As the old saying goes, “if you can’t measure it, don’t do it”. But is that really relevant in today’s online social-media world?  Certainly those people trying to re-create social media analytics based on traditional ATL and BTL rules seem to be missing the point. 

Indeed, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) recently published what it thought should be the principle criteria for assessing the effectiveness of online activity including social media.

However, there seems to be good grounds for questioning these as they are perhaps too general and too simplistic for anyone using more than one or two social media sites.  For example, how can you compare the effectiveness of a Twitter campaign against a Facebook campaign?  Surely there has to be more to measuring social media than simply the number of followers, voters, comments, members, etc , etc?

The reality is that the measurement criteria should be acknowledging the USP of social media and the various types of social media, more along the lines of call centre and CRM than advertising and direct mail.

Most people would agree that social media offers a way of engaging with target audiences, understanding what makes them tick and getting a feel for what they want. So perhaps what’s needed is a new language to measure the effectiveness?

Those of us involved in social media are having to learn a new language (just think about the Twitter revolution and the new words coming out of that!)

What about using criteria like: Stickiness, Engagement, Impact, network quality?

Indicators of which could include those used by Twitalyzer such as: Influence, Signal, Generosity, Velocity and Clout!

So, if you are considering a social media campaign it might be worth rethinking the way you’re going to measure it?

If you’d like to know more about social media and what you can gain from it, call social media specialist Spiders and Milk on 0800 085 6902 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it