Measuring Meaning In Social Media (Web Visions)

MEASURING MEANING, CREATING VALUE

from data to action in social media

© 2008 ZAAZ, Inc. All rights reserved. Confidential information.

Ryan Turner

Director, Social Media

ryant@zaaz.com

Me: Ryan

Social Media.

ZAAZ.

Seattle.

12 years.

Online community, social media, information architecture, usability, knowledge

management, social learning, leadership development.

Degrees in poetry writing and literature.

Telemark skiing, fly fishing, mountain biking, jazz, hip hop, modern art.

Bloomington, Oakland, Santa Clara, Volvo, Orcas, Tempe, Missoula, Seattle.

2 kids.

3 chickens.

I was abducted by social media.

You can find me here:

www.websocialarchitecture.com

WHY MOST SOCIAL MEDIA INITIATIVES FAIL

5 REASONS:

1. Failure to think strategically.

2. Failure to understand users.

3. Failure to align with brand.

4. Failure to create value.

5. Failure to plan for ongoing effort.

“Just because we understand tax code doesn’t mean we can’t bust mad flow.”

--Intuit

The Hub.

Agenda

• Focus on quality, not quantity.

• Case studies.

• Social media generates business intelligence.

• Cultivate human intelligence.

• Start with the basics.

• Discussion.

THE WEB IS A SOCIAL MEDIUM

WHEN WE TALK ABOUT SOCIAL MEDIA, WHAT

WE REALLY MEAN IS

PARTICIPATION.

Some Context: Ryan’s Ten-Cent History of the

WebCommunity-Focused Broadcast Participatory

User-Generated

Bottom-Up

HTML

High Threshold of Entry

Low Bandwidth

Text-Based

Collaboration

Corporation-Driven

Top-Down

Data-Driven

No entry

Flash intros!

Text and Images

Transaction

User-Generated

Bottom-Up

Standards-Driven

Lower Threshold of Entry

High Bandwidth

Multimedia

Interaction

1980’s-1994 1994-2005 2005-Now

Web 2.0 and social media are social phenomena

above all.

Blogs Discussion Boards

Forums Chat IM Vlogs

Moblogs SMS Podcasts

Microblogs Photo Blogs

Prediction Markets RSS

Collaboration Collective

Intelligence Communities

Wikis Recommender Systems

Mashups User-Generated

Content

Social media is made up of people, relationships

among people, and things people create and share

VS

What Is Social Media

DON’T WANT TO CONNECT

WITH

PEOPLE

EACH OTHER ONLINE.

But that’s not the whole story. People do want value, and they will participate in ways they find meaningful.

THE LONG-TERM WINNERS ARE THE ONES WHO

CREATE THE MOST VALUE,

NOT THE ONES WHO CONVERT THE HIGHEST PERCENTAGE OF

TRAFFIC.

THE WINNERS CREATE MEANING.

THEY MAKE STUFF THAT MATTERS.

FOCUS ON QUALITY,

NOT QUANTITY ONLY.

Not how much stuff you have, but what kind of stuff.

Not how many people show up, but how many come back.

Not how many conversations, but their inherent intelligence.

Not how many people listen to you, but how well you listen,

how much you learn, and what you do about it.

From Salon.com.

http://blogs.salon.com/0002007/categories/blogsBlogging/2005/01/04.html

A blog is therefore a bad tool

for engaging customers.

You could conclude:

“We’ve already got 100,000 registered users.”

“Our users have posted 2500 videos.”

How does this work in practice?

Quantity:

• Visits

• Members

• Number of Projects

Quality:

• Active Members

• Average Rate of

Participation

• Positive Offsite Blog

Postings

• Return Visitor %

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

Quantity:

• My Beacon Activations

• Learn about My Beacon

Visits

Quality:

• Active My Beacon Users

(5x/month)

• Avg. # of Buddies per

Active User

• % Regular User vs. Heavy

Users

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

Quantity:

• Number of reviews

submitted

Quality:

• % of Reviews “Helpful” 75%+

of the Time

• Review Visits per Product Visit

• % of Reviewers “Heavily

Engaged”

• Conversion Rate based on

Review

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

Quantity:

• Visits

• Page Views per Visit

Quality:

• Total MVP Activity

• Total Comment Prints

• % Rating Experience

“Helpful”

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

We’ve already done a lot of great work.Quantity:

• Visits

• Page Views

• Comments

Quality:

• Survey % - Expanded

View of MS Office

capabilities

• Survey % - helpful

content

• % Visits Downloading

Templates

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

Quantity:

