Andrew Keen isn’t a fan of social media. In fact, in his book The Cult of the Amateur, he denounced the whole thing in pretty unequivocal terms: “What was governing the infinite monkeys now inputting away on the Internet was the law of digital Darwinism, the survival of the loudest and most opinionated. Under these rules, the only way to intellectually prevail is by infinite filibustering.”

So that’s a no from Andrew, then.

Most people would tend to disagree wih him, however. The arrival of social media has been one of the more remarkable occurrences of the last century, reordering the fundamentals of the way we communicate with breathtaking speed.

For marketers, the resulting opportunities have been extraordinary. From Twitter and Facebook to geo-locational services and mobile, the potential for companies and brands of social media marketing is virtually limitless.

But the ongoing question – still a fair way from being properly resolved – is this: how do marketers actually measure this stuff?

After all, 100,000 people may view your YouTube video, but did any of those viewers actually go on to complete an action? Did they click the URL you flashed up in the video?

If your tweet is retweeted by 500 people, how do you track the actual impact? Is ‘reach’ enough? Isn’t there a very good chance that the vast majority of people apparently reached by your tweet didn’t see it at all?

Of course, there is some value to be had from analysing tweets, retweets, likes, views etc. For one thing, it allows you to measure sentiment, the positive and negative reactions to a service, product or brand.

But sentiment isn’t really enough for marketer or client. Some connection has to be made with sales and leads, otherwise there’s a risk of the whole thing appearing resource-heavy and intangible.

The truth is that every social media marketing activity requires a bespoke set of metrics. There is no one-size-fits-all template that can be applied to every situation in the way, say, the conversion rate can be applied to an email campaign.

Approach each activity or campaign with an open mind. Start with the ultimate objective, and work backwards from there. If social media can’t achieve your objective, then it’s probably time to try something else.

About David