Social media measurement: New User Guide facilitates establishment of indicators
The new Social Media Measurement Framework User Guide works like a practical manual in addition to the AMEC Social Media Framework and has been presented on the sixth AMEC Summit on Measurement. The User Guide is supposed to simplify the process of providing credible and meaningful measurement across all organizations.
One of the central outcomes of the Summit on Measurement in Amsterdam is that social media measurement is gaining importance. Nevertheless there is a deficiency when it comes to adoption in professional life.
New User Guide works like a user-friendly manual
The User Guide expands the AMEC Social Media Valid Framework – launched at the fifth Summit on Measurement – by tips with a practical orientation and it includes a step-by-step-approach to establish social media measurement and evaluation for companies. By providing a clear link from the planning stage to setting objectives to measuring results the User Guide gives straightforward advice to social media measurement success in any organization regardless of size. Like the AMEC Social Media Valid Framework, the manual does not propose “one-best-way” of social media measurement. Instead it accentuates the necessity to ensure that the selected indicators and methods fit to given goals and campaigns.
Ten tips provide orientation
Besides an instruction describing how the framework from 2013 can be used efficiently, the User Guide lists ten easy tips to ensure a successful evaluation of social media communication. These tips range from the advice to formulate “smart” – thus: „specific“, „measurable“, „achievable“, „relevant“ and „time-bound“ – goals to the necessity of defining a frequency of measuring.
Ten concrete tips and motivations to reflect illustrate how companies and PR practitioners can use the Social Media Valid Framework from 2013 in an effective and target-orientated way.
The concept of a manual is completed with a video, that explains how to implement and use the framework with the aid of a specific example of an online campaign.
User Guide in practice
The recently developed User Guide is a further initiative aiming for a broad introduction of social media evaluation standards in the professional practice. Compared to the Social Media Valid Framework, the guide does not deliver any clear additional value. The step-by-step-instruction and the concrete tips seem to be helpful, but not sufficient to meet the requirements of the increasing complexity of social media measurement. Nevertheless the User Guide causes food for thought: it is important not only to concentrate on the development of frameworks and key performance indicators, but also to make them usable for daily work. Especially for practitioners and companies without any experience in measuring social media communication, the User Guide could provide an impetus to familiarize themselves with the subject.
The User Guide is created by AMEC’s social media measurement group in association with the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) and UK Government’s Cabinet Office.
The online version of the “Social Media Measurement Framework User Guide“ is available under social-media-measurement-framework.org.
You can find a printed version here.
About AMEC
AMEC, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication, is a worldwide trade body for agencies and practitioners who provide media evaluation and communication research. You can find further information on www.amecorg.com.
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