Christopher S. Penn – Marketing AI Keynote Speaker

Are we there yet? Diagnostic versus objective social media metrics

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Christopher S Penn
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Are we there yet? Diagnostic versus objective social media metrics

One of my favorite discussion points in my social media ROI talk is also probably one of the most overlooked – the understanding of diagnostic versus objective metrics.

Road trip March 2009Imagine for a second you’re on a road trip.

Diagnostic metrics tell you how the trip is going.

Objective metrics tell you when you’re there.

As you can imagine, there aren’t too many objective metrics. You’re either at your destination, or you’re still on the road trip. There are tons of diagnostic metrics, though – mileage, miles traveled, rest areas stopped at, complaints from the back seat – you name it, there’s probably a metric for it.

In social media, we have tons of diagnostic metrics as well – Twitter followers, web site traffic, retweets, Facebook likes, etc.

At the end of the day, however, none of these are objectives. None of these tell you if you’re actually there yet.

Imagine how silly this conversation sounds:

“Dad, are we there yet?”
“18 cheeseburgers and 220 french fries, son!”
“What?”

“Dad, are we THERE yet?”
“So far we’ve managed 21.7 miles per gallon. Isn’t that great?”
“What?”

And so on. This is a silly conversation, yes? So why do we have this conversation:

“Are we succeeding in social media?”
“We’ve got 220 Twitter followers!”

“Yes, but are we succeeding in social media?”
“So far, we’ve managed 121 Likes on our Facebook page. People love us!”

These two conversations are the same. In both cases, we’re repeating back diagnostic metrics when the question is about objective metrics – are we there yet?

In your social media efforts, are you there yet? Do you even know where there is or how you’d know when you got there?

If not, don’t be surprised if your senior management gets just as cranky as the kids in the back seat and keeps asking “Are we there yet?” over and over again.

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Comments

16 responses to “Are we there yet? Diagnostic versus objective social media metrics”

  1. Eric Boggs Avatar
    Eric Boggs

    Good points, Chris! Argyle obviously shares the sentiment. 🙂

    Reply
  2. Eric Boggs Avatar
    Eric Boggs

    Good points, Chris! Argyle obviously shares the sentiment. 🙂

    Reply
  3. Batman Avatar
    Batman

    Then I guess the real question we should be asking is, how will we know when we're there?

    Reply
  4. Batman Avatar
    Batman

    Then I guess the real question we should be asking is, how will we know when we're there?

    Reply
  5. heatherwhaling Avatar
    heatherwhaling

    I love how you break down an issue that's hard for some people to wrap their heads around into a conversation we've all had at one point or another. It's impossible to know “if we're there yet” if we don't know where we're going, which speaks to the point of having a plan in place with measurable objectives.

    This isn't a challenge unique to social media. We see it in PR all the time. For example, companies just want to start pitching the media — racking up clip after clip — but they have no idea why or what they're trying to achieve. No matter what kind of communication a company is undertaking, it has to start with a smart strategy.

    Heather
    @prTini

    Reply
  6. davinabrewer Avatar
    davinabrewer

    Agreeing with Heather, it starts with strategy. It's the counter to the zen, but in marketing, PR, social media.. in business, it often is about the destination, not just the journey. Sure the journey is important, the who/what/when/how are the tools marketers and communicators use to achieve the business goals. But it's the destination, where you're going, that drives things forward. It's why leaders like Steve Jobs don't settle for now, look ahead a few quarters; he's planning years ahead. FWIW.

    Reply
  7. heatherwhaling Avatar
    heatherwhaling

    I love how you break down an issue that's hard for some people to wrap their heads around into a conversation we've all had at one point or another. It's impossible to know “if we're there yet” if we don't know where we're going, which speaks to the point of having a plan in place with measurable objectives.

