June 29, 2010
Reporting for Marketing and Corporate Communications
By: Katie Morse
“How do we report on all of this stuff?” is a question frequently heard from all corners of the sandbox. Customer service wants to know how their activities on the social web can tie back in with their existing metrics, sales wants to see how it impacts their lead times, sales cycles, and other sales-related metrics, and marketers want to know how to get the information out of the system (as a first step) to funnel to the other groups, as well as know what information they should be looking for as a department.
Phew. That’s a lot of wants!
To help you break it down, here are some steps to help you get started with your marketing and communications-focused reporting plan:
What programs are included in your strategic plan over the next 6 or 12 months?
Social media reporting shouldn’t JUST be used to report on social programs. Identify which campaigns you’ll be running, shows you’ll be attending, and other activities you’ll be starting (or continuing) over the next 6-12 months. What are the keywords associated with these activities? Do people pick up on things and talk about them on the social web before/during/after? Are they reacting positively or negatively to your campaigns or events? Do you see correlation or cross-pollination from offline program to online channels?
What keywords are associated with your brand?
It may sound simple, but a lot of people track things like @ mentions, Twitter followers, and other statistics, but don’t track keywords associated with their brand. What does your mission statement say? What are your brand attributes? How are you ranking both for share of voice and share of conversation for these keywords, as well as your market?
Conversation volume.
How many people are talking about you during your reporting period? Is this number growing? Do you notice the same people talking about you week after week or month after month? Can you track sentiment over time and see if a growth in conversation volume also corresponds to a growth in positive sentiment?
Be creative.
No report is going to be “standard” or the same as everyone elses. The key to is to make your reporting plan reflect your business goals, objectives, and tactics. What is trackable? What do you currently report on? Start there and the social metrics will become apparent far more quickly than starting from “what metrics should we track” and working backwards to applying those to your activities and objectives.
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by SocialMedio and ilikerashersrss, Bryon Cromlish. Bryon Cromlish said: Radian6: Reporting for Marketing and Corporate Communications http://bit.ly/9ZsZ2a [...]
Hi Katie,
This is a great post, both for those in marcomm and others. I really like your point that social media reporting should involve more than just social programs, and that we also need to pay attention to online AND offline activities. Ensuring that your social strategy integrates with your events calendar is really key – thanks for the reminder to take a fresh look at the conference schedule! It's crucial to make sure our clients or customers feel they can reach us 'in real life,' as well as online.
That said, I guess I would emphasize that one way to measure social reporting would be to emphasize how your online efforts translate into offline happenings – can you point to things you've done online that have opened doors to you or your team offline? Events you've been invited to? Speaking engagements you've landed? Connections you've made? I find that those are the most exciting and, often, most productive.
Keywords are also an excellent point, and I think a lot of companies probably don't pay close enough attention to this. You always want to make sure you're part of the conversations that matter to your brand.
Conversation volume is a good one, but also tricky – it can be hard to know whether the increased volume of chatter about your brand will translate into increased business for your company (and it can also be tough to track). Some folks will often want to see a direct conversion into actual sales, but I think you're right in paying attention to general growth in volume of conversations and also the sentiment behind those conversations. Being part of the conversation and being present is really important. Slow and steady growth is a good sign, I think. Success in social doesn't happen overnight.
I think your comment is better than my post – I literally couldn't have said it better myself!
You hit the nail on the head with regards to conversation volume. A lot of people want to view social media through the same lens that we view things like targeted ad campaigns or email marketing programs, which is one of a shorter return cycle, or a limited-time offer. Social media is often "the handshake", and people instead should view it more like a trip to the golf course with a prospect, or a conversation at a networking event. Historically these items take longer to translate into money coming through your sales funnel, and are far more long-term than your other online activities.
Thanks for your comment!
-Katie
Hi Katie,
This is a great post, both for those in marcomm and others. I really like your point that social media reporting should involve more than just social programs, and that we also need to pay attention to online AND offline activities. Ensuring that your social strategy integrates with your events calendar is really key – thanks for the reminder to take a fresh look at the conference schedule! It's crucial to make sure our clients or customers feel they can reach us 'in real life,' as well as online.
That said, I guess I would emphasize that one way to measure social reporting would be to emphasize how your online efforts translate into offline happenings – can you point to things you've done online that have opened doors to you or your team offline? Events you've been invited to? Speaking engagements you've landed? Connections you've made? I find that those are the most exciting and, often, most productive.
Keywords are also an excellent point, and I think a lot of companies probably don't pay close enough attention to this. You always want to make sure you're part of the conversations that matter to your brand.
Conversation volume is a good one, but also tricky – it can be hard to know whether the increased volume of chatter about your brand will translate into increased business for your company (and it can also be tough to track). Some folks will often want to see a direct conversion into actual sales, but I think you're right in paying attention to general growth in volume of conversations and also the sentiment behind those conversations. Being part of the conversation and being present is really important. Slow and steady growth is a good sign, I think. Success in social doesn't happen overnight.
I think your comment is better than my post – I literally couldn't have said it better myself!
You hit the nail on the head with regards to conversation volume. A lot of people want to view social media through the same lens that we view things like targeted ad campaigns or email marketing programs, which is one of a shorter return cycle, or a limited-time offer. Social media is often "the handshake", and people instead should view it more like a trip to the golf course with a prospect, or a conversation at a networking event. Historically these items take longer to translate into money coming through your sales funnel, and are far more long-term than your other online activities.
Thanks for your comment!
