million daily active users
- 680 million monthly active
users who use Facebook
mobile products.
Twitter
- 140 million active users
- 84 million active users who
accessed content through
mobile.
* As of December, 2012
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4.
2. DIFFICULTY IN RECOGNIZING RELATIONSHIPS BETWEEN
SOCIAL PLATFORMS AND OTHER DIGITAL CHANNELS.
While social media may often create awareness, or serve as a first
touch in the conversion funnel, it is less successful at closing the
final sale. That’s why it can no longer be viewed as a stand-alone,
isolated channel. Social has to be placed in context alongside, and
integrated with, other digital channels, especially mobile, where
adoption is faster than any other technology in history. As of 2012,
45% of American adults have a smartphone, and 31% of current
users say they access online content using their cell phone.
3. INEFFICIENCIES ASSOCIATED WITH COLLECTING AND
ASSIMILATING HIGHLY COMPLEX AND DISPARATE DATA
SOURCES.
Social data is unlike other digital data, and it presents significant
challenges to measurement professionals. The volume, variety
and velocity of social information can overwhelm even the most
experienced marketing expert. Collecting, reporting and analyzing
data such as unstructured text, images, geolocation, device
information – all coming at you in streams and in real time – is
beyond the management capacity of a typical spreadsheet.
4. CHALLENGES OF SCALE, WITH DATA COLLECTION
CONSTRAINTS AND LIMITED ACCESS TO HISTORIC
INSIGHTS.
This is particularly difficult when using third party platforms that
may inhibit access, be slow to upgrade technologies, or make it
impossible to get the reporting or business story you need to make
informed decisions.
“Entire conversations about your brand occur without anyone
visiting your website. And your social audience on YouTube,
Facebook and Twitter can be far greater than the sum of visitors
coming to your site. That’s why foundational measures for
social marketing analytics can act as a performance benchmark
to evaluate success across channels and competitors.”
– John Lovett | Author, Social Media Metrics Secrets
EXPERTS
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5. BELIEF THAT YOU DON’T OWN SOCIAL PROPERTIES,
SO YOU CAN’T MEASURE THEM.
This is a false perception; however, it remains commonly held.
The good news is there is an explosion in the use and availability
of APIs, which allow data from one site to move to an app or to
a mashup with an online service. With data available through
open APIs, it’s now possible to bring measurement practices to
properties outside of the corporate domain.
NINE STEPS FOR DEVELOPING A SOCIAL
MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
Despite these challenges, marketers do have a path for gaining social
marketing intelligence. In order to move beyond experimentation and
prove business performance with social media, it’s crucial to develop a
framework for social measurement. It’s also crucial to structure social
media initiatives to include metrics that are important to the C-suite
as well other teams, and include multiple layers of measurement to
assess, explain and manage social media operations.
The following nine steps offer a framework for a social
measurement culture.
1. SELECT YOUR USE CASE.
Based on the social media measurement compass published by the
Altimeter Group, a use case is a way to peg a path toward the goals
and objectives of social business programs. There are six main
use cases for social analytics: innovation, brand health, marketing
optimization, revenue generation, operational efficiency and
customer experience. They all present a set of tools for meeting
social media goals.
BRAND HEALTH
A MEASURE OF ATTITUDES, CONVERSATION
AND BEHAVIOR TOWARDS A BRAND
REVENUE GENERATION
WHERE AND HOW A COMPANY GENERATES REVENUE
OPERATIONAL EFFICIENCY
WHERE AND HOW A COMPANY
REDUCES EXPENSES
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
IMPROVING RELATIONSHIPS WITH CUSTOMERS,
AND THEIR EXPERIENCE WITH THE BRAND
INNOVATION
COLLABORATING WITH CUSTOMERS TO DRIVE
FUTURE PRODUCTS AND SERVICES
MARKETING OPTIMIZATION
IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
MARKETING PROGRAMS
BUSINESS GOAL
Source: A Framework for Social Analytics,
Altimeter Group, August 2011
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6.
It’s important to select a primary use case, as goals, objectives, and
measurement requirements flow down-stream from this decision.
For example, improving operational efficiency by increasing
employee productivity or reducing costs would be measured and
managed differently than a marketing optimization program focused
on customer acquisition or loyalty priorities.
