DR. WHAW? – January 12, 2010

DR. WHAW? is back by popular demand!  Well at least back for Arik Hanson who was kind enough to feature me on his blog today.  I have been busier than usual and wasn’t sure if anyone was reading DR. WHAW? so I decided to stop writing it for a while to focus on more meaty posts.

Hearing at least one person misses DR. WHAW? and was following along, I decided to bring it back! So here it is, what I Didn’t Read While Hard At Work today.

DR. WHAW? – January 12, 2009

1. A decade of measurement successes and failures… by Ed Moed — Since it is a new year, I appreciated this post which looked at the best and worst in measurement from the past 10 years. We have come a long way this decade, but there is still quite a ways to go before measurement is universally accepted and practiced, at least in PR. This is a pretty comprehensive list, though, and it definitely worth a read to understand where we were and where we still need to go.

2. Forrester reveals how to optimize mobile ROI by Dan Butcher — I had to include this article since just a few weeks ago, I wondered how we could possibly measure mobile.  While this does not answer all of my question about measuring mobile marketing, it definitely provides a good start. And if you’re thinking of integrating mobile into your own projects or campaigns, I would recommend this article as a way to better understand the mobile climate.

3. The Five Biggest Mistakes in Measuring Social Media by Gary Stein — While measuring social media is incredibly important, I like that this post calls out the most popular mistakes in social media because they are easy to make. The space is new and it’s hard to adjust, but we need to be careful to ensure that we’re really measuring what we think we are. And it’s important to know all metrics that are out there that could be applicable to any given campaign or program.

4. There’s No Silver Bullet For The Big, Bad Social Media Measurement Wolf by Marta Stickland — Just like the last post, it’s important to recognize the importance of measurement, but it should not be taken lightly. There are lots of ins and outs to measurement (especially with social media), and it’s important to understand that one size does not fit all. Just as programs must be customized for each client or brand, so too must measurement programs be customized for every program. Not convinced?  Read more!

5. Facebook privacy, self-esteem, and the dangerous ease of social media measurement by Chris Reed — OK. So the measurement nerd in me wants to cry out that this is unfair, but the rest of me knows that there is some validity to this concern. Has it really become too easy for someone like to me to monitor and analyze online conversations? Are we losing our sense of privacy?  This is a great insight into how measurement and social media are affecting the rest of our lives and whether or not they’re truly good things.

6. HOW TO: Use a Start Page to Stay Organized by Barb Dybwad — If you know me, you know that I live and die by my planner.  I always have it with me in my purse, and I only take it out to write in it or look out for fear of losing it. I know, I should go technological so I don’t have to worry, but I just can’t seem to bring myself to. Maybe this would help, this is a great and new way to keep yourself organized! I just thought it was fun.

7. The Children of Cyberspace: Old Fogies by Their 20s by Brad Stone — I loved this article from the New York Times because I can definitely relate to it. I’m only 22, but there are days when I feel so far behind my younger sister who is 18. I can only imagine what it would be like to talk with someone even younger who has grown up with even more technology than I have, and I can’t remember ever not having a computer! It’s always important to realize that technology has more effects on us that we realize, and I think this is an important look into society.

And with that, I will leave you to your other reading. I hope that you’re glad to see DR. WHAW? back, and I hope that you will leave me some feedback so I know I can keep improving.  Thank you for reading, y’all!

What one week of little sleep and less sanity has taught me

This past week at work was absolutely terrible for me.  The odd holiday hours threw off a lot of my weekly reports, and suddenly I found myself with in the middle of what I call the perfect social media monitoring storm.

Because of the holidays, a couple weekly reports were delayed until this week, and of course there were monthly reports to contend with. As luck might have it, one of the most time-intensive reports was for a new client, and lets just say I haven’t worked out all the kinks yet.  Needless to say I did not sleep very much this week, and I have felt a constant pressure which has made me very tense and crabby at home.

