That's the Wrong Question: A Beginner's Guide to Social Media Analytics
There is a danger in asking the wrong question - you're very likely to get the wrong answer. I mean, you'll probably get the right answer for the question you're asking, but it's not going to be the right answer for the question you really needed to ask.The problem when we ask those wrong questions of data is that there's no chance the data's going to realize and tell you you're asking the wrong question. It's just going to add together those numbers, do some division, and maybe overlay that with a fancy algorithm - and then spit out a spreadsheet with your answer.So it is with social media analytics, as it is with most types of data. Facebook can tell you how many likes, comments and shares you had, but it can't tell you what those mean. Twitter can tell you how many retweets (as long as they're the kind of retweets that Twitter counts), favorites and replies, but it can't tell you what those mean. Thing is, that's too often the question that's asked of the data.Before you even look at your analytics, you need to figure out why you're measuring. You can't figure out what you're measuring until you know why. And you can't figure out how until you know what.Kami Huyse brilliantly outlines the three things you can do with a good social media measurement program (note: her post is from 2012, but it's timeless in its practicality):Diagnose: Figure out what works and what doesn't and use that information to adjust your strategies.Prioritize: What goes where? Use the information to plan your strategies.Evaluate: Use the information to demonstrate your ROI.On top of this, you need to remember that email is social, texting is social - there are so many platforms and apps and ways people participate in whatever "social" media is. Don't get stuck in the thinking that you need to pay attention to Facebook and Twitter and LinkedIn and you're done.I was asked to speak at New York University's School of Professional Studies' first Digital Analytics Conference this weekend, on the topic of social media analytics. Here's my presentation - let me know what you think I missed.
Photo by Koppenbadger via Flickr Creative Commons.