Lynne d Johnson is working on a means of measuring social media influence, and is asking good questions about current tools and models. She rightly says that the core issue is a lack of a good definition of influence, and covers a couple of methods – Razorfish’s Social Influence Marketing Score and Altimeter’s Social Marketing Analytics — while calling for a deeper definition.
I always am wary about anything smacking of “calculators” in social media and PR, particularly those advanced by companies with an interest in selling social media as a revolution. But Johnson’s role as SVP of the Advertising Research Foundation lends a serious imprint to the task. The ARF is working with the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) to create a set of social media measurement guidelines for the industry, she wrote. My only concern is that the effort — being driven by marketers — will continue the marketing-centric, impression-oriented, reach-focused, quantity over quality mentality we’ve seen so far — or that it will be full of, well, BS metrics and methods.
Johnson writes of her similar concern, “I don’t think we’re talking about a wrong way of looking at influence, but we could be looking at only one side of the equation. In measuring social media, we have to listen, observe, and study to understand who the real influencers are. Perhaps an influencer’s influence isn’t driven online, but offline. Here’s where Razorfish’s SIM Score (or perhaps Altimeter’s Social Marketing Framework) can help us capture–along with the aid of engagement in a private community, an interview or survey–the offline component.”
Read the piece — it’s worth it.
Tags: Advertising, ARF, communication experts, communication methods, effective communication, Klout, PR measurement, Public Relations, Razorfish, Research, Social Media, WOMMA
I thank you very much for this feedback it means a lot. Influence is not measured easily. And we marketers will be careful not to try and measure all of this social media stuff in the same way we do television viewership, or click rates.
Lynne – thanks so much for your comment. My crusade is for more research on social media in general, unbiased, unfettered, serious. My writing/research partner and I have started a project — right now just one paper, presented at the International PR Research Conference this year — looking hard at social media. The first paper was on theoretical matters — does current social media use by companies reflect the ideal 2-way, symmetry, or merely persuasion?
We’re meeting later this week to discuss our next steps.
Best regards — and thanks again!
Sean