Thankfully, it’s all over now.  Future weeks and months look like smooth sailing with regularly-time reports and few holiday delays.  Oh, and I know what the client wants now, so that makes everything easier.  While a big part of me wants to just be thankful and forget this week ever happened, I knew I should share a few things I’ve learned:

1. Communicate, communicate, communicate! I heard myself saying many times, “OK, this makes perfect sense to me,” at least three times each day, but sometimes I struggled to understand why others weren’t necessarily on the same page.  It was always a small detail I had thought was too unimportant to communicate to the whole group that had inevitably caused confusion. Even the best cannot work without all the information. So what I learned is this: communicate everything and anything.
2. Do it right the first time. Always. I found myself rushing to make editing deadlines and would sometimes forgo correct formatting to ensure on-time delivery so my boss.  Well, of course that just meant that when I got the reports back and reformatted, content also had to be adjusted.  I realized something mighty important that I’m not sure I ever completely understood, but it is best to do it right the first time, even if it means being late.  I found that warning my boss about delays went over better than an on-time report riddled with errors.
3. Check in early and often. With new projects, there is bound to be confusion about how a task should be completed or how much depth to go into. It’s tricky to learn the ins and outs of a new client, and it takes time. Unfortunately, sometimes it also takes trial and error on everyone’s part (mostly my own). The key is to check in as a team early and often to ensure that the whole team is working toward the same goal with the same methods.
4. Have a clear plan and share it. Part of my problem this week ended up being that I had a very specific plan for the week worked out in my head, but I didn’t clearly express this to the rest of the team (what? shouldn’t they guess?). I found myself unfairly frustrated that we weren’t always working on the same page, and in hindsight it would have made the team more efficient to agree on a timeline at the beginning of the week. It’s important to know where everyone is in the process beforehand so that the team can work towards a goal together.
5. Never assume your project or time is most important. While this week was hectic for me, I know that almost every one in the office was running on empty, too. It was the first week of the month and the first week back from holidays. I found myself frustrated when other projects needed work, too, but I came to realize that everything was getting done on time. It’s important to understand what other projects are ongoing and which take priority. Obviously higher priority projects should be completed first without falling too far behind on others.
6. Celebrate milestones but never forget the end goal. I found myself congratulating myself too much for completing important milestones when I really needed to buckle down. It’s always a good idea to reward yourself a little when a milestone is reached, but it’s easy to get too carried away and forget about the deadline. Never forget that the milestones won’t matter much if the final product is never completed. Give yourself a little break, and grab a soda or a snack, but then get right back to it!
7. Always remember those who helped you. I remember when I was intern being thanked by project leaders when a big deadline had passed. Sometimes I thought it was unnecessary (why thank me for doing my job?), but there were plenty of times when it made me feel that all my sacrifice and hard work was being recognized. With this is mind, I made sure to send out a virtual pat on the back to all who helped me get through my terrible week because even if they don’t think so, they helped me immensely.

What have you learned during your worst weeks? Please add to my list as I know I’m still pretty new to this.

UPDATE (January 12): I have edited some of the above bullets because upon re-reading, I realize I came off a little harsh on the interns. This was never my intention. To be perfectly honest: I would not have slept at all had it not been for the interns. Last week was ridiculous with timing of reports, and I found that I had many shortcomings as a the lead on the monitoring reports (a role I’ve never had before). I do not mean to imply in any way that others working on the account did not rock the house despite my frequently vague and misleading directions. I sincerely apologize because I know that at least one of the interns felt they did a poor job, and I want to be sure to shout for all to hear that I thought the complete opposite. I meant to express my frustration with my own mistakes, but I realize that my tone and wording did suggest frustration more with others than myself. I apologize and will be sure to never make this mistake again.

How do you quantify influence?

As you all are well aware, I’m a measurement girl.  I’m finally able to take on the whole measurement process at work, and it’s up to me not only collect data but figure out what it means for my clients.  Now that I’m focused on social media, I’ve started to wonder more about how influence should factor into my analyses.

We all know that when someone like Katie Paine or David Armano writes about a topic or event, we are more likely to pay attention.  But how does someone like me take that into account?  One blog post from a big name in social media compared with 100 blog posts on little-read blogs – which is more important?  How do you quantify influence?

