Measurement #1

By a show of hands, how many of us think measurement is the unsexy grunt work of social media (or perhaps most jobs rooted in the humanities). That being said, Katie Delahaye Paine thinks it's really the cat's meow and has written an amazing book titled "Measure What Matters". This book, although coming out around a decade ago,  remains one of the best places to learn the practices of measurement as it applies to social media. This comes as a surprise being social media platforms are changing and molding constantly, with updates happening in a matter of days or weeks. Another issue is the fact that in 2011 when this book came out, many of the platforms we use today were not even conceived, let alone had the ability to tout global popularity.

Something that really surprised me (although I know it shouldn't) was the lack of attention given by companies to social media measurement. In 2010, she gives statistics that say around five percent of marketing budget and energy is devoted to measurement. While it is clear that number is different from current day estimates, I think we can all agree it is far lower than it should be, especially when the measurement (formidably nested under evaluation) realistically tells whether a certain PR tactic (or stunt) was successful or unsuccessful—which is so incredibly important! Only five percent in 2010 is an outrage!