What counts? (How the Hell do we know we’ve accomplished anything?)

Those of us baptized in the holy water of formal PR or marketing training (in my case, granted the ring-kissed title of Accredited Public Relations, or APR) use (or are at least aware of) a process for our profession. My choir above is singing it to you.

Most organizations—even those with trained professionals—skip steps and end up in a cycle of occasionally doing research, barely planning, and mostly execution. As they mature, so does their cycle. I hope.

But real, honest measurement ends up being the bugaboo. That’s the saddest part, as good measurement is the key to adjusting your organization’s actions to get the results it actually seeks. Namely, customers, clients, and/or donors. Without good measurement, how do we know we accomplished anything? How do we know where we really are so that we can tweak our efforts to accomplish more?

The part that really bothers me is that we either don’t measure at all or run to Return On Investment (ROI). It sounds wonderfully authoritative... but I find that this form of measurement is used so much as a management chest-beater, it overshadows what is measurable and what should be measured. It all too often dismisses a new idea or direction (i.e. social media) because we haven’t yet figured out what to measure about it.

So we continue doing what we’ve always done. We already have spreadsheets for that. In PR and marketing, we know how to count clips/mentions, how to tally the value of advertising space/time based on circulation/audience numbers.

Anything new, we first seek the the almighty “case study”. We want to see how someone else has accomplished something with the new tool... so that we can emulate it. The problem is, when we emulate others, we’re often placing ourselves permanently late to the punch AND failing to embrace the uniqueness that brings our customers/clients/donors to US.

I could go on complaining, but I think the point’s made. What I’m juggling when it comes to social media results:

1. Barriers to social media entry are virtually nill. Anyone with basic Internet skills can set up accounts, upload files like pictures and videos (yes, the technology has gotten that simple), and send messages to friends (or other lists... got an email newsletter?) inviting them to connect to their new profile. You probably have several people on your team who are doing this for their own entertainment. This is why social media keeps decimating industries... the technology is non-technical enough that anyone with real talent or drive (i.e. bloggers) can take on established industries (i.e. newspapers) with a little ambition/passion.
2. You already know my social media philosophy for “Do it. Screw up. Adjust”. Everyone’s learning at once. It is more important to get moving than it is to get it right. The most important aspect is establishing the skillset on your team. Social media is not a “department”. Yes, you need someone who pays attention to it on behalf of your company, but it’s everyone’s job to participate now. Even your accountants should be connecting to their peers and professional associations via social media tools. It’s fast becoming a key aspect of their professional development.
3. In March Econsultancy published this excellent post on social media measurement. It not only starts with the notion that measuring social media is a new science... it digs down to offer elements we can/should consider in measuring our efforts.
   

I'll let you read it yourself, but it considers:

Traffic
Sales
Leads
Search marketing
Brand metrics
PR
Customer engagement
Retention
Profits

I’ve read this one several times. Liked it more each time, but it’s missing something that I couldn’t quite put my finger on until now.

A starting point.

Most of the organizations I’m working with—both big and small—are just getting started in social media. That makes high-level metrics 1) nearly impossible and 2) intimidating to the point that they don’t want to try anything. What if I do something wrong? What if I can’t show any ROI at the beginning? We’re dealing here with (or we are) professionals who are accustomed to being able to make real waves. They (we) don’t like to screw up.

"Do it. Screw up. Adjust." just doesn’t have the same horsepower.

We need baby-step metrics to guide us as we take the plunge. So I propose the baby-step social media adoption process.



Really, it’s the same process. All I’ve done is dumb it down so that it’s no longer executive-level esoteric and made it applicable to virtually any level of social media (or other marketing) effort.

Wait, Casey, why are you spending all this time rambling about process? I thought this post was about measurement.

It is.

The biggest thing we miss about metrics is that it’s directly connected to what we declared we would (attempt to) do. Benchmarks—the point where you start—are meant to give you a sense of where you're starting and where you might be able to go. Without that, you're wandering without a map... or, if you have a map, you don't know where you or your destination are. Equally useless.

Yes, you can gather case studies and other research to help put those in perceived attainable zones—or to find industry-standard units for measurement—but the real measurement is all up to you. To what you declare possible. In that, you can be cautious or bold.

Using the baby-step process as a tool, let’s choose one of the four platforms I recommend any organization begin with: Delicious, Facebook, Twitter, Blog.

Declarations:

Within 6 weeks, I want to have an organizational Facebook group with 500 friends with whom I share one interesting posting about our organization per week.

