Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment

by Jim Sterne, David Meerman Scott (Foreword)

The only guide devoted exclusively to social media metrics Whether you are selling online, through a direct sales force, or via distribution channels, what customers are saying about you online is now more important than your advertising. Social media is no longer a curiosity on the horizon but a significant part of your marketing mix. While other books explain why social media is critical and how to go about participating, Social Media Metrics focuses on measuring the success of your social media marketing efforts. Success metrics in business are based on business goals where fame does not always equate to fortune. Read this book to Knowing what works and what doesn't is terrific, but only in a constant and unchanging world. Social Media Metrics is loaded with specific examples of specific metrics you can use to guide your social media marketing efforts as new means of communication.

Genres: Social Media, Business, Nonfiction, Technology

272 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2010

Reviews

[Barrie · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off alright but lacked much, if any, value after the first few chapters. The useful points were around measuring the value of social media to your business, the importance of social media to your business, making the most of it and how to gauge the value of your efforts. After that, it kinda felt like I needed to be managing Starbucks' account to get any real use out of the book.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 4 out of 5]

Jim Sterne’s book is published by Wiley and is a part of The New Rules of Social Media series, and so you know it’s going to be pretty good. It basically does what it says on the tin – it teaches you all that you need to know about metrics, which are effectively the numbers that you keep an eye on to make sure that your marketing campaigns are performing as they should be. All good marketers have one eye on their metrics – you need to make sure that you’re affecting them in a good way.

Still, metrics is a relatively dull subject – it’s hard to get too passionate about them, and even though Sterne himself does a good job of it, it’s pretty hard to feel the same way as a reader. Sure, you’ll learn a lot, and it’s all stuff that you really ought to know, but that doesn’t necessarily make it interesting. It’s one of those things that you ought to read if you work in social media marketing – it’s kind of like homework. In that way, it’s unusual – most of the other books in this series are a genuine pleasure. This one requires the reader to persevere, but it’s worth doing. On that basis, I’d recommend it to you if you work in social media or digital marketing.

[ToniS · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is focused on business sites and marketing strategies for sales, but it did have some good information that I was able to glean out for content-based sites.

The book is not too dense, doesn't go off into the weeds, but is specific and practical. It provides some basic how-tos. I'd say this is more for a person with mid-range knowledge. Not too simplistic, but not over my head, either.

I took a lot of notes and got some ideas on how to pull some reports together that would be useful in tracking engagement and usefulness for readers. And I got a good list of resources to go to for a deeper dive.

[Liz · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love that the book includes some humor, in what could have been a very dry topic. This book has some nice case studies regarding blogging, social media and PR. Lots of good tools are mentioned, to bad the author does not make a recommendation or say how or when to use each tool.

[Alejandro · Rating 5 out of 5]

Jim gives the reader the basic tools for measurement and metrics to any marketing campaign. The simplicity of how he breaks down the biggest business goals in it's purest form is brilliant.

He is still considered by most in the industry to be the God Father of metrics.

[Jason · Rating 3 out of 5]

It has some good stuff in there, but a lot of it was from other authors that this author just reprinted in his book. Nothing earth shattering. Really nothing, that you could not have read elsewhere.

[David Dalka]

Great introduction to the topic of social media metrics.

I interviewed Jim Sterne on his book Social Media Metrics : How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment.

[Justyn · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read and loaded with info, in a genre typically loaded with hyperbole.

[Michaela · Rating 4 out of 5]

Insightful, witty, straightforward and interlinked with some good tools.

[Jen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great tips and tricks for getting started in social media.

[Adam Schweigert · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good introduction, not as technical or in depth as I had expected/hoped. Would recommend this as a solid introduction for people just starting to think about how to effectively measure social media.

[Andrew · Rating 2 out of 5]

I would think that there would be some better books on this subject, but still find some areas helpful.

[Lori Grant · Rating 4 out of 5]

A should-read book on social media for the knowledge worker, manager, executive, or entrepreneur.

[Belal Khan · Rating 4 out of 5]

great starting point for anyone getting into social media marketing and wants to figure out how to measure the time and effort they're putting into it.

[Roland Fiege · Rating 3 out of 5]

Webanalytics thinking transferred to social media. Sterne is always a good source - but not so helpful this time

[Julio Alvarez Álvarez del castillo Gonzalez · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book, was very enlighting about why and what to mesuare on social media projects

[David Rosen · Rating 5 out of 5]

Why Jim Sterne's Book on "Social Media Metrics" Deserves a Spot on Your Shelf...er, Kindle

The book's title is "Social Media Metrics," but it should really be "How to Unequivocally Link Social Media to the Bottom Line."

Don't be fooled by it's svelte 234 pages. This gem by Jim Sterne contains so many excerpts from -- and links to -- the best things that other experts have said on the subject that you can consider it more of a really long blog post. David Berkowitz's "100 Ways to Measure Social Media" right up front is a great primer for those that don't do social as a regular part of their jobs. But then things get more advanced. Jeremiah Owyang's "Eight Stages of Listening" added a lot to my own understanding of something I'd figured was pretty one dimensional. And I never knew there were eight -- count `em -- eight ways to measure the success of a widget. KDAPAine & Partners' list of business outcomes and measurement methods would keep the most experienced pros busy for a while. And there are so many tools, vendors and calculators mentioned that it would take a year to understand them all. (2011's going to be fun.)

But what's really special about this book is that this ton of information is laid out in a logical, holistic way. Imagine you'd learned to navigate the streets of Brooklyn over five years. Then one day someone shows you a map. Sure, you recognized the stores and parks and intersections. But to see it laid out so completely...it lets you see connections between what you know. And it's simply a pleasure. In order, the book's core covers:

* Identifying goals
* Reaching your audience
* Identifying influence
* Recognizing sentiment (a.k.a. "why computerized sentiment will be terrible for a long time to come)
* Triggering action
* Hearing the conversation
* Driving business outcomes

After the metrics lessons are done, Sterne puts some nice bonus material at the end. Recognizing that the successful application of social media metrics in a company is about a lot more than numbers, he points out that "First and foremost, humans do not like being measured."

So he gives you talking points for how to sell social in to people based on their position and personality. There's an inspiring case study about a company called Tektronix where poor metrics aren't viewed as indications of failure, but "rather as indicators of future growth." Sterne makes a valuable point that metrics are better put to work measuring customers, not levels of blame for marketers. These principles are as important to social media success as any graph from Google Analytics.
Why Jim Sterne's Book on "Social Media Metrics" Deserves a Spot on Your Shelf...er, Kindle
Finally, a round of applause for good taste and restraint with the network diagrams. Usually they're either too simple to deserve attention (you know, one box linked to two others) or overwrought to the point of being show off art (look how complex it all is!). Here, a nice balance is struck and the pictures help you turn over the concepts in your mind.

The one criticism I'd offer up is that the many links in the book are full URLs, making it laborious to manually type into a browser. How about bit.lys in future editions? Easier for the reader to type and there would be metrics to see what readers went and visited.

I don't know why Brad Hamilton's popping into my head right now, but I'll let him have the last word on "Social Media Metrics." "Learn it. Know it. Live it."