Social-Media Impact
Balancing Metrics and Insight for Advertising Success
by
Tracy L. Tuten Ph.D.
Brands can benefit from advertising in social-media space. The approaches
offer a means to engage consumers, enhance brand reputation and image, build
positive brand attitudes, improve organic search rankings, and drive traffic to
brand locations, both on- and off-line. The steps in any advertising campaign
will begin with setting campaign objectives and end with assessing the
effectiveness of the strategies and tactics to determine the degree of success
in accomplishing the stated objectives and to inform the next campaign. The
challenge is to develop a set of measures to assess success and plan for future
strategies and tactics.
At this stage of development, social-media advertising lacks the standard
metrics that have served as a primary advantage for online advertising. Online
advertising as a form of direct-response advertising has measurability built
into its very existence. Advertisers can measure reach (the number of people
exposed to the message) and frequency (the average number of times someone is
exposed), and analyze site stickiness (the ability of a site to draw repeat
visits and to keep people on a site) and the relative pull of creative
presentations (a comparison of the ability for different creative executions to
generate response). They can also monitor clickthroughs (the number of people
exposed who click on an online ad or link), sales conversions (the number of
people who click- through who then purchase product), and viewthroughs (the
number of people who are exposed and do not clickthrough but later visit the
brand's Web site). These metrics are applicable to the use of display
advertising in social spaces. If L'Oreal buys display ads on Facebook, all of
these metrics are available to gauge effectiveness.
However, for the more innovative approaches available, metrics like number of
unique visitors, page views, frequency of visits, average visit length, and
clickthrough rates are either totally inappropriate or irrelevant, or simply
fail to capture information about the objectives of a social-media advertising
campaign. Our tendency is to count -- count impressions, visitors, friends,
posts, players. There is a place for numbers. For instance, knowing the number
of community members involved in brand-related conversations can serve as an
indicator of exposure, and the number of message threads and lines of text
within a thread can serve as proxies of conversation depth. However, counting
does not capture the essence of the interaction consumers had with the brand,
the degree of engagement felt during and after the interaction, or the effects
of the interaction, exposure to brand messages, and brand engagement on measures
like brand likability, brand image, brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand
affiliation, congruency, and purchase intent. Jeep may have 8,500 MySpace
friends, but the number does nothing to tell us how the friends feel about Jeep.
An ARG may boast millions of players, but the sheer quantity of players does not
reveal the success of the strategy. To measure outcomes of social advertising,
organizations must balance quantitative metrics with qualitative insights.
The Measurement Process
The appropriate approaches to measurement will vary depending upon the
campaign's objectives and the social-media strategies and tactics used. However,
these are the basic steps any measurement program should include.
Step 1: Review the objectives set for the campaign.
Step 2: Map the components of the social-media strategy used in the campaign.
Step 3: Determine the criteria that will be used to assess the achievement of
objectives, and the tools necessary to measure the criteria.
Step 4: Establish a baseline or benchmark with which one can compare
accomplishments.
Step 5: Analyze the effectiveness of the campaign components given the
outcomes measured and propose changes appropriate for moving forward.
Step 6: Keep measuring.
Reviewing Objectives
Step 1, reviewing the campaign objectives, assumes that the objectives were
set prior to pursuing advertising opportunities in social media. Not all brands
set formal objectives. Some are simply experimenting with social media, and for
them the experience of executing a campaign using emerging platforms is
sufficient. For most brands, though, failing to set clear objectives is a
mistake. When it comes to assessing success, if there are no objectives, how do
you know if where you ended up is where you wanted to be? The specific
objectives identified can vary dramatically from brand to brand but usually
encompass three overarching issues: (1) motivating some action like visits to a
Web site or sales, (2) affecting brand knowledge and attitudes, and (3)
accomplishing the first two with fewer resources than might be required with
other advertising and promotional methods.
Mapping the Campaign
Step 2 calls for mapping all of the social-media aspects of the advertising
campaign. This activity results in a visual representation of the tactics used
and how they may interact. Mapping is a technique advocated by Chris Brogan on
his blog (http://chrisbrogan.com).
In a post entitled "Measuring Social Media Efforts," he explains that maps can
be crude, simple drawings but even a rough sketch can be valuable as brands seek
to measure accomplishments in the social-media space. A map would display the
types of branded messages produced and distributed (e.g., written vehicles like
blog posts and white papers, ads in the form of display ads or rich media video,
and podcasts) and invitations for consumer engagement with the brand (e.g.,
games, consumer-generated advertising contests and promotions, and interactive
brand experiences) as well as the online location for these materials. It should
also include online locations where content relating to the brand may be
distributed by others. For instance, are there viral videos on YouTube that
highlight the brand? Are there product reviews on sites like Epinions.com? Are
there MySpace pages with brand icons and information posted? Are there bloggers
writing about the brand? Are members of delicious tagging the brand's Web site,
and are Diggmembers voting for branded content?
Once all the sources of brand information are identified, the map should
sketch out the chain of touch points possible. A touch point is simply a contact
point between the brand and the consumer. Mini Cooper "touches" a consumer when
someone visits the dealer showroom, visits the Mini Web site or one of its
microsites, receives brochures and other promotional material from the company,
or brings a car in for service. These are all brand-controlled touch points, but
many touch points that the brand does not control do exist, especially online.
In addition to the consumer-generated content that relates to the brand, there
may be conversational touch points going on. Are people reading the blog
postings (or even responding to blog posts) that mention the brand? Are people
watching videos posted on sites like YouTube? Are they voting for content on
Digg? In other words, is the media (whether brand-generated or
consumer-generated) being consumed by those it reaches and is it being
"fortified" (as in CFM)? Ultimately, the map should show four levels of contact:
(1) brand-generated content, (2) consumer-generated content, (3)
consumer-fortified content, and (4) exposures to content consumers.
