Social media metrics: 5 things to learn in 2011

It has been said that social media came of age in 2010. Not so for social media measurement. But the mainstreaming of social media marketing brings with it a heightened call for accountability.

The need to prove the value of social media initiatives has never been greater. So, perhaps 2011 will be the year that social media measurement matures and comes of age.

Here are five things to learn about social media metrics this year:

1. Measurable objectives

There are many issues and challenges in the field of social media measurement. The easiest one to fix is for everybody to learn how to write measurable objectives. Most objectives today are either not measurable as written or are strategies masquerading as objectives. (For example, any sentence starting with an action buzzword like leverage is a strategy.)

“Increase awareness of product X” is not a measurable objective. In order to be measurable, objectives must contain two essential elements:

Therefore, properly stated, measurable objectives should look more like these:

2. Impact versus ROI