I don’t mean to ask this in a hypothetical way.  I mean, if you were to give weightings to blog posts or authors based on influence, how would you do it?  Do you assign a higher number based purely on followers or based on how many comments a blogger receives?

And once you figure out what metrics are most important, how do you assign numerical values to them?  Are thousands of followers worth 5 points?  Twenty comments per blog post, is that worth 7 points?  Do you see what I’m getting at?

I recently read through the algorithm used to find a Twitter user’s Klout score.  I think this is a really thorough start, but I’m still curious how each of these factors are weighted and compared to one another.  Which do you think should be weighted most heavily?  And how much heavier should they be than others?

So mobile is the future, huh? How the heck do I measure that?

Lately, all I’ve been hearing about is how mobile is the future.  Mobile marketing is growing and will only continue to explode in the coming years.  My own work and curiosity makes me wonder how measurement will need to grow as mobile marketing does.

Recently I had the opportunity to have a good, long chat with two fabulous IT guys: Ryan and Adam.  And I have to say I felt more than a little nerdy as I chatted in the kitchen with two of my oldest friend’s significant others talking about user strings and Web servers, while a group of my oldest girlfriends sat in the living room and decided which male actor most represented each of them.

I asked these two IT guys what they knew about mobile and what they thought about its emergence.  Luckily, they were more than happy to tell me everything they know and where they think the industry is going.

Then I asked them this: how can we measure mobile marketing?

I told them a few things I knew clients would want to be able to measure, and they told me about tracking some usage through user strings.  And I think this is definitely a great start, but it won’t bring back as much data as I know will be needed moving forward.

As companies begin to use mobile more, they are going to want to understand how effective their campaigns are.  I wonder, is there a way to track mobile usage without building metrics into a mobile application or interface itself?  Is there a third party out there already tracking this kind of usage?

Adam and Ryan gave me a great start, but now I’m asking y’all to help me get farther.  How do I get enough data to be meaningful?

Social media conversations: what would you want to know?

Lately, I’ve been finding myself focusing more on the social media conversations. Every time a new project comes up, I’m asked to look at it from a company’s perspective.  More specifically, it’s always recommended to think about what the CMO would want to know or what the CEO would want to know.

How the heck am I supposed to know?

Seriously.  I graduated about seven months ago from college, and I have very little idea what a CMO would want to know about online conversations.  Generally I have a pretty good idea, and I have gotten very good at recognizing topics that are significant or noticing changes in volume of posts or where posts are being written.  But I still find myself wondering how I can be expected to understand what someone like a CMO would look for.

So I’m asking you!  What do you think?  If you were a CMO and wanted an audit of social media conversations, what would you look for?  What would you notice?  What would stand out?  I would love to hear some insights and ideas so maybe I can learn to recognize the big ideas when I see them.

I claim thee, social media, in the name of…Ow.ly?

OK. I’m a bit torn on these online tools like Ow.ly and StumbleUpon.  And yes, I know that they have been around for some time now, but I didn’t really understand my distaste for them.  Now I think I can put it into words.

When I open up a link from Twitter or someone’s blog and it brings up a banner at the top of the page indicating that someone else has tagged the page using one of these tools, it makes me feel as though they are claiming it as their own.  It’s like trying to stake your claim on the Internet.

That’s so not what social media is about.

I understand that it’s a great tool to track where posts that you write or like, and it definitely has some potential to be a basic measurement tool.  You know me, that part, I think, is great.  But what happens when I open the link and then send it on to someone else?  They open it up to see the person’s banner at the top, and suddenly the other person gets the credit even though they didn’t pass it along themselves.

Maybe I’m missing the point entirely.  Is it all about trying to see how far your own reach is?  Look how far I can get this post to travel?  Is it a way to track what posts you liked?

Most of the time I find it’s just one more thing I have to close out (like those annoying pop-up ads that somehow infiltrate my pop-up blocker).  And it just seems silly to me to try to claim responsibility for a post you didn’t write.

Look Ma, I’m employed!

