Measurement: Whether it’s Holy Grail or…
Holy $hit, we’re all in this together, and it’s up to us (and you), says Paul Armstrong.*
Whether it’s spitting at AVE, bantering about potential versus actual reach, or just scratching your head at the myriad of free ‘tools’, you’ve likely thought at least once in the last week about the quagmire of social media kit and metrics out there to measure the social media beast. If you haven’t, you need to stop reading Perez Hilton and get with the programme – this is your future we’re talking about… the future of the PR industry.
A far wiser man than myself once said something along the lines of ‘if you can’t say to client ‘I spent this much and got you this for it’, you deserve to be fired’ – something I’ve clung to throughout my time in-house at MySpace, and ever since I returned from the States. In this hyper-connected world where ‘everyone’ has the potential to be an influencer and knows ‘everyone’ (barf), how do you charge for an increase in sentiment versus writing a press release? Is that scalable? Possible, even? With auto sentiment being what it is – and I believe it’s safe to say this rhymes with anyone telling you more than 50% is a fibber – and the recession, the truth is we don’t really know yet.
The PR industry, like most people and industries, has got something I like to refer to as incredibly lazy and complacent recently. Things were chugging along, we loved the humble press release and got newspapers etc, but when social media rocked up to the party (we organised!), we couldn’t find them on the list and we didn’t know whom to call. Now social media is finding other people to host their own parties and we want in because they are cooler, and the old parties just don’t seem as fun anymore. Trouble is there’s a somewhat unfriendly red rope for all but the few who are on ‘the list’, (or living the dream!). The rest are left calling their friends, checking the BlackBerry and going through toilet windows. Time to dust off the burger apron and update LinkedIn, right?
Wrong. This is not the way it should be.
Before the lights come up at 2am and we all get left with Mr/Mrs Surewhynot, there is hope and it’s (imaginatively) called the CIPR Social Media Measurement Group.
This collection of Brits and Yanks are working hard for you, the pretty people, to make some sense of measurement, and really put it down what is and isn’t possible. Still early days, but it’s all heading in the right direction. We need you to know because, to be fair, it’s about you. We’re hell bent on ending the bullshit/snakeoil, and figuring out if universal metrics are applicable, and what we should be measuring. But what do you want to know? What will make your life easier? What do you need?
Check us out, come to the events and generally get involved. It’s your future as much as ours. I’d love to hear the challenges you face, and what you’d like to see us work on – I’m on twitter as @munkyfonkey so tweet away and I’ll measure the reach…maybe.
Paul Armstrong is director of Social Media at Kindred, and will be speaking at the Buzz about the Social Media Buzz event in London next week.
