I once heard KD Paine speak at Blog Potomac last year. She was fantastic and insightful on the deeper ways to view social media metrics.

You have listed some of the very best tools on the market for sure, all of the companies provide valuable information for their clients. The problem with them though is that it is still very difficult to answer the fundamental questions of “so what does this actually mean?” and “so what have I actually achieved”?.

The companies listed are very good at sourcing and automating the basic categorisation (or 'bucketing') of the conversations, but are not so good at interpreting it and answering the so what questions. That's why there will be a strong meed for companies to use the services of the more sophisticated social media measurement companies like Metrica (http://www.metrica.net) and KDPaine (http://www.kdpaine.com) who are able to make sense of the millions of data points.

We blog about these kind of issues at Metrica's Measurement Matters (http://www.metrica.net/measurementmatters) and we would welcome you and our readers there to further the conversation and the debate.

Warm regards,

Richard

Great post.

If you are an SMB (Small to Medium-sized Business) and plan to buy any kind of marketing services, metrics are a must. But they need to be meaningful. For example, social media may increase visits, but will it increase conversions (visitors who become customers). You will need to create special landing pages to track this kind of behavior. More importantly, Google has broadened the relationship between keywords and results and that means it is getting hared to get on top of the paid search results page. If you are using a keyword management service, again, landing pages are important. But what if your product or service requires a solution sale – that is to say someone will not buy it online without calling your business. Make sure every person who answers the phone asks how the caller found your site. Track that somehow – on paper, in a shared document, or better yet in a Sales Force Automation (SFA) tool.

Whatever you do this year, ask hard questions of marketers and sales consultants. Ask about their success in your industry. Ask about their contributions to the top and bottom lines of companies like yours. Most importantly, if you sell through channels, make sure they understand how to help your business improve the performance of the outlets that sell your product. Simple marketing plans are off the table – in this climate you need a program that helps your clients be more successful.

Tobias

Thanks for including Techrigy SM2.

And I love the new additions you've made to NetSol's presence. Rock it on!

Thanks so much for mentioning Radian6!

I sure think you're right that data is going to start becoming ever more important, specifically in the social web. Metrics as we've always known them are evolving, but even more importantly, so is the practice of knowing what to do with the data once you've gathered it. We're moving from the “why” to the “how” in social media, and measuring brand evolution through the use of these concepts is going to be super important to the businesses who are still undecided about how to proceed.

Appreciate your insights, and look forward to hearing and sharing more about how the measurement and engagement space involves over the coming year.

Cheers,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@AmberCadabra