    This isn't a challenge unique to social media. We see it in PR all the time. For example, companies just want to start pitching the media — racking up clip after clip — but they have no idea why or what they're trying to achieve. No matter what kind of communication a company is undertaking, it has to start with a smart strategy.

    Heather
    @prTini

    Reply
  8. davinabrewer Avatar
    davinabrewer

    Agreeing with Heather, it starts with strategy. It's the counter to the zen, but in marketing, PR, social media.. in business, it often is about the destination, not just the journey. Sure the journey is important, the who/what/when/how are the tools marketers and communicators use to achieve the business goals. But it's the destination, where you're going, that drives things forward. It's why leaders like Steve Jobs don't settle for now, look ahead a few quarters; he's planning years ahead. FWIW.

    Reply
  9. FlashForward Marketing: The Future of Your Campaign | Marketing, Public Relations and Social Media Blog | Atlanta, GA

    […] “Diagnostic metrics tell you how the trip is going. Objective metrics tell you when you’re there… […]

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    […] The initiative generated significant media coverage (which in Chris Penn-speak, is an important diagnostic measure of a PR stunt) […]

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  11. MultiplyLeaders Avatar
    MultiplyLeaders

    I think we've missed the obvious solution: don't start a journey without knowing what your destination is, and then you will know that you when you arrive. Personally, I think knowing the destination is the MOST important step in the process, and usually many of us have at least a general idea (if we haven't CLEARLY specified) where we are headed.

    Diagnostic metrics don't really serve much of a function if the destination isn't known either.

    In either case, it is IMPERATIVE that leaders tie up these loose ends, otherwise when you finally decide where you are going, you might realize that you don't have enough gas (or time or money) to get there.

    Thanks,
    Mark

    Reply
  12. Mark Jones Jr. Avatar
    Mark Jones Jr.

    I think we’ve missed the obvious solution: don’t start a journey without knowing what your destination is, and then you will know that you when you arrive. Personally, I think knowing the destination is the MOST important step in the process, and usually many of us have at least a general idea (if we haven’t CLEARLY specified) where we are headed.

    Diagnostic metrics don’t really serve much of a function if the destination isn’t known either.

    In either case, it is IMPERATIVE that leaders tie up these loose ends, otherwise when you finally decide where you are going, you might realize that you don’t have enough gas (or time or money) to get there.

    Thanks,
    Mark

    Reply
  13. MultiplyLeaders Avatar
    MultiplyLeaders

    I think we've missed the obvious solution: don't start a journey without knowing what your destination is, and then you will know that you when you arrive. Personally, I think knowing the destination is the MOST important step in the process, and usually many of us have at least a general idea (if we haven't CLEARLY specified) where we are headed.

    Diagnostic metrics don't really serve much of a function if the destination isn't known either.

    In either case, it is IMPERATIVE that leaders tie up these loose ends, otherwise when you finally decide where you are going, you might realize that you don't have enough gas (or time or money) to get there.

    Thanks,
    Mark

    Reply
  14. ROI: Marketing’s Best Frienemy | MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog

    […] post from Penn’s blog, Awaken Your Superhero: Are we there yet? Diagnostic versus objective social media metrics. Share and […]

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  15. Jon Avatar
    Jon

    Beyond media equivalencies, buzz tracking, sentiment, etc…there ARE meaningful metrics to be applied to social. After all, an impression is an impression, a link is a link, a click is a click. I know applying measurement for one medium (online media) doesn’t necessarily apply in itself, in entirety. But you sure can get close, can’t you? Match referring URLs to your company’s website/lead forms (and checked against a vast white list of ‘social’ sites) and you get pretty darn accurate click to conversion metrics. Build a Facebook page, make it pretty, populate it with interesting content, track who goes where, and there you have it! ROI!

    That’s what we do, and I like to think it’s pretty cool: http://www.socialeye.com/

    Reply
  16. Muchiri Nyaggah Avatar
    Muchiri Nyaggah

    Best put case for web strategy I have ever seen 🙂

    Reply

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