March 26, 2009

Blog ROI: To Measure or Not to Measure?

Posted by Heather Thoreson under Measurement, Return on Investment | Tags: , , , |
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From a blogpost by PRSquared, More on the Menace of Marketing Measurement

From a blogpost by PRSquared, More on the Menace of Marketing Measurement

In my previous posts, I have talked about how companies should always measure to determine the return on investment of their actions.  I have written that company CEO’s will want to know this so they can know what to do and how to invest their money. 

 Yet, some experts, such as Katie Paine, have stated that measuring the ROI for blogs is a waste of time.  She defends her statement by assuming that everyone already knows the power and the results of having a blog.  Once you know that you need this certain technology, then it is a waste of time to measure because you already know the value of the blog.  You know that the consequences of removing the blog far outweigh the benefits of keeping the blog up and running. 

 Shel Holtz responded to Katie Paine’s post in his own blog.  He stated that people are caught up on the fact that return on investment relates to money.  He says that we should look at it as a cost or a risk benefit analysis.  Holtz counters Paine’s statement that measurement is a waste of time by saying that many executives fear the consequences and still do not understand the benefits of blogs yet.  He feels that measurement is still needed at this time to keep proving to executives that blogs can create benefits for their company.  Once CEOs see blogging as essential to their company, then measurement will not be required. 

 Windsor Media Enterprises responded to these postings, by Katie Paine and Shel Holtz, about the measurement of blogs.  They tended to agree with Katie Paine.  They said that the value of blogs is too intangible and is a waste of time to measure.  They feel that as long as a few things, such as blogrolls, links, and comments, are included in your blog, you will receive those intangible returns.  Also, to get these returns you need to connect your links, branding, and conversation.  If you do these things, Windsor Media says that measurement is not required because you will already know the benefits. 

 Yet, measurement is still a needed skill to have whether you agree or disagree about measuring blogs.  Katie Paine concludes that if you want a job in PR, you better make sure you have math and analytical skills for measuring.

 

March 5, 2009

How to Measure ROI

Posted by Heather Thoreson under Return on Investment | Tags: , , |
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To measure your blog in terms of return on investment (ROI) you will first need to determine what it is you want to define as your return.  There are many ways to measure a blog but you need to know what you want to measure first before you begin. 

 In a self-made video, Jason Wells interviews Katie Paine on measuring ROI in social Media.

 Paine explains how there is no standard measurement to quantify social media.  (Even though you can read more about measuring at her blog, The Measurement Standard!) But Paine goes on to say that you need to attract the right people to your blog and measure the visitors that stay and return to your site.  You need to determine an audience and what the return is that you want from these people. 

 You can measure the traffic of your blog if you just want to see how many people travel through your site.  Along with measuring traffic, you can measure the number of links, comments, and trackbacks to your blog.  Here you type in your blog name and this will pull up the information you want about your blog.  You might want to also determine the ratio between the number of your posts and the amount of comments you receive. 

 These are ways to quantify the return you are getting from your blog.  This will help you get started on measuring the value of your blog, but you still want to keep in mind the ways that the outcome of your blog might be more important than just numbers.

 

March 3, 2009

How to Measure the Outcome

Posted by Heather Thoreson under Outcome Measurement | Tags: , , |
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Measuring the outcome of your new social media requires tracking the change of behaviors of the audiences that view your blog, video, or listen to your podcast.  To do this, you first need to identify what behaviors it is you want and then compare that to what is actually happening.  To analyze this, you could directly ask people what changed their behavior.  Another way would be to move your focus from one aspect of your blog to somewhere else a few times, and record the responses and behaviors that follow these changes you made.  Measuring these behaviors is measuring the outcome. 

Katie Delahaye Paine, explains six steps to quantifying blogs and other social media on the web. 

Ms. Paine describes the ways to get started on measuring how successful you can be.  You need to know what motivates your audience and to measure this you need to remember that audience member behavior can show up in many different ways.  It could be your return on investments, responses, attendance at different events, votes, etc.  But instead of only looking at these activities quantitatively, you need move past that and look at the end result.  What are people doing differently now that they have used the information you provided?  What made them change their mind?  You need to ask these questions and track the behavioral answers.  This will help you to figure out what your blog or other new social media you have created can take credit for.