(See examples of use case applications on pg. 12.)
Once the use case is determined, the next step is:
2. DEFINE SUCCESS MEASURES AND KPIS.
The key to this step is to select outcome metrics-based
objectives and align them to corporate goals, and then define
KPIs and success measures. For a Marketing Optimization use
case that is intended to improve the effectiveness of marketing
programs, success measures and KPIs might look like this, with
KPIs that roll up to Objectives and align to corporate goals:
BUSINESS GOAL
ACQUISITION LOYALTY
CORPORATE GOALS
Gain Exposure
Reach
Velocity
Share of Voice
Foster Dialogue
Unique contributors
Conversation volume
Engagement
Generate Interactions
Conversion rate
Interaction rate
Offer take rate
Promote Advocacy
Active advocates
Advocate Influence
Advocacy impact
Objectives
Measures KPIs
MARKETING OPTIMIZATION
IMPROVING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF
MARKETING PROGRAMS
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7.
3. ENSURE METRICS HAVE MEANING AND ALIGN TO
BUSINESS PRIORITIES.
This is critical, because without context, metrics are just
numbers. John Lovett, author of Social Media Metrics Secrets,
frames metrics in four layers:
• Foundational measures are the building blocks
of social analytics and include elements such as
interaction, engagement, influence, advocacy, and
impact. They persist across channels and apply almost
universally to measuring all sorts of social activities.
Many business and outcome metrics are calculated
based upon foundational measures.
• Business value measures are specific to roles, such
as executives, legal, HR, sales or marketing, and are
the basis for communicating success and failure to
stakeholders across the organization. These measures
can include Customer or Employee satisfaction,
revenue, market share, etc.
• Outcome metrics help quantify the effectiveness of
social media programs, and align operational programs
to corporate goals. These are the key performance
indicators (KPIs) of social media, and include metrics such
as reach, conversion rate, velocity, etc.
• Counting metrics are the most basic and readily
available (number of Likes, reTweets, Views, etc.) and
are generally used to show tactical performance.
Unfortunately, these metrics are often used to
communicate business performance, when in reality,
they show program performance.
The key takeaway of metrics with meaning is that when
communicating results, it’s important that the metrics used
are consistent and repeatable, and that they are placed in the
appropriate context of the measurement layer cake.
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8.
4. DECIDE WHICH DATA MATTERS.
Before setting up a data collection process, it’s worth
considering four key dimensions of social data to be collected.
• Recency: How current is the data from the time
of the event, and how important is it to know what
is happening immediately?
• Richness: How much information about the visitor profile
is available, how much should you collect, and how does it
help drive your business? This an important consideration
for measures such as influence and advocacy.
• Retention: How long is the data available? What is its
useful life? Not only is it important to understand the
life of a tweet, but also your long-term trend analysis
requirements. Can you go back through 12 months of
Facebook data to find the info you need?
• Realization: How will the data be used or consumed? Will
it be used to develop reports, populate dashboards or drive
marketing programs or other action systems?
Answers to these questions will likely feed back into your success
measures and KPIs as you iterate and fine-tune your measurement
mix. They will also help inform technology choices.
ALIGNING SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY
TO BUSINESS PRIORITIES.
Most companies treat social as checking off a box and then saying “we’re
doing social” instead of stepping back and asking how it aligns with
overall business priorities and marketing objectives. Yet, according to the
August, 2012 CMO Survey conducted by CMO Insights, less than 7% of
companies consider their social media efforts “very integrated.”
However, once marketing objectives are established, then you can develop
the associated measurement in social. This involves asking questions,
such as “do the number of reTweets prove ROI?” or “do Facebook Likes
and Pinterest Pins improve our customer satisfaction score?” This
alignment step helps address the challenge of meeting business goals,
and justifying and defending investments in social initiatives.
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9.
5. CHOOSE THE RIGHT TECHNOLOGY.
There is a spectrum of available technology solutions that enable
social media programs. Which technology, or set of technologies,
you choose depends on your use case, measurement framework,
and people and processes to support the tools.
For instance, a use case that is customer focusing, such as
Marketing Optimization, might include initiatives that are external
(listening, content, engagement, advertising) and internal (workflow
and automation, measurement). Several vendors have solutions that
span more than one category. For instance, HootSuite has strengths
within listening and engagement, while Webtrends has measurement
expertise plus solutions that support the entire spectrum of external
and internal initiatives.
