Six real ways to measure social media

7 Jun 2010

Like any zeitgeist, social media has attracted its share of charlatans and snake oil merchants, all peddling their mastery of this mysterious and complicated new medium. But when it comes time to measure the actual results, they pile on the jargon and then skip town with your fat cheque.

The truth is that social media, like the web, is highly measurable and no more inherently complicated than any other medium. If you keep your eye on these six sensible metrics, you will have a good idea of whether your social media efforts are soaring or souring.

1. Reach

This most basic of metrics is analogous to your total social media "audience" across all the channels you're active in. On Twitter they are called "followers" while on Facebook they used to be called "fans" and now they are "people who like your brand" (cumbersome, I know). No matter what you call them, they boil down to the same thing: people who have shown they are willing to engage with you by joining the channel which you control

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