publications

Social Media Measurement October 2007 | Volume 5 Issue 10 How does a business determine the ROI of its employee blogs or the effect of launching a branding campaign on the latest social network? Although there may not be any hard-and-fast rules for measuring social media yet, the articles in this issue of CW Bulletin offer tips for determining the effects social media can have on your organization. They provide suggestions that borrow from more traditional web and media measurement tactics, and emphasize content, not just numbers. Natasha Nicholson Executive Editor Amanda Aiello Assistant Editor

Features

MEASURING SOCIAL NETWORKING

Social Networking for Business: Measuring the results

by Christopher Carfi

The online world is abuzz with talk about social networking. With companies such as Facebook seemingly constantly in the news, 2007 has been the year that social networking took its first adolescent steps beyond being the sole purview of, well, adolescents, and started to become a tool that is getting noticed in the business world. But with all the hype out there about online social networking, how can organizations begin to better understand the tangible business impact of their forays into this area?

WEB 2.0 MEASUREMENT

Web 2.0: The medium is the message, but what's the result?

by Caroline Kealey

Let's face it: These are tough times to be a professional communicator. Our audiences have taken the reins of what is indisputably the dominating mass communication medium of our era: the Internet.

Web 2.0, characterized by social media applications for peer-to-peer collaboration such as YouTube, MySpace and Wikipedia is challenging all of our basic assumptions as communication practitioners. The astonishing rise of social networking structures and content is in effect challenging the very existence of the traditional corporate communication function.

TYPES OF MEASUREMENT

Types of Social Media Measurement

by Nathan Gilliatt

Social media measurement sounds like an inherently good idea. Management likes numbers, and if we can measure it, we can manage it. So, all this new online activity should be easier to understand, once we measure it. There's only one problem: What does social media measurement mean? Like social media itself, it is an evolving term with multiple definitions based on the needs of different constituencies.

Columns

Visually Speaking

Storytelling Photos

by Suzanne Salvo

Anyone can relate the facts of an event, just like anyone can hold a camera up to a scene and document it. But bare facts and badly composed images make for poor communication. It takes skill and talent to write a good story, one that will inform and entertain. The same is true for photography. Images have always been storytellers. A good image can relay large amounts of data in a format that is pleasing and quickly absorbed by the viewer. That makes photos potentially more influential than a massive amount of words.

Point of View

The Three-Headed Dog Barks Back
by Richard Lawson

It was with both interest and amusement that I read Peter Eschbach's article "Communication and IT: Taming the Three-Headed Dog" in the September–October issue of Communication World. With interest, because I believe it raises some important issues about the relationship between communication and IT that are worth discussing and that often get overlooked. And with amusement, because as a director of IT at the agency where Mr. Eschbach works, I suppose that makes me the three-headed dog.

Case Studies

• "Walk the Talk to Sustainable Growth: Blog blast '06," The Coca-Cola Co. with Burston-Marsteller and Sagepath Inc.
• "CPA Student Recruitment Campaign," American Institute of Certified Public Accountants
• "Baby Boot Camp Web Site," Ideawire Inc.
• "Rotman School Web Site," Rotman School of Management

Communication in the News

• Junta Tightens Media Screw
• Verizon Reverses Itself on Abortion Messages
• Starbucks Rethinks Stance on Young Customers
• Chevron Campaign Tries to Balance Need for Oil with Global Warming

Related Resources

Related Resources provides additional articles and resources for understanding this month's topic of social media measurement. You can also find some of these links alongside each corresponding feature article for quick reference. Links include:

• "Web Strategy: How to measure your social media program," by Jeremiah Owyang
• "How to Measure Social Media: A quick and easy guide to choosing metrics," by Katie Delahaye Paine