Measuring the success or failure of a social media engagement

Last night I had the honor of presenting at a Web Analytics Wednesday event here in San Diego.

I discussed strategies for the often frustrating task of measuring the effects of a social media engagement. My advice? Nail down concrete KPIs before you begin your foray into social media; use reliable proxies to measure nebulous concepts like engagement; look at the campaign holistically; and stay focused on what really matters - whether it’s awareness, sales or customer retention. Lastly, do projections to help manage expectations and understand what you need to do to break even.

My co-presenter, social media guru Brian Watkins of Omniture, spoke about Omniture’s work on integrating social media cues like Twitter posts, so stakeholders can get all the information they need from their analytics suite.

View my slides on Slideshare to get a taste of the presentation.