-Katie
Nice post, especially the point about making sure that your social media reports align with other reports.
Each company that makes an effort around social media has a defined goal for digital (sell something, get a lead from someone, have our content read/downloaded), and aligning the findings of social media to the goals in your web analytics tool gives awesome insights into you business and stakeholders.
Here's a completely fake story to Illustrate my point: XYZ.com decides to take an active role in contributing to the social discussion around both their brand and their corporate focus – widgeting. As they begin to work at becoming a visible community member through twitter/facebook/blog etc., they also build a custom filter in Google Analytics called 'social media', which segments out all visitors from these sources and shows how they convert as sales leads.
After a few months of work, the company realizes that their social community is driving traffic to the site because of discussions around widget customization, an area the company doesn't discuss on its website. Creation of a custom landing page which is broadcast out to the community creates increased positive perception and increased conversion rate of social media sales leads.
Direct correlation of Social Data to online business outcomes is a great way to showcase the impact of your efforts, and get an executive to buy in to your work.
Keep up the great blogging,
Jim
Man, you and Esther are full of comment brilliance. Your example is a PERFECT one to show how one silo (marketing yourself through your website) can be married with another (your marketing activities across the social web).
Thanks for the comment and the kudos!
-Katie
"Direct correlation of Social Data to online business outcomes is a great way to showcase the impact of your efforts, and get an executive to buy in to your work. "
Jim, I completely agree and thanks for the helpful example. One of the problems I've seen with attributing traffic to social media engagement efforts is the segment of traffic that is defined in site analytics reports as "Direct Traffic" and "Search Engine" traffic. In the former case, I am speaking, of course, of traffic that is made up of visitors who reach your website by actually typing in the URL rather than via search engines or referring sites. Some of that direct traffic (the majority according to Tealium if I understand their analysis correctly) is actually "view thru" traffic where the prospect has read something online mentioning your product or company on Facebook, Linkedin, on a blog or elsewehere and shortly thereafter types your company's address directly into the address bar rather than clicking on a link within the post that they've just read. Tealium Social Media provides a technology to correctly attribute that "direct traffic" to the actual sources online. It's my understanding that many of their customers use Tealium in conjuction with Radian6 and whatever site analytics platform they use (google analytics, omniture, etc…)
Here's an example of what I mean. What if after reading this comment you typed tealium.com into your address bar or searched for tealium via a search engine. That would show up as direct traffic (or perhaps search engine traffic) when in fact it should be attributed to a comment on this blog. (full disclosure: i have absolutely no client relationship with tealium and have not been asked or paid to leave this comment! I just really care about the issue of ROI and seeing that we as an industry have a healthy discussion about measuring it and I know from reading this blog and chats online with Marcel at Radian6 that R6 takes it quite seriously as well.)
Nice post, especially the point about making sure that your social media reports align with other reports.
Each company that makes an effort around social media has a defined goal for digital (sell something, get a lead from someone, have our content read/downloaded), and aligning the findings of social media to the goals in your web analytics tool gives awesome insights into you business and stakeholders.
Here's a completely fake story to Illustrate my point: XYZ.com decides to take an active role in contributing to the social discussion around both their brand and their corporate focus – widgeting. As they begin to work at becoming a visible community member through twitter/facebook/blog etc., they also build a custom filter in Google Analytics called 'social media', which segments out all visitors from these sources and shows how they convert as sales leads.
After a few months of work, the company realizes that their social community is driving traffic to the site because of discussions around widget customization, an area the company doesn't discuss on its website. Creation of a custom landing page which is broadcast out to the community creates increased positive perception and increased conversion rate of social media sales leads.
Direct correlation of Social Data to online business outcomes is a great way to showcase the impact of your efforts, and get an executive to buy in to your work.
Keep up the great blogging,
Jim
Man, you and Esther are full of comment brilliance. Your example is a PERFECT one to show how one silo (marketing yourself through your website) can be married with another (your marketing activities across the social web).
Thanks for the comment and the kudos!
-Katie
"Direct correlation of Social Data to online business outcomes is a great way to showcase the impact of your efforts, and get an executive to buy in to your work. "
Jim, I completely agree and thanks for the helpful example. One of the problems I've seen with attributing traffic to social media engagement efforts is the segment of traffic that is defined in site analytics reports as "Direct Traffic" and "Search Engine" traffic. In the former case, I am speaking, of course, of traffic that is made up of visitors who reach your website by actually typing in the URL rather than via search engines or referring sites. Some of that direct traffic (the majority according to Tealium if I understand their analysis correctly) is actually "view thru" traffic where the prospect has read something online mentioning your product or company on Facebook, Linkedin, on a blog or elsewehere and shortly thereafter types your company's address directly into the address bar rather than clicking on a link within the post that they've just read. Tealium Social Media provides a technology to correctly attribute that "direct traffic" to the actual sources online. It's my understanding that many of their customers use Tealium in conjuction with Radian6 and whatever site analytics platform they use (google analytics, omniture, etc…)
Here's an example of what I mean. What if after reading this comment you typed tealium.com into your address bar or searched for tealium via a search engine. That would show up as direct traffic (or perhaps search engine traffic) when in fact it should be attributed to a comment on this blog. (full disclosure: i have absolutely no client relationship with tealium and have not been asked or paid to leave this comment! I just really care about the issue of ROI and seeing that we as an industry have a healthy discussion about measuring it and I know from reading this blog and chats online with Marcel at Radian6 that R6 takes it quite seriously as well.)
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