The ability to measure the influence and reach of social media is seen by many as the Holy Grail of communications and marketing. Tim Hoang attended the Chinwag debate, Measuring Social Media.

The Internet has turned the world of marketing and communications on its head. The number of agencies that operate specifically in the digital space have grown in the UK; offering brands the means to join ‘the conversation’. With the likes of flickr, Facebook and MySpace all having a huge influence in the way we communicate, companies are beginning to realise that the traditional tools of marketing should now be complemented with social media.

However, many who question the worth of social media point to one of its main limitations - the lack of a universal measurement system. The Chinwag event in The Slug and Lettuce, Soho, sought to establish whether social media can be measured.

The debate kicked off with an introduction to the panel by Chair, Jim Sterne - from the Web Analytics Association. Taking part were Alex Burmaster, European internet analyst at research firm Nielsen Online, Robin Grant from 1000heads, Will McInnes, MD of social media agency Nixon McInnes, and Ankur Shah of Techlightenment.

According to Robin Grant, social media should be integral in any communications campaign with research showing a direct correlation between positive online conversation and an increase in sales of books. While some may question that positive online conversation occurs because a book is of high quality, Grant believes that advertising is a dying industry and marketers should be looking at stimulating positive word of mouth.

"It’s important to know what people think about your company online. From a marketing and communications perspective, people are ignoring advertising and every marketing plan should have a digital aspect. People are avoiding conversations advertising and relying on word of mouth with the general public trusting those online as much as their mates in the pub. Campaigns should not be designed around the product but should look at how it can make people talk positively about the brand," said Grant.

With regards to measuring social media, Grant underlined the difficulty in attributing direct return on investment for social media campaigns - a sentiment agreed by the whole panel.

Ankur Shah, who has worked with brands such as SonyBMG, Samsung and MTV highlighted, how the industry ’should be treating people as people’, therefore any attempts to measure his social media initiatives becomes extremely complicated.

According to Will McInnes, trying to measure social media can be time-consuming with many metrics currently utilised questionable at best.
"When it comes to measuring social media, machines are dumb and humans are slow. Measuring complexity is difficult," he said.

The question of whether there was actually a need to measure social media was also debated. McInnes underlined the need for companies not to place so much emphasis on measuring social media and place more efforts into listening and being able to act on that information.

"It’s not what you measure but what you do with it. Marketing is a tax for the unremarkable. Measuring social media is only useful if a company can adapt campaigns and respond to the outside world. Your audience tells you what is a remarkable and unremarkable product," said McInnes.

Grant agreed that companies should only operate in the social media environment if they are prepared to listen and act accordingly.

"Measuring social media is only useful if you are able to respond to it. Organisations should keep on tracking comments and listening to people’s demands, responding to the need of the market," he said.

Despite the lack of any real answers, the debate did highlight the need for the industry to establish a set of metrics that would make it easier to justify their efforts. Speaking on his blog, McInnes sought to create a set of common metrics to underpin any social media activity.

"I’m not going to throw time at this if it’s a complete non-starter, but if I feel I can get a core of support, I’d be delighted to get some momentum and really create something of worth for our community," he said.