The Online Measurement Prerogative
By Carly Yanco, Burson-Marsteller Australia
December 2009

It has become clear that clients cannot afford to ignore social media in today’s digital world. Market

 

ing monologues have given way to PR dialogues and now online and social media are enabling ongoing, public conversations for anyone who chooses to take part.

 

Social media is an increasingly important and influential environment for businesses, whether in enabling consumers to respond to what they see in traditional media, or as an activity designed to harness the influence of the online space.

 

The two-way nature of digital communications allows much deeper engagement and interactivity between an organisation and its audiences. This requires our industry to think more deeply about ways in which it can measure results and outcomes.

 

Most marketers would have heard the discussions around social media and what it means for businesses and their reputations. Similarly many PR professionals have considered the opportunities for social media to enhance and expand future campaigns.

 

So, now that we’re inspired by the infinite possibilities of social media, how do we quantify its value? In times where we can safely say the client’s primary concern is the return on investment (ROI), being able to effectively measure it is important, if not critical when trying to push a campaign pitch over the line.

 

The PR industry has already established metrics for measuring the ROI of print and broadcast media coverage. These metrics, including calculating demographic reach or estimating equivalent advertising value are still not entirely satisfactory or conclusive but they have provided some context for an ROI assessment.

 

To date, however, there are still issues in measuring online coverage. How do you assess the value and impact of an individual blog post? Are the comments on a blog post as influential as the post itself?

 

In response, Burson-Marsteller has developed a set of metrics and tools that look at measuring new media in a flexible and informative way. The metrics assess coverage from all online mediums, such as blogs and online publications, and ROI is established based on a wide range of variables that evaluate how each medium and its individual coverage both influences and engages its audiences.

 

These variables can range from the tone of the piece, to the volume of comments on a blog post, to the number of unique visitors to an online publication. To determine the ROI, a dollar amount is attributed to the coverage using online advertising values such as cost per impressions (CPM) or banner rates depending on the media type.

 

B-M prides itself on a commitment to tying investment back to specific business and performance metrics, and our online measurement tools provide clients with a standardised and consistent tool for measuring the impact of social media.