These
days, it seems there is a constant stream of new social media tools and
applications to whet the appetite of everyone from brand managers to
agency folks who are eager to crack the code of reaching audiences in
an increasingly media-dispersed world. Twitter.com,
tumblr.com, stumbleupon.com, facebook.com are the current darlings, but
there are countless others that are helping to propel social media into
the forefront of marketers minds.
While
it's no secret that brand managers are ardently exploring ways to
integrate social media into traditional marketing programs, there seems
to be a fundamental disconnect in how to measure the impact of digital
word of mouth. And therein lays the threat to
ensuring social media becomes a useful marketing tool rather than a
disappointing experiment--how do you incorporate programs using a very
new and very fluid channel to reach an audience that increasingly
demands engagement over interruption, while using old-school metrics to
measure success and justify budgets?
In
fact, it is a new and evolving world, and there needs to be a period of
incubation that allows the medium to mature enough that metrics can be
applied that actually mean something. As it stands, it's not an apples-to-apples comparison to apply direct marketing metrics to online engagement. The same can be said for banner advertising and other paid initiatives. Currently, there is no commonly accepted way to measure online success, although Industry desperately wants one. In
fact, it behooves brand managers and agencies alike if there is an
established industry standard for measuring the effectiveness of online
marketing initiatives. To this end, Zocalo Group
has developed a methodology for measuring success in online engagement,
which we will be introducing in the coming weeks. Necessarily, this
will be an evolving methodology to make sure it remains relevant and
realistic. It is a first, imperfect step in a long process we will all need to participate in. As
we begin to roll this out, the Digital Footprint analysis, please let
me know your thoughts and suggestions on the things we all need to
consider as we create usable and meaningful measurement.