• Raw comment counts

• Visits

Quality:

• % of Votes Over/Under

100 words

• % of “Recommend

Comments” selected

• Rate of Full Page Scrolls

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

Quantity:

• # of Ratings

Quality:

• Clickthroughs to BlendTec Site

• Total Comments

• Video Views

• Active Subscriptions

• “Favorited” Based on Views

Quantity vs. Quality Measurements

VALUE-FOCUSED MEASURES OF SUCCESS

FOR GREAT DESIGN, START BY DEFINING

One Agenda

One Agenda

One Agenda

One Agenda

One Agenda

UNDERSTAND YOUR WEB ECOSYSTEM

TAKE A SOCIAL MEDIA INVENTORY AND

Conceptual site map

Every site we build should include elements of social media.

OF YOUR WEB CHANNELQUANTIFYING THE VALUE

“The purpose of a business is to create value

for its customers, and the reward for doing so is profit.”

MONETIZATION DESCRIPTION

Assigning dollar values to different site behaviors to understand and

quantify the value of the overall web channel.

Monetizing site behaviors can help you:

• Understand Overall Value of Web Channel

• Where to Focus Research & Analysis Efforts

• Prioritize Potential Opportunities

• Evaluate the True Impact of Changes

In order to monetize site

behaviors we must

understand the sales

process.

How do you translate

visitor behaviors into

financial benefits for the

company?

ANALYZING THE VALUE OF LEADS FROM A LEAD

GENERATION SITE

HOW TO MONETIZE SITE BEHAVIORS

PURCHASE FUNNEL

Top of Funnel 120,428

Bottom of Funnel 9,177

Conversion Rate 7.62%

Value of Purchase 65$ (adjust $ value to see impact) First month only

Future Conversion Rate: OrdersIncremental

Orders

Monthly Incremental

Value

Impact of Three Month

Delay

7.62% 9,177 - -$ $ -

8.00% 9,634 457 29,721$ $ (445,809)

8.25% 9,935 758 49,290$ $ (739,352)

8.50% 10,236 1,059 68,860$ $ (1,032,896)

8.75% 10,537 1,360 88,429$ $ (1,326,439)

9.00% 10,839 1,662 107,999$ $ (1,619,982)

9.25% 11,140 1,963 127,568$ $ (1,913,525)

9.50% 11,441 2,264 147,138$ $ (2,207,069)

9.75% 11,742 2,565 166,707$ $ (2,500,612)

10.00% 12,043 2,866 186,277$ $ (2,794,155)

10.25% 12,344 3,167 205,847$ $ (3,087,698)

10.50% 12,645 3,468 225,416$ $ (3,381,242)

10.75% 12,946 3,769 244,986$ $ (3,674,785)

MONETIZING SITE BEHAVIORS

UNDERSTANDING THE

IMPACT

SOCIAL MEDIA MONETIZATION:

SOME TRICKS

START WITH GOALS

AND MONETIZE BEHAVIOR

Goal Setting & Monetization are Just as Important

for Social Media Initiatives...

…But are Often Overlooked or Inaccurately Valued

EXAMPLE: Understanding the Value of a Posting/Review:

MONETIZING SOCIAL MEDIA INITIATIVES

Typical/Common Value

Assessment:

• Increase conversion of future

visitors who view review or

comment

Actual Value Impact:

• Increased Loyalty from customers that post comments/reviews

• Increase conversion of future visitors who view review or

comment

• Organic Search Impact

• Leveraging comments/reviews in other marketing campaigns

• Impact greater business decisions (change to products or

services)

• The list goes on…

RETURN ON INFLUENCIALS

Important Things to Remember When Forecasting the Impact of Social Media:

• Snowball Effect

• Social Initiatives Build Vs. Traditional Media Initiatives Start over Each Time

• “Action Chains” – Moving customers from one action to the next

• Focus on the near-term AND long-term impact of your initiatives

SOCIAL MEDIA GENERATES

Social media, unlike broadcast and transactive media, is a two-way channel.

Listen, don’t just talk.

Don’t measure your social media marketing to improve your marketing—measure it to improve your business

decisions.

And get ready for higher-level exposure.

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE

Integrating Data to

Understand

the Full Landscape

BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE IS

Measurement tools can’t generate business intelligence, only data.

People translate data into intelligence.

HUMAN INTELLIGENCE

BUT MONETIZATION DOESN’T TELL THE WHOLE STORY.

What is the value of a converted detractor? A connected advocate?

A blog post that saves your business?

RYAN VIA ELECTRICITY

Blog: http://www.websocialarchitecture.com

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