Katie Paine begins Chapter 5 of Measure What Matters with this quote. For those of you who regularly read my blog, I'm sure by now you understand how technological advances and social media have completely changed the world in which we do business. Social media forces companies to truly live and breathe the images their PR departments work so hard to create and communicate to publics.
From Katie Paine's measurement perspective, this social media revolution requires a three-part shift in our thought processes:
- Redefine "now"
- Redefine PR, advertising, marketing and corporate communications
- Change how we quantify success
Timeliness and PR have been redefined with the growth of social media, and in turn, measuring impressions and overall success has become nearly impossible. Paine argues that perfect measurement of success doesn't really matter. Too often, PR departments measure success by the number of media impressions or "eyeballs reached" when it needs to be more about measuring engagement and relationships.
For example, let's imagine I see a post on Facebook about new deals at my favorite local coffee shop and I "like" it. What does this tell the coffee shop? How many "likes" does the post need to get before the coffee shop can consider the post successful? Facebook likes, as measurable as they may be, do not signify success. What matters to the coffee shop's social media and PR department is the number of times I share or comment on the post, or the number of times I click through the post to claim a coffee coupon. This type of action and engagement on the Facebook post can be quantified as success for the coffee shop, because I am fostering the consumer-business relationship and promoting the brand.
Social media specialists can no longer assume that hits or page views equal success. Instead, we need to focus on measuring social media engagement to determine success.
For example, let's imagine I see a post on Facebook about new deals at my favorite local coffee shop and I "like" it. What does this tell the coffee shop? How many "likes" does the post need to get before the coffee shop can consider the post successful? Facebook likes, as measurable as they may be, do not signify success. What matters to the coffee shop's social media and PR department is the number of times I share or comment on the post, or the number of times I click through the post to claim a coffee coupon. This type of action and engagement on the Facebook post can be quantified as success for the coffee shop, because I am fostering the consumer-business relationship and promoting the brand.
Social media specialists can no longer assume that hits or page views equal success. Instead, we need to focus on measuring social media engagement to determine success.
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