Social Media Marketing For Dummies, 2nd Edition

Chapter 19

Applying Metrics to the SMM Realm

In This Chapter

Calculating your SMM score

Measuring influencer activity

Analyzing activity on various social media platforms

There’s a common myth that social media marketing isn’t really measurable. Many a consultant has said that you can’t measure the value of a conversation. They believe that measuring a phenomenon is always difficult, especially when you’re still figuring out how to market in it.

The truth is that social media marketing is as measurable as any other form of marketing. It wasn’t the case two years ago — but that’s quickly changing. Today, there are tools, techniques, and mechanisms to measure social influence marketing. These are broader brand metrics, which may not be as measurable as a direct-response marketer may like.

There are also specific campaign- or program-oriented metrics that you can capture, analyze, and map to other performance indicators. These may be in the category of a YouTube campaign, an online community effort, a pass-along widget, a blogger outreach program, or a viral video campaign.

It’s all ...