Note: You’ll notice that I have two elements present in that declaration:

1. Measurable goals: 1 Facebook group. 500 friends. 1 item shared/week
2. A deadline: 6 weeks.

This is important in driving our efforts forward. It’s clear. We can check to see if we accomplished it. (In executive language, this is considered an "objective". In contrast, a "goal" doesn’t have the measurable elements, particularly the time element.)

What actions can get us there?

1. Figure out the type of Facebook account to set up. A “group” seems to fit well for our organization. It will allow us to post our logo and key information about our organization. It also allows us to post news updates, pictures, and links to our own web site or other interesting sites or blogs. Individuals who “friend” our group will receive updates whenever we post something. We can also email them directly through the system.
2. Organize and post the initial materials: logo (which can likely be taken directly from our web site), company summary (can lift that from our press materials), some pictures (I could take a digital camera around our facilities to get those, plus we have others from our press materials), a few links (definitely our web site, we were in the paper a couple weeks ago, and there’s that one piece on our industry from the New York Times).
3. Postings: I can cannibalize past issue of our newsletter for good material. I also have a big collection of smart articles and blog postings I’ve been bookmarking for the past year. I can post those whenever there isn’t something new to report about our activities. Plus, there are several great trade journals that cover our industry online. I can watch those and post links to their articles.
4. 500 followers: Aha, staff first. How about our board? Let’s get them on there... and see how many of their friends they’ll ask. We also have our newsletter database of 20,000+ names. We should make sure to ask them to “friend” us. We should also put a mention on our home page. Plus, we can add it to the signature line our all our company emails. That way every message we send will include an invitation to join us.

Take those actions: Better get moving. You’ve got six weeks according to your declaration.

Six weeks later: Did our actions accomplish what we intended?

From my experience, executing a focused action plan like this will get you at least in the vicinity for that 500-friend goal. Assuming, of course, that you have/used the items listed in #4 and that you put real effort into your program.

But now you have several key things in hand:

1. Real experience at a social media platform. (Yay! You got started.)
2. A feeling for how you can leverage your existing resources to accomplish your objectives.
3. A social media presence with a significant following.
4. A “system” for maintaining that presence (i.e. a weekly calendar for posting new material).
5. Most likely some “friends” interaction/contribution with your organization.
6. A benchmark for your new objectives.

Where do you go next?

Repeat the process, but step up the goals.

We have a Facebook group with 500 friends. We also post one item to it per week. How about some new objectives? Let’s step it up in order of difficulty. Baby steps should progress to actual walking. But we also want to make sure to pad sharp corners on the coffee table and clear the floor of objects on which we might choke.

New declarations:

To use our Facebook account as part of the marketing for our upcoming fundraising event and receive at least 25 RSVPs from “friends” through the system.

To start a Twitter account and gain 300 follwers there with five tweets per day within 6 weeks.

To link our Twitter and Facebook accounts so that a Twitter message also updates our Facebook group... requiring a lot less work on my part.

To automate (via HootSuite.com or a similar service) our Twitter posts so that I can log in once/day (or once/week), schedule my tweets, and not have to think about Twitter for more than 15 minutes/day, yet still be “live”.

To incorporate a basic digital camera into my daily routine to the point that I can tell (via Facebook or Flicker... even on our web site’s home page) a story of our organization that brings our “friends” into our organization in a way we couldn’t to via text or other explanations. (Yep, that’s a personal skill-oriented goal.)

To align our traditional media relations efforts and our social media efforts to the point that they are both reinforcing—as well as prompting new results—each other (and saving me time).

To query our front-line team (anyone who delivers services, answers phones, or otherwise greets new customers/clients on our behalf) and discover the top 25 most commonly-asked questions and turn those into regular tidbits we share via Facebook posts. ROI challenge: To use this knowledge to reduce the number of times those questions are asked of front-line staff.

To attract 1,000, 2,000, even 5,000 Facebook "friends" within nine months.

To experiment with (and track) what we post in Facebook until we can develop a theory on what will prompt at least one inquiry/comment per day from “friends” via the platform. Challenge: This could be about the information itself OR the way we share/word our postings. Key: Experiment.

To get at least 10 of our Facebook “friends” to donate $10/each via our Facebook group. (Keep raising the stakes here as your skills advance.)

To provide a “social media dashboard” to our board, demonstrating to them the progress we have made in social media and secure their support for this ongoing effort.

Just a sample. You’ll definitely come up with your own as you move forward in the social media arena.

That is DEFINITELY a full post. I’m going to come back tomorrow later with some other elements you should consider in creating honest measurement of your progress. Consider this post 1 of 2.

Just leave with this: Creating metrics is powerful... even in baby-step form. Especially in baby-step form.