Social Media Marketing For Dummies®

Chapter 13. Applying Metrics to the SIM Realm

In This Chapter

• Calculating your SIM score

• Measuring influencer activity

• Analyzing activity on various social media platforms

There's a common myth that social influence marketing isn't really measurable. Many a consultant has said that you can't measure the value of a conversation. Some marketers believe that it's too early to measure social influence marketing because the strategies and tactics are too fresh. They believe that measuring a phenomenon is always difficult, especially when you're still figuring out how to market in it.

The truth is that social influence marketing is as measurable as any other form of marketing. It wasn't the case two years ago — or maybe even a year ago — but that's quickly changing. Today, there are tools, techniques, and mechanisms to measure social influence marketing. These are broader brand metrics, which may not be as measurable as a direct-response marketer may like.

There are also specific campaign or program-oriented metrics that you can capture, analyze, and map to other performance indicators. These may be in the category of a YouTube campaign, an online community effort, a pass-along widget, a blogger outreach program, or a viral video campaign.

Note

It's all well and good to capture metrics about your social influence marketing efforts, whether they're broader brand metrics or specific ones around social influence marketing campaigns. It's extremely important to marry these metrics with your other ...