This is an update of our previous Social Media Measurement Checklist. Among other improvements, this version includes expanded Survey and Analysis sections.
This checklist is designed to be used alongside “6 Steps to the Perfect Social Media Measurement System” for any campaign or program you plan to measure. Click here to download the printer-friendly version.
Part 1: Define your measures of success, Key Performance Indicators (KPIs), and dashboard
☐ Make a list of people who influence your budget and set your priorities. Add in anyone else who will want to see a report on the campaign/program.
☐ Set up a meeting with those people to reach consensus on organizational goals and measures of success.
☐ Create your meeting agenda:
☐ Decide on your target audiences
☐ Decide on goals
☐ Decide on who/what the benchmark will be
☐ Decide on Key Performance Indicators (KPIs)
☐ After the meeting, summarize the agreed-upon definitions in a document. Include a list of the key metrics (including the KPIs) you’ll be reporting on in your dashboard.
☐ Ask senior management to sign off on the KPIs and dashboard.
☐ Based on approved KPIs, make a list of data you’ll need to report on.
Part 2: Select a research methodology
☐ Look at each metric and pick the most appropriate measurement tool:
☐ Media content analysis,
☐ Survey research, and/or
☐ Web and social analytics.
☐ Consult the chart “Nine Typical Problems and the Vendors to Solve Them” to narrow your search.
Depending on which measurement tool you picked above, move ahead to the appropriate section below:
Select a listening/monitoring tool
☐ Make a list of search terms. The list should include all important company brands, spokespeople, initiatives, topics, issues, and, if appropriate, competitors.
☐ Decide what you need to report on, for example:
☐ Topics
☐ Issues
☐ Peer organizations
☐ Benchmarks
☐ Other: __________
☐ Decide if your program is domestic, international. or some combination of the two.
☐ Do you need to monitor internationally? ☐yes or ☐no
☐ Make list of channels you need to monitor, for example:
☐ External blogs
☐ YouTube
☐ Snapchat
☐ Periscope
☐ Other: __________
☐ Make list of quantitative data you’ll need:
☐ Comments
☐ Likes
☐ Reactions
☐ YouTube Views
☐ Percent of video watched
☐ Podcast listens
☐ % of Podcast listened to
☐ Followers
☐ Retweets
☐ Shares
☐ Pins
☐ Snaps
☐ Make list of qualitative data you’ll need:
☐ Tonality/Sentiment
☐ Message presence or absence
☐ Topics or issues discussed
☐ Products or services mentioned
☐ Lines of business mentioned
☐ Spokespeople quoted
☐ Recommendations (or lack thereof)
☐ Brand benefits mentioned
☐ Accuracy of mention
☐ Estimate volume of mentions using Google News or a prior monitoring program.
☐ Decide if you need an automated system with random sampling and/or human oversight or manual review.
☐ Decide if you will be doing this work in-house or with measurement partners.
☐ If you need partners, create a Request for Proposal (RFP) in order to accurately compare vendors. Use the Sources & Methods Transparency Template.
Select a web analytics tool
☐ Decide on specific campaign/program you are going to measure.
☐ Define specific goal conversion criteria. (Here is a video on how to set up Google Analytics conversions.)
☐ Create unique URLs (a.k.a. “sources”) tags, and/or mirror landing pages for each campaign or program so you can track the website traffic.
☐ Work with your web manager to get access to all required data. Make a list of website data that indicates engagement, for example:
☐ Unique visitors
☐ Repeat visitors
☐ Length of time on site
☐ Pages per visit
☐ Conversion rate
☐ Number of downloads
☐ Number of registrations
☐ Number of donations
☐ Determine what data is missing, then decide on how your organization will proceed to collect it.
☐ Figure out if you need additional tools.
☐ If required, create an RFP for web data collection and analysis.
Select a survey tool
☐ Make a list of any perception data you will need such as:
☐ Awareness
☐ Perception
☐ Preference
☐ Consideration
☐ Trust level
☐ Commitment level
☐ Satisfaction level
☐ Relationship health
☐ Draft a list of questions to which you need answers.
☐ Determine how quickly you need the results.
☐ Make a list of the stakeholder groups you need to survey.
☐ Decide on a budget.
☐ Define the source of your list of desired respondents.
☐ Form a clear, accurate reading on the social media habits of your desired respondents (e.g., if they are primarily online, then an online survey is acceptable).
☐ If you are planning to use an outside research firm, give them your budget.
☐ If you are using a free online survey tool, make sure it has the capacity to ask the questions you need answered.
☐ Identify a professional, academic, or internal or eternal partner to review and test your survey instrument.
☐ Test your survey on a sample of your respondents, review their feedback, and fix any issues.
☐ Officially start the survey, then check results after five days to verify it’s working and collecting the data you need.
☐ Review the crosstabs to make sure you have the data you need.
Part 3: Analyze and report results
☐ Put all relevant data into an Excel spreadsheet.
☐ Based on your KPIs and definitions of success, force rank all your programs from one to however many programs you are measuring.
☐ Assign a “resource investment” category to each program that reflects the total amount of resources that the program required. (We recommend the following four categories: Low, Medium, High, and Very High)
☐ Create a quadrant chart and plot where each program falls in terms of engagement and resource use.
☐ Look for significant failures: Where did a program not deliver?
☐ Look for exceptional successes: Where did a program really deliver?
☐ Drill down into the data to determine cause and effect.
☐ Put the most relevant data, along with charts, into a PowerPoint presentation.
☐ Report results, draw insights, and make actionable recommendations.
∞
