Social Media Metrics Secrets [Paperback]

John Lovett (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 9, 2011 | ISBN-10: 0470936274 | ISBN-13: 978-0470936276 | Edition: 1

Invaluable advice on analyzing and measuring the effects of social media

Do you wish you could sit down with an expert to figure out whether or not your social media initiatives are working? With Social Media Metrics Secrets, you can! Expert John Lovett taps into his years of training and experience to reveal tips, tricks, and advice on how to analyze and measure the effects of social media and gauge the success of your initiatives. He uses mini case studies to demonstrate how to manage social operations with process and technology by applying key performance indicators, and assessing the business value of social media.

• Highlights how social media can impact all aspects of your business and transform the way you quantify successful interactions with customers
• Shares innovative techniques for managing the massive volume of social analytics data by putting data to work in ways that contribute to your organizational goals
• Details techniques for adopting a Social Analytics Framework for understanding evolving consumer behavior necessary to compete in a socially networked future

Written in a conversational tone, Social Media Metrics Secrets goes behind the scenes to present you with unbeatable advice and unparalleled insight into social media metrics.

Editorial Reviews

From the Back Cover

When you open this book, you'll feel as though you're sitting down with an expert who is disclosing rare information about social media metrics. Expert John Lovett taps into his years of training and experience to reveal insider tips, strategies, and secrets for navigating the complex ecosystem of social media metrics. Examples of first-hand case studies demonstrate how to apply measurement to evaluate the impact of social media channels, and additional material shows you how to optimize social media programs based on the results of Social Analytics.

The Insider's Guide to:

• Identifying social media metrics that matter

• Measuring Audience, Activity, and Actions

• Building a social network operations center

• Activating social media across the enterprise

• Using the Social Analytics Framework

• Executing a process of continuous optimization

• Tracking and measuring your return on investment

• Planning for a socially networked future

The Secrets series reveals:

• Authoritative information in highlighted areas

• Exceptional advice in the margin notes

• Unique insight from years of author experience

• Rarely revealed tips and techniques

• Invaluable shortcuts and workarounds

• Insider TipsTips, tricks, and secrets for quantifying social media success

• Valuable InsightsEye-opening strategies for moving beyond "counting metrics" to "business value metrics"

• Unbeatable AdviceReal-world solutions for developing a scalable framework for social media measurement

About the Author

John Lovett is a veteran industry analyst and expert consultant who has spent the past decade helping organizations to understand and measure their digital marketing activities. As a Senior Partner at Web Analytics Demystified, Lovett regularly consults with leading vendors and enterprises to offer strategic guidance for building innovative digital measurement programs. His deep industry knowledge and thought leadership help businesses transcend mediocrity using analytics. Lovett is the co-founder of the Analysis Exchange and sits on the Board of Directors for the Web Analytics Association.

Product Details

• Paperback: 384 pages
• Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (August 9, 2011)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0470936274
• ISBN-13: 978-0470936276
• Product Dimensions: 7.3 x 0.7 x 9.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.5 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #413,783 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic frameworks, perspective, and approaches August 24, 2011

By Timothy G. Wilson

Format:Paperback

No book, no person, no tool contains a silver bullet for measuring and analyzing social media, and Lovett doesn't claim to do so anywhere in his book. One of many quotable quotes to that effect actually leads off Chapter 7: "If you flipped straight to this chapter in hopes of finding the magic solution for calculating the return on investment (ROI) in social media, let me put a pin in that thought balloon straight away." But, what the book *does* offer, and offers in spades, are a range of frameworks and pseudo-formulas ("pseudo" in a good way -- allowing for differing business environments and for a diverse range of social media channels, some of which, likely, do not yet exist) for approaching the *meaningful* measurement of social media, rather than simply the spitting out of readily available data. And, beyond simply offering the bromide of, "Tie your social media efforts to business results," Lovett provides a range of smart approaches (SMART being one of the time-tested approaches offered...and Lovett extends that to a SMARTER approach) *actually* measure performance and analyze results in the messy, messy world that is social media.

The book also covers a range of topics that are adjacent to the core mechanics of social media measurement -- eloquently articulating the social media imperative (if you are a marketer who still doubts whether the phenomenon is "real" and need further convincing), explaining how and why the "marketing funnel" is broken (it really always has been...but social media has really brought that to light and made the funnel paradigm an unworkable construct), assessing how businesses are fundamentally changing the ways they operate and interact with consumers, and even sounding a cautionary note when it comes to consumer privacy.

It's not a book to sit down and skim in an evening (although it is nicely modularized so that individual chapters can stand alone), but, rather, one to sit down and read with a highlighter, a pen, and a notepad, and Post-it flags for key pages (or...a Kindle and digital note-taking devices...but this review is for the paperback version!).

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars This is where metrics are going... October 22, 2011

By cksyme

Format:Paperback

If Katie Paine and Olivier Blanchard are the experts on social media measurement today, John Lovett is the guru of where metrics are going. Now we're into the heavy lifting. Lovett, a former analyst at Forrester Research in the Owyang and Li days, has penned the thinking man's guide to social media metrics. This is some deep stuff, but need-to-know for serious social media marketers. By now we know that info on social media is not static, and this book satisfies the need to stay ahead of the curve. I do think you need a basic understanding of strategy and measurement before you get here. This is a thought leadership book. Where is ROI going and what is its potential? This book will answer that. It enriched my understanding of the power of measurement to turbocharge every business operation. The best takeaway for me was the info on Big Data. Some fun stuff.

4.0 out of 5 stars Solid overview for corporate management looking to understand social media metrics October 14, 2012

By L. C Glover VINE™ VOICE

Format:Paperback|Amazon Vine™ Review (What's this?)

Summary:
Social Media Metrics Secrets gives a solid background on what are relevent metrics to be tracking for your social media campaigns. John Lovett takes traditional marketing metrics and applies them to the world of social media. An understanding of metric driven business management (business point of view vs. social media view) will make the book more valuable to the reader. As Jack Welsh said, "if you cannot measure, you cannot improve it".

The book has three parts:
1: Addressing the ocial data dilemma
Chapter 1: Going Pro with Social Media
Chapter 2: Riding the social data wave: churning data into information
Chapter 3: Activating your socially connected business
2: Managing social media with analytics
Chapter 4: Embracing social analytics
Chapter 5: Using the social analytics framework
Chapter 6: Deploying a process of continuous optimization
3: Finding the big social media payoff
Chapter 7: Tracking the elusive ROI in social media
Chpater 8: Taking the Corporate plunge
Chapter 9: Planning for a socially networked future

Social media is a complex and messy world. But, it can be very helpful to a business but you must impose a solid framework of how you will use social media. It is very easy to get sucked into buzz generating thinking it is helping your bottom-line....which is rarely true. You need to understand what factors you can measure, how to combine them into useful analytical information. Otherwise, you could spend a lot of money for little return or even damage your brand unknowingly.

This is book is a good introduction from the business perspective why and how social media is useful to a business with a clear list of actionable items to work from as you move forward.