Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Keeping Incoming Data from Eating You Alive

In online marketing circles these days, people toss the term fire hose around like candy, but what does it mean? Fire hose simply refers to a large amount of unsorted incoming information, often the real-time data generated by individual social media services, such as the “Twitter fire hose” or concepts like the “Real Time Search fire hose.”

When you really start to pay attention to metrics and measurement, you discover the incredible variety of information available to you: customer reviews, coworker opinions, statistics, infographics, brand metrics, clicks, hits and views, retweets, shares, updates, purchase data, conversion rates, lifetime click-through rates, costs per click, referral data, favorites, bookmarks, and on and on until your brain wants to scream “STOP!”

The first advice I have for you is borrowed from author Douglas Adams: “Don’t panic!” The next piece of advice is to start small. There is nothing wrong with getting your feet wet slowly. Pick one thing to look at first, then another, and eventually, when you’re comfortable, you can think about jumping off the high dive.

Practice looking at small metrics first. Think about the last time you popped your own name into Google’s search box. (I know you’ve probably done it at least once!) Searching on your name or brand, called a vanity search, is more than just a fun pastime — it’s a type of simple metric.

Think about the search results that came up. If you’ve been doing what ...