Along with looking into how a solution will support your measurement
framework, it’s important to also consider ease of setup, training,
and availability of strategic consulting and customer service. The
best solutions combine great technology with individuals laser-
focused on your success with the solution. These are the experts
who want to ensure you get the most out of your investment.
6. COLLECT THE DATA.
There are many approaches for collecting data; however, links
and tagging, and integrated measurement are extremely
effective.
With links and tagging, Java script tags are the industry standard
for conversion attribution and tracking. Webtrends developed an
asynchronous tag optimized for all devices, including mobile, and
is built to allow extensibility. Through a series of plug-ins to the tag,
measurement programs can mature without requiring significant re-
work of the tag. And by combining tag, API and link data, it’s possible
to arrive at a granular level of insight.
Integrated measurement refers to applying metrics into social
applications and social platforms, such as social apps, Facebook
apps and collaboration widgets. As social and mobile experiences
become harder and harder to tease apart, apps in mobile
marketplaces must be considered for social measurement as well.
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10.
7. VISUALIZE THE DATA.
Once a measurement framework is established, and the right
tools, people and processes are in place to collect social data,
then it’s time to become a storyteller and deliver analysis and
recommendations — not reports.
With social initiatives gaining greater visibility within organizations,
more and more individuals not directly involved in social operations
are asking questions about its effectiveness and results. Data
visualization can clearly communicate results to a wide range of
stakeholders, translating the scientific reality of numbers into a more
accessible format and social business story that can be processed
and understood by people in an instant.
There’s a reason for the explosion of infographs and other data
images, even in traditional publications like the New York Times,
The Economist and Harvard Business Review. It’s easier to process
information presented as an image rather than as words or numbers.
“Keep in mind the ROI on social media is
rarely straight math. Social activities won’t
always translate directly to dollars. You
need to factor in intangibles like exposure,
interaction and advocacy.”
– John Lovett | Author, Social Media Metrics Secrets
EXPERTS
Webtrends offers data visualization, including story views, which
automatically transform data from a tabular presentation to a
visual narrative. Webtrends Streams® lets you see live data
instantly and act on it when it matters most — while customers are
engaged with your social, mobile or online property.
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11.
SUSTAINING SOCIAL MEASUREMENT EFFORTS
The first seven steps will help any company develop a social
measurement framework. However, a social strategy should never
end, but rather be sustained for the long haul.
There are two ways to do that:
8. OPTIMIZE YOUR SOCIAL MEASUREMENT STRATEGY.
It’s essential that teams and sponsors responsible for social
media initiatives establish a process for continuous optimization.
A social strategy must constantly be tested, challenged,
tweaked, and fine-tuned in order to ensure that it’s meeting the
requirements of the business.
9. NURTURE A CULTURE OF MEASUREMENT.
Work to ensure that everyone within the organization has a firm
grasp of the medium, and are comfortable using it. Gain the
support of at least one senior champion for your social media
strategy. Benchmark successes and failures over time in order
to allow you to differentiate between trends and anomalies.
Standardize on terms and tactics, so you’re not lost in a potential
quagmire of repetitive explanation. And bake measurement into
every aspect of social media endeavors. It’s the only way to know
if your initiatives are having an impact on your business.
Visual data tells a data
analysis story better
than a report filled
with numbers.
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12.
SOCIAL USE CASE APPLICATIONS
SOCIAL LISTENING. Algorithm searches allow companies to scour
digital channels for mentions of both brand and competition, and
attach a sentiment value to these mentions (positive or negative).
Public relations professionals use social listening to understand how
a brand is perceived in the marketplace.
Use cases: Brand Health, Customer Experiences
SOCIAL SUPPORT. Connects customer contact records within a CRM
program into a Twitter or Facebook account. This gives marketers
the ability to take action not only on what is uncovered, but also to
respond based on deep history.
Use cases: Customer Experience, Operational Efficiency
SOCIAL INNOVATION. Product managers use social networks to
understand what customers want in the next product release. There
are framework tools available with which to co-develop products with
key accounts.
Use cases: Innovation, Customer Experience
SOCIAL ENGAGEMENT. If someone gives you a great mention on
Facebook, you can use tools that allow response and posting, or set
up an automated workflow that sends an alert to the team or person
best equipped to respond.
