![\"\"](\"http:\/\/www.brasstackthinking.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/01\/abacus.jpg\" "\\"abacus\\"")
We hate math.<\/p>\nWe hate math.<\/p>\n
Our abhorrence for calculation enables us to mutually agree on statistically dubious metrics with nary a shrug or arched eyebrow. <\/strong><\/p>\n Consider Nielsen ratings, which are used to determine the popularity of all TV shows and, consequently, how the dozens of billions of dollars in TV advertising is apportioned.<\/p>\n Nielsen ratings have a direct impact on hundreds of thousands of people in the United States. In 2009, there were 1,147,910 households with a TV in metropolitan Charlotte, North Carolina. Of those more than 1 million households, the behavior of just 619 was tracked by Nielsen to determine ratings. A total of 619 families became the unelected representative tastemakers for 1,147,291 other families. That\u2019s not math; that\u2019s folly.<\/p>\n But yet, we welcome numerical vagary and imprecision into our businesses like a box of free Krispy Kremes. <\/strong>We accept as truth Arbitron (and Nielsen) radio rankings, the number of cars that drive by a billboard, and the notion that somehow people read every page of a newspaper or magazine (and pass it along to 2.5 friends). Do you really know the financial impact of your TV, radio, outdoor print, public relations, and customer services initiatives? Probably not.<\/p>\n Social media almost always offers the advantage of complete\u2014rather than extrapolated\u2014data.<\/strong> The same is true of all online marketing. Whereas we have mutually agreed that 619 families are an appropriate stand-in for 1 million others, online marketing offers the compelling alternative of measuring each and every individual.<\/p>\n That\u2019s the good news. One equals one.<\/p>\n The bad news is that there isn\u2019t an easy-to-convey, standardized, one-size-fits-all metric, like Nielsen ratings, for social media. And there isn\u2019t going to be. What is measurable differs from company to company. <\/strong>If you\u2019re a business-to-business (B2B) company that has a long sales cycle with many conversations with prospects before they become customers, you can determine with relative ease whether that customer was influenced in some way by your social media efforts. Alternatively, if you\u2019re Pringles, it\u2019s a lot tougher to make that connection.<\/p>\n Your type of company and how your business is structured has tremendous influence on what you can credibly and reliably measure within the social media realm. Measurement of all things\u2014not just social media\u2014is a discipline, not a task, and it needs to be a cultural imperative. <\/strong>If you\u2019re going to ask about the value or impact of social media and how to measure it, you need to know how you determine those things for other areas of your business and translate or adapt some of those practices.<\/p>\n \u201cSocial media isn\u2019t measurable\u201d is an excuse.<\/strong> Here\u2019s what companies really mean when they say that:<\/p>\n You need to understand whether you\u2019re equipped with the right tools and data, whether you\u2019re willing to spend the time evaluating that data, and whether you\u2019re functionally and culturally prepared for what it might show you.<\/p>\n Once you\u2019re past that hurdle, you can get to the numbers \u2013 and if you\u2019re going to do social media right, you need to get past your loathing for math.<\/strong> Nobody promised social media would be easy, only that it would be awesome.<\/p>\n Amber Naslund<\/p>\n ___________<\/p>\n We hate math. Our abhorrence for calculation enables us to mutually agree on statistically dubious metrics with nary a shrug or arched eyebrow. Consider Nielsen ratings, which are used to determine the popularity of all TV shows and, consequently, how the dozens of billions of dollars in TV advertising is apportioned. Nielsen ratings have a … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[137,55],"tags":[443,1045,1046],"class_list":["post-2538","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-all-posts","category-ambernaslund","tag-social-media-measurement","tag-social-media-metrics","tag-the-now-revolution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2538"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2542,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2538\/revisions\/2542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2538"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2538"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2538"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Social Media is Inherently Measurable<\/h3>\n
What Should You Measure? It Depends<\/h3>\n
The Common Excuses<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Convince](\"http:\/\/www.convinceandconvert.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/12\/Convince-and-Convert-Blog_-Social-Media-Strategy-and-Social-Media-Consulting-%C2%BB-5-Attributes-of-a-Healthy-Real-Time-Culture.jpg\" "\\"Convince")
<\/a>This is the final post in a 7-week series covering themes included in\u00a0The NOW Revolution: 7 Shifts to Make Your Business Faster, Smarter, and More Social<\/em> <\/a>– my new book with\u00a0Jay Baer<\/a>, now available<\/strong> on Amazon in hard cover and Kindle<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"