Engage: The Complete Guide for Brands and Businesses to Build, Cultivate, and Measure Success in the New Web

Chapter 25. The New Media Scorecard: Measuring Investment Returns

One of the most fascinating aspects of socialized media is its ability to track and measure almost anything that matters to your business—as it unfolds. With the right tools, we can peel back the layers between the digital and real worlds to reveal the actions, behavior, perception, advocates, influencers, trends, hot zones, and sentiments of the communities that define market places.

Whether you realize it or not, you are already making progress. To ease us into this complex and diverse discussion, I've peppered the materials needed to build a framework for relevant business metrics throughout this book.

In the Social CRM chapter (Chapter 23), we learn how to measure customer value and influence. Earlier in the book we examine the processes associated with identifying and establishing authority. We also review methods for discovering communities of influence and capturing relevant activity in order to institute a measurable Conversation Index. In addition, we learned how to define experiences, establish desired direction, and track and measure activity. Each step forms a foundation of metrics that serve as benchmarks moving forward—focused specifically on the programs and goals as implemented at program and brand levels and organized and managed by chartered business units within the company. After all, while the need to measure initiatives is pervasive, we have no basis for comparison without benchmarks.

There are ...