Choosing Criteria and Tools of Measurement
In step 3, the criteria for assessing effectiveness are determined, and the
tools necessary for measurement are selected. The objectives and the map should
direct the identification of criteria, as well as the best tools. For example,
imagine that Secret deodorant seeks to develop brand awareness for two new
products, Secret Clinical Strength deodorant and Secret Scent Expressions body
spray. It also wants to drive traffic to the product Web sites and increase
sales of these products. Lastly, it wants to reinforce Secret's image of
celebrating women, their strength and their secrets. The brand enters the
social-media space with an advertising campaign, which also includes traditional
media components, called Because You're Hot. The campaign, by Leo Burnett
Chicago, plays on the definition of "hot" to connect to the efficacy of the
Secret brand benefit while recognizing characteristics that make a woman hot
(being strong). The Secret Web site and two microsites,
http://www.becauseyourehot.com and
http://www.sparklebodyspray.com, would be sketched on a social-media map,
along with other tactics like the Rihanna's Secret MySpace profile (which
features Secret Body Spray as a sponsor). Visitors to the Scent Expressions
microsite are encouraged to participate in a quiz to identify their ideal scent,
and those visiting the Because You're Hot site can vote on what's hottest using
Secret's Hot-o-Meter. Secret also runs a promotion in MTV's Virtual Laguna
Beach, encouraging women to "share their secrets." Secret could expand the
social-media aspects of the campaign by frosting a blog with contributions from
a slate of strong female celebrities, having a virtual dance party with a
Jennifer Lopez avatar (to tie in to the dance contest featured in the
traditional media component of the campaign) in Second Life, and inviting women
to develop videos that capture the essence of the slogan, Because You're Hot.
These videos could then be hosted on a Secret channel on YouTube. These are some
of the brand-generated messages and invitations for participation in the
campaign. Consumers are generating content about Secret. Technorati lists blogs,
posts, and videos that mention both products. YouTube also includes videos
tagged with Secret deodorant and Secret Scent Expressions. Internet users have
opportunities for exposure and can fortify the messages with comments and
product reviews.
What criteria and tools then should Secret use to evaluate success of these
techniques? Secret's objectives emphasized a desire to (1) build awareness of
its new products, (2) drive visits to its Web sites, (3) drive sales, and (4)
strengthen the Secret brand image. Objective 2 is easily addressed with
traditional Web site metrics and measurement tools. The Secret sites can track
hits, page views, and unique visitors; the sites enable registration, which can
also be tracked. Organic search engine rankings can also be assessed for the
brand name and its slogans. Secret is not performing well on organic search. The
word secret generates a third-place spot for the Secret brand; the word
deodorant places Secret in sixth place. Searches with the slogans "Because
You're Hot" and "Share Your Secret" result in third-place listings.
Awareness can be suggested with the Web site traffic and traffic to other
branded components. For instance, Rihanna's Secret MySpace profile boasts over
24,000 friends, some of whom have fortified the profile with comments. It can
also be suggested with brand mentions in other online space. Secret might ask,
"Is the brand being talked about? If so, how much, and where?" The criteria for
answering these questions are straightforward. One simply needs to identify
evidence of the brand in online conversations and publications, get a count of
those occurrences, and note the source of the material. The tools necessary for
this could include a virtual version of a clipping service to determine what is
being said about the brand and the brand's competition online. This can be an
in-house project, or outsourced to companies like CyberAlert, which can then
monitor specific publications or the entire Internet for brand mentions.
Collecting brand mentions in house can be accomplished with tools like Google
Alerts. These tools can provide a count of mentions, and the sources, but they
should be combined with other tools to determine whether the communication was
positive, negative, or neutral for the brand.
Next Secret might ask, "How many people are exposed to these third-party
messages?" To assess the impact of these brand mentions across the Web, one can
turn to companies that measure the size of a site's audience. Media Metrix,
Nielsen Net/Ratings, and comscore offer measurement services that include hits,
unique visitors, and page views for sites. It will need to consider all the
locations of postings mentioning the brand and the audiences for each location.
Secret, in our example, also set out to strengthen its image. Its image can
be influenced by what the target audience thinks and feels about the branding
for the campaign. Are young women engaged with quick games like the Hot-o-Meter?
Is the association strategy using Rihanna and Jennifer Lopez as celebrity
endorsers effective? Do they feel that the Scent Expressions quiz and scent
recommendations enable Secret as a brand to symbolize their own self images? The
campaign itself will influence the brand's image. Secret may use primary
research in the form of surveys and focus groups to answer these questions.
A key to social media is that the consumer-generated content and
consumer-fortified content can also influence image. The viral nature of
brand-relevant communication is why social media is both an opportunity and a
threat for advertisers. To determine the relative influence and nature of that
influence on a brand, one must consider the source of content, the relative
authority of that source, and the content itself. Katie Delahaye Paine advocates
a list of criteria for assessing the influence of blog postings about a brand.
It is easily applicable to all forms of social publicity, including mentions in
news media (on- and off-line), online comments -- whether a blog posting,
responses to blog postings, or comments about videos -- profiles, photos,
message board postings, and online product reviews.
Author Bio
Tracy L. Tuten Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Marketing at Longwood University.
She has authored more than one hundred journal articles, book chapters, and
conference presentations; her research interests include Web-based survey
methods, branding and identify, and online advertising. She serves on the
editorial review board for the journals Psychology & Marketing and Gender in
Management and serves on the academic advisory board for the Commercial Closet.
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