In this chapter, Evans talks about writing down what it is you are trying to do so that you will know what you are measuring in order to achieve your social media goals.  For instance, Evans starts by asking you to think about who your audience is.  Knowing the wants and needs of your audience will help you to have a starting point to focus your efforts on.  Pay attention to patterns that customers are setting and learn what their dislikes and likes are.  Remember, on the Social Web, it’s all about getting involved in conversations with others.  What better way to reach out to your consumers than to talk to them?

It’s All About the Metrics

Regarding your key metrics, Evans points out:

In selecting your key metrics, it is equally important to think through the kinds of social activities that your audience–or various components of it–may be engaging in.  Your audience may be actively reading blogs, bu not at all interested in actually blogging themselves.  These types of differences in behavior will certainly impact your choice in the activities you offer them and hence the types of metrics that are available for analysis.

By measuring different aspects of social media and paying attention to what other people are doing, it will allow you to better understand what is going on at the various purchase points on the Social Web, thereby creating a more effective social media campaign for success.

Other Tips That Evans Offers in This Chapter

• Your promise minus your delivery equals what you do at the point-of-sale.
• It is essential when considering the use of managed applications (ie. Twitter, Facebook, etc.) that you get involved and stay involved. By being involved and thinking clearly about how a managed program will evolve and play out, you not only benefit from the program itself, but you set in place the basis for a true community built around your brand and the larger experiences you provide as your overall social media program continues to expand.
• Social media measurement is based as much on heuristics–using what is available to make the best of what you have–as it is more traditional quantitative and statistical analysis.  Don’t be afraid to go with your gut: your experience is worth a lot when it comes to making sense of these new channels.
• If you measure conversations that include strong indicators of active recommendations and your bounce rate is still high, look at the landing page and check that the experience it provides is consistent with the likely interests or motivations of those arriving.
• While “posts to comments” is more popular, “comments to posts” is the measure that actually rises in value as the thing you are generally after- audience participation- improves.

The Main Points According to Dave Evans

• It is essential that you identify and clearly state your business objectives before deciding on specific elements of a social media program.
• The behaviors of your target audience are key in setting both the strategy and in identifying the metrics that will support your campaign.
• Conversational content can be measured, with the metrics leading to an understanding of who is talking about you and what they are saying.
• Metrics collected near and within your purchase process link the conversation to the actual impact on conversions.  This is the data that can help you establish an ROI for your social media programs.

In this chapter, Evans talks about the importance of connecting the dots between managing social information on the web as well as keeping up with social interactions.  Managing social information can be eased with tools such as RSS and blog aggrigators in an effort to help you stay organized and up-to-date with the latest information.  Evans states:

Social Interactions–the third big collection of channels making up social media–  consist of the messages, feeds, and emails that flow as social content is created, discovered, consumed, repurposed, and shared.  The updates, feeds, and emails–the connective threads–tell you to go look, that something new is waiting for you.

What matters as much or more than the post itself, Evans points out, is how that post comes to the attention of someone who needs or wants to know about it.  If you haven’t already experienced it or were never very good at it, you will find that with the Internet and social media, etc. multitasking becomes an essential skill.   Participants of the Social Web are constantly dividing their attention between two or more computer screens at a time just to keep up with an incessant flow of information.  We have alerts and emails and RSS and blog aggregates and all sorts of other things that make noise, just to tell us when there is something new that might interest us.  This is why it is so important to have a system in place.

Evans also reminds us that we shouldn’t neglect the content of what we are trying to get across to people.  On the Social Web, content is still king.  After all, you might receive a notification that there is somethibng that might interest you.  However, when you go to read what someone has written, you quickly realize that it is of no use to you.  This is where content comes in.  You have to make what you are saying interesting.  How do you do this? You do it by making what you have to say useful, informative and catchy.

The Main Points According to Dave Evans

• By combining social knowledge with real-time presence, mobile social applications are changing the way people interact in real-world settings.
• Feeds make it possible for you to manage large amounts of information.  You can use feeds to keep up with customers, competitors, partners, and suppliers.
• Feeds make it possible for your customers to keep up with you.  As you create social content, consider adding a feed to make it easy to track and discover.
• Social media forces a rethinking of branded content: what does it mean when recipients have a hand in the creative and when the content itself is reduced to its purely informational state?

Twitter has all the complexity of walking into a room full of people at a party.  You start by listening, and then introduce yourself and get involved.  Microblogs boil social networking down to its most essential elements: a post, a comment, and an indication of relationships. -Dave Evans

There is much to be said about the use of various microblogging sites such as Twitter, Seesmic, Jaiku as well as the various status update features on Facebook and Myspace.  All of them allow you to post quick, short bursts of text to the entire world (or just your friends and family).  At its core, it is a great way to get information across quickly and efficiently.  And in the business world, microblogging can be extremely effective for marketing purposes because it allows you to interact with your consumers.

A Note About Podcasting

According to Wikipedia, a podcast is a “series of digital computer files that are released periodically and made available for download by means of web syndication”.  In plain English, it’s an audio file that you can download on iTunes daily, weekly or monthly by subscribing to it.  It’s an extension of blogging.  Regarding podcasting, Evans is quick to point out that the real importance of podcasting isn’t the clip itself but rather how it is delivered.  As he stated:

It’s about giving your audience the absolute choice of where, when and how to consume your content.

When done correctly, podcasting is highly effective.  Check out the following statistics that Evans notes:

• Advertising in podcasts and online shows has a three-fold ad effectiveness increase over traditional online video and a seven-fold effectiveness increase over television.
• Embedded ad placements are more effective than pre-roll across a range of audio and video formats.
• Advertising in podcasts and online shows is effective in moving users from awareness to consideration to purchases.  There is a 73 percent average increase in likelihood to use/buy versus a control group.
• Podcast advertising leads to a more favorable opinion of an advertiser after hearing or seeing an ad.  Sixty-nine percent of those podcast listeners surveyed had a more favorable view of the advertisers following ad exposure. [Source: Podtrac-TNS Advertising Effectiveness Studies, 2006-2008]

The Main Points According to Dave Evans:

• Blogs are an effective, easy way to build a credible social presence: Be prepared to deal with direct, public customer feedback.
• Microblogs are casual forums that can be used to quickly create a following.
• Audio and video content can be used to extend text-based information.  When created by your customers, video can convey to them a real sense of participation in the brand.
• Podcasting gives those interested in what you have to say the ability to choose where, when, and on what device they will listen.
• Social media is one of the many tools that you have available when developing and extending your business prescence.  Like your entire toolbox, the more that your social components interlock with each other and with your traditional efforts, the better.