Use cases: Brand Health, Customer Experience, Operational Efficiency, Marketing
Optimization
SOCIAL SELF-SERVICE. There are thousands of forums, communities
or organizations where peers answer questions, such as groups
on Yahoo. Although brands don’t take an active part in the
conversation, it is a valuable tool for finding out what is being said
about a brand.
Use case: Brand Health
SOCIAL COMMERCE. This offers a shared experience for consumer
activity, with recommendations, shopping, shopping near you.
Use cases: Revenue Generation, Customer Experience
SOCIAL MARKETING. Brands can increase awareness, inspire
engagement and lift conversions by running social campaigns across
multiple properties, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
Use cases: Marketing Optimization, Revenue Generation, Customer Experience
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13.
SOCIAL MEASUREMENT CASE STUDY:
MOTORCYCLE SUPERSTORE
CRT
ten-fold
increase
+0.50%
Motorcycle Superstore (Motorcycle-Superstore.com) is the leading
retailer of motorcycle gear, parts, accessories and clothing in the
U.S. Operating through the Internet for over a decade, the site
receives about a million visitors per month.
To increase brand engagement, create a sense of community and
drive traffic to the website, the company launched a Facebook page
in the summer of 2009. To measure the impact of various ads and
promotions, Motorcycle Superstore deployed Webtrends Analytics,
already in use on the website, for its social media analyses.
Initially, the Facebook page was promoted by a single ad of general
interest on the website, and the click-through rate (CTR) was 0.05%,
which is the industry average.
Sports Bike persona
Facebook ad 0.50% click-
through rate - 10X increase
Original Facebook promotion
ad 0.05% click-through rate
SUCCESS
13

14.
“We began testing various strategies,” says Graham Hetland, social
media community manager for Motorcycle Superstore, “focusing
on specifically targeting different segments of the motorcycling
community such as cruisers, street bikes, and scooters.”
“Most of the Facebook visitors are younger as compared to website
visitors,” comments Hetland. “Analyzing this information lets us
choose certain promotions for Facebook — for example, casual
apparel, which appeals to this persona.”
Because users generally give permission for Motorcycle Superstore to
access their demographic information, analysis by age, gender, and
other factors is possible, enabling the company to create personas of
targeted groups.
By monitoring response to the more targeted ad, Hetland
discovered that the CTR had increased to 0.50%, a ten-fold increase.
Reach: 138,332
CTR: 1.7%
CPC: $0.04
Reach: 212,835
CTR: .453%
CPC: $0.17
Using Webtrends, Motorcycle
Superstore can also track how much
traffic is driven to the website from
Facebook and other social channels,
and track CTR, costs per click (CPC),
conversions and referred sales, helping
the company understand the success
and ROI of their social marketing
efforts.
The results?
Through segmented social ads,
Motorcycle Superstore was able to
increase click-through rates by an
average of 10X, while increasing
revenue from Facebook by 75% year-
over-year – without increasing ad spend.
These results were all possible because
Motorcycle Superstore has developed
a culture of measurement. Everything
they do on Facebook and other digital
channels is measured, analyzed, tested
and made actionable.
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15.
WEBTRENDS ALIGNS TO DIGITAL
ECOSYSTEM
Webtrends understands that it takes more than technology to
ensure that measurement is a valuable component to the success of
market leading companies.
For social media and other digital marketing to show value to the
business, a holistic solution must be adopted that will address key
challenges and foster a culture of measurement.
CURRENT STATE DESIRED STATE
3 key challenges
Includes people, process
and technology
Measurement strategy to inform
metrics and standards
The appropriate operating model
and analytics team structure to
manage the requirements
Governance process to manage
the reliability of data across the
business
Well-designed structure to manage
the standards and processes put
in place
Necessary insight to enable
business to implement a marketing
strategy
Robust technical solution that
allows visit and visitor level data to
be collected and easily integrated
into other marketing systems.
Any social measurement strategy, or social use case, should
be iterative and ongoing, and align to business objectives. As
marketing invests more heavily in technology and digital channels,
Webtrends can help bridge the gap between business and
technology, providing the roadmap, data intelligence and ROI needed
to ensure success.
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16.
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