Hi, I’m Sherpa Sheila. My job is to know my way around my organization’s data, and to help my coworkers make decisions with it. I’ve been to the top of Measurement Mountain and back hundreds of times. So to inspire all you other Sherpas out there, especially the Sherpas-In-Training, I thought I’d share some of my measurement adventures:
Adventure #1: A Sherpa is Born, or, It All Started With a Chart
I wasn’t always a Measurement Sherpa. I’ve been a retail sales person, a cleaning lady, and a reporter. Somewhere along the way I stumbled into the whole “PR thing” because I could think like a journalist and write a press release in ten seconds flat. Of course, after I’d written about four dozen of them, some PR skeptic upstairs in the executive suite wanted to know what I’d done for them lately.
So I went through all the clips we’d collected and checked each one to see if it contained our key messages. Then I presented a tidy little report that said that, essentially, we’d been really good at writing press releases, but less successful at generating the kind of desirable coverage that might drive sales or at least generate leads. Nonetheless, the VP was impressed by my numbers and charts, and encouraged me to dig a bit deeper. I was thrilled, and now on my way to becoming a Measurement Sherpa.
Adventure #2: Learning From the Data, or, How Media Training Paid Off
Thanks to the encouragement of that VP, I started thinking about how I could collect more data. I began putting links and tracking codes in my press releases, so I could at least see if they were driving any traffic to our site. Turns out some of them were, but not all.
So I analyzed the ones that were performing and those that weren’t to see if I could figure out the difference. As it turns out, the VP of the division was quoted in all the most successful releases — success being measured by the number of leads, requests for information, and registrations on our site. This was not surprising, since she was brilliant and articulate and gave a fabulous interview. Stories and interviews with her tended to be more widely shared online and thus reached more of our target audience.
I ran into the VP in the elevator, gave her a synopsis of my findings, congratulated her on her success and asked her how we might replicate it with other VPs. Her answer was “Better media training.” She’d been trained at her previous company and never forgot the lessons. Our VPs had not been as lucky.
Using my data and the VP’s recommendation, we managed to convince a few other key VPs to go through media training. Sure enough, our media results improved dramatically.
Adventure #3: Finding the ROI in Social Media
Once upon a time I was working on the social media team at a marketing firm. The client to which I was assigned was a social media skeptic. Whenever we did anything he wanted to know the “ROI.” This was in the days before the Barcelona Principles and any measurement standards, so we would rack our brains for some acceptable metrics. Early on, we tried to develop an “engagement index” by calculating the number of comments to posts, but the results were so miniscule it was embarrassing and not very helpful. We counted growth in likes and Twitter followers, but none of our efforts had a dollar sign attached, so the client was never happy.
Finally I gave up and asked the client point blank what he thought the “return” in our ROI equation should be. He gave me a blank stare and admitted he’d never really thought about it.
What happened next was fascinating. We had a far-ranging and long overdue conversation about why we were doing social media and what role he thought it should play in the sales and marketing process. Turns out, in his mind it was all about amplification – the increased dispersion of our key messages to new audiences. In the end, we agreed that the “R” in our “ROI” calculation was actually cost savings. The question we needed to answer was: “Does social media help us get our messages out to a broader audience more cost effectively and efficiently?”
Of course my next question was, “Compared to what?” There was no way our paltry social media efforts in a B2B world were comparable to their long-running ad campaign in the trades. So instead we did an A/B test between standard PR announcement practices pitting traditional PR announcement tactics with our new integrated approach.
Fortunately we had plenty of historical data from old releases and announcements. But if you don’t have that data, never fear. Just use the next two releases to compare your tactics. Count the number of click-throughs to your web page, the number of times your messages have been picked up, and ideally, your share of desirable posts compared to the competition.
What we found was that those numbers definitely improved with the addition of social media – but only for certain releases. We dug into those releases and examined the content, the subjects, the visuals, and the quotes. The bump in response rate was clearly tied to visuals.
The question then boiled down to: “Was it worth the extra effort to produce the shareable visual content?” The only way to find out was to go back to the client and ask the question: In exchange for a 10% increase in click-throughs and a 15% increase in message dissemination, would he continue to invest in social?
Fortunately for me the answer was “Yes.” ∞
