In a former life, I analyzed television ratings and demographic trends (you know, the usual: R&F’s, GRP’s, gloriously boring Venn diagrams, etc). Colleagues relied on the information to understand viewership of a given program. Their need for metrics hardly strayed outside of the framework of key standard quantitative measurements. Who could blame them? Basic ratings and demographics determined each program’s success or failure.
In fact, the TV and advertising industries have relied on those magical Nielsen numbers for decades. Decades. Numbers calculated by a monopoly, invented at a time when the average television viewer watched only three channels (four if you count PBS). Though radio analysis started in the 30’s and television analysis in the 50’s, the audience measurement framework hasn’t changed as much as you’d expect since then.
Nielsen bases these standard metrics on flawed methodology and yet in social media and research circles I still hear talk of reach, frequency, GRP’s. As if we can pull social media into the same frame as other measurements. We stick with what we know – but what we know is outdated.
We cannot force social media into imprecise buckets of outdated measurement.
So, how do we measure it?
- KD Paine says Kill the Zombie Metrics
- Content to Commerce provides 100 ways to Measure Social Media Marketing
- Alexander van Elsas encourages us not to forget about The Human Factor
- Tremendous News drives it home with the importance of The Twitter Avatar
- And finally, Shamable, the no B.S. Social Media Guide says be patient, “Concrete Measurement Will Come.”
I'm of the ABT mindset - Anything But This.
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