“Social media analytics” is a phrase that can make some people very excited and others run for the hills. In 2012, why not start by getting comfortable with the different phases you’ll be working within when analyzing your social media data? This will prepare you for what to expect.

Metrics

Definition: There are the items you are going to count. The actual numbers. The metrics you choose to use should be agreed upon by your stakeholders.

Skills Needed: Understanding the metrics and ability to use software for tracking metrics.

Help: Need help getting stakeholders involved? Have a read of this post from Forbes David Vinjamuri that gives some examples of benefits.

Measurement

Definition: These are you results of the metrics. You will start to judge how certain metrics compared against each other and over time.

Skills Needed: A little logical and observation skills are useful at this stage.

Help: Check out this checklist from Katie Paine.

Analysis

Definition: Take a look at the measurements and start to make some observations like, “When we increase our tweets, our retweets go up.”

Skills Needed: Analytical ability to look at information and pull out conclusions.

Help: Tom Webster has great thoughts on letting the data speak for itself in Social Media Data Dredging.

Insights

Definition: Pull out your action items from your analysis. They link back to your business objectives. If your analysis showed, “When we increase our tweets, our retweets go up,” then you need to think about how increasing those tweets affects your time, resources and strategy for engagement.

Skills Needed: Analytical ability and knowledge of the business objectives.

Help: See this post from Olivier Blanchard on how to cut through and build real objectives.

Getting comfortable with these phases before and after analysis will help you take your social analytics to the next level in 2012.

What resources are you aware of that have helped you in the different phases? Who is involved on your team throughout each phase? What background or skills have you found valuable?

If you are looking to learn more about making an impact with Analytics in 2012, check out chapter 4 in this month’s ebook.

Tags: Analysis, insight, measurement, metrics