Definitely agree with your take that, while metrics are relevant and usable, objectives are the key. Social media isn’t just a turn-key methodology or set of steps; it has to be underpinned by sound business strategy and broadly understood outside just a communications or media context in order to be truly impactful.

And while we agree that our industry is hardly an exact science yet, we’re striving to continually build on our successful toolset and bring companies the analysis they need, which includes many of the topics you mention above (and our partnership with WebTrends is certainly driving the needle toward more integrated tracking of acquisition and conversion analytics).

Thanks for the healthy discussion, and for the mention. Let us know if we can ever lend a hand.

Best.
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra

The idea of a standard set of metrics by which to measure activity in social media is a sound one – they would allow brands to compare the results of work conducted by different agencies and benchmark themselves against others in their sector. They’d also help give us some badly needed common language to use when discussing this as an industry.

However, the document the IAB have produced in the US is flawed in many ways, starting with the title – “Social Media Ad Metrics” – social media is not about ‘advertising’ at all – it’s about word of mouth. This attitude is reflected in the detail, with them even talking about “media planning” in relation to blogger outreach – they fail to remember that effective campaigns are about starting conversations – this is earned media, not paid media.