I must first inform you that I am writing this post from the University of New South Wales in Sydney, Australia, and I am lucky enough to be sitting next to my love after five long months apart.  We have both been planning this trip for what felt like forever, but when I found him just outside customs, I don’t think it mattered to me one bit where we were.  I was just happy to have my best friend back.  I spent most of the day fighting jet lag, but tomorrow there are big plans!  The infamous Opera House and maybe the beach!  It’s almost summer here, and thank goodness for that.  Chicago winter is creeping up on me, and this will be a great change.

Friday was the last day of my six-month internship with StrategyOne, the research arm for Edelman.  I learned a great deal from my work at StrategyOne, but I was ready to move on to something different.  I had been asked to continue to work with the company as an independent contractor, and I was happy to have the opportunity to do some freelance work.  I met with someone from Edelman Digital about a month ago, and we talked about the possibility of me doing some freelance work with the Digital team as well.  Unfortunately, it seemed as though this would not be possible since I had not been an intern for Digital before my freelance work.

I have to say I was pretty bummed.  I understand that with a big company this is often “just how it works,” but I had become really excited about working with the Digital team.  My hopes were reignited Thursday morning when I was asked to come in my very last day for an interview.  A position on the Digital team had opened up, and they had thought of me first!  Eeek!

After three interviews on Friday, I had an offer in hand before the end of the day, and I stayed up late to fill out all of the necessary paperwork before leaving the country for two weeks.  Luckily my mom is amazing and offered to fax everything for me the next day.

So now it’s official: I’m the newest associate account executive for Edelman Digital!

And I could not be more thrilled for this new challenge.  I will be taking ownership of some new projects involving measurement, and even more exciting, I get to take on some pretty heavy-duty analysis, too!  I must admit I am a bit nervous, but I’m so ready to take on this role!

Wish me luck!

DR. WHAW? – October 30, 2009

Happy almost-Halloween everyone!  What a festive and gorgeous fall day it was, too.  There was a ton I missed out on today while I was hard at work, not the least of which were the following posts.  But do enjoy what I Didn’t Read While Hard At Work today!

 

DR. WHAW? – October 30, 2009

1. Facebook Launches Live Status Dashboard for Monitoring Platform Performance by Justin Smith — Talk about instant feedback!  This is pretty darn cool.  As Facebook launched its new Live Status feature yesterday, it also created an easy and instantaneous way to check how the new feature runs.  This will allow the developers to quickly and easily discover any issues and fix them.

2. The Social Media ROI presentation from the #LikeMinds conference by Olivier Blanchard — If you are at all interested in social media, then you must understand ROI and how to measure social media.  In that case, you absolutely must watch this presentation from Olivier Blanchard, who is without a doubt the authority on measurement in this space.  No more must be said, just watch!

3. Notes & reading list from the Social Network Analysis Workshop by Bill Johnston — Goodness, I wish I could have been at this Social Network Analysis Workshop!  If you were like me and couldn’t make it, this post will absolutely catch you up.  This is a great introduction to analyzing social network and your strategy involving them.  This is a great first step, and I highly recommend it.

4. Top Social Media Monitoring & Measurement Posts of the Week by Hannah Del Porto — I think I’ve said this before, but I do see the irony in featuring a post that features the best posts of the week.  This is a great list, though, and it is a bit more focused than mine, so I think it is definitely worth a look!

5. Bing for Mobile Adds Optimized Interface and Real-Time  Data by Christina Warren — Today Bing added some pretty cool new features to their mobile search.  This allows mobile users to better view and search using their search engine (as compared to Google mobile), and it also provides real-time data.  What does this have to do with measurement?  I don’t know, but it is pretty cool.  How will this change how you view the mobile Web?

6. The Trouble with Blog Influence Statistics by Shannon Paul — This is a very interesting argument against measurements like blog influence.  The claim made here is that these statistics aren’t useful because the definition of a blog isn’t clear just yet.  Make sense?  I didn’t get it right away, either, but I would recommend that you read this.  It’s an interesting theory, and I’m a bit torn.  Where do you stand?

7. Twitter Lists Rock: A Geek Review by Joe Mescher — I like this review of Twitter’s new lists feature.  I’ve seen brief reviews on Twitter, and it seems that people are torn.  Half seem to think lists are amazingly cool, while some believe that they may be just another meaningless number on which we shouldn’t focus.  What’s your opinion?  Do you have one just yet?

 

Happy Friday, y’all!  I hope to hear all your spooky Halloween stories, and I cannot wait to share some of my own.  I’ll be venturing out to the University of Wisconsin at Madison for their infamous celebration.  I have some great friends in grad school there, and I’m  happy to be visiting!  What are your plans?

DR. WHAW? – October 29, 2009

And so I’ve let another week slip away from me!  How is it already Thursday?  How is your week going so far, y’all?  Check out some of the great things I Didn’t Read While Hard At Work today!

 

DR. WHAW? – October 29, 2009

1. The SM ROI Post from Obsessed with Conformity — I love this post because the author gets it exactly right (why can’t I find his name?) in that ROI is not much more than simple mathematics.  When social media is introduced, a lot of people seem to make the equation very complicated when actually it doesn’t need to be.  It may be a bit harder to quantify social media, but this is a great post that should remind you what ROI really is and how easy it can be.

2. Mapping Your Way Through Social Media by Danny Brown — I love this new idea from Danny Brown!  Listening to social media is suddenly a huge need for a lot of companies and something that a lot of us are thinking about a lot.  We have a new need to measure and track what is being said about us online, and the idea of a social map could help to make the process a lot more simple and organized.  What do you think?  Could you use this?

3. Key Factors To Include In Competitive Analysis by Ravi — I like this look at competitive analysis because it considers search engine optimization, which has become very popular lately. There are a lot of good metrics in here that can be of great use to you when you’re looking to compare yourself with others or with your own past results.

4. Social Media as Signaling Strategy by Andrew Goodman — There has been a lot of argument lately about what the “proper use” of social media is.  I like this post because it talks about how you can use social media as a way to monitor signal and noise.  He doesn’t necessarily believe you need to use social media, but does think you should watch it and measure it.  What do you think?  Is there some credibility to this argument?

5. That’s an Insight?! by Carol Phillips — I really enjoy this post because it makes us call into question our own methods.  It relates specifically to research on Millenials, and it asks whether that new fact you just discovered is really an insight, or just plain interesting?  Know what the difference is?  You should!

6. comScore Acquires Latin American Web Measurement Company Certifica by Leena Rao — comScore has acquired yet another metrics company.   This time it’s a company very similar to itself, but it is based in Latin America and will help comScore to expand its own presence in that area of the world.  What will this mean for you?  Do you have a need to monitor Latin American Web traffic?

7. Local Search Shifts to Online, Mobile Platforms from MarketingVOX — An annual study on our search habits has shown that local search is shifting to both online and mobile platforms and fast!  It was also found that most early research was done online, whereas later research was more likely to be done offline.  Interesting stuff in here, and I wonder how this may help you?  Does this help you better understand your consumers?

 

Thank goodness it’s almost Friday, eh?  I’m happy for the end of another week as it means only one more work week before I head off Sydney, Australia, for two full weeks.  I cannot wait!  Happy Thursday, y’all!

DR. WHAW? Sunday Digest – Week-ending October 25, 2009

It has been a great week.  I got a lot done this weekend, too!  It was quite amazing!  How much did you get done?  I hope to hear that all of your weekends were productive and relaxing.  And to cap it all off here’s what I Didn’t Read While Hard At Work this week.

DR. WHAW? Sunday Digest – Week-ending October 25, 2009

1. The Case of the Missing Social Media Metrics by Rikin Diwan — I love this!  While there are many great strides toward online social media measurement, there are still some pretty big gaps.  There are some great questions in here that still need to be answered.  How can you address this lack of knowledge in your own campaigns?  How could you find the answers to these questions?

2. Social Media Measurement 2009 by Katie Paine — This is a great presentation about social media measurement from the queen of public relations measurement, Katie Paine.  This is the presentation given as the Institute of Public Relations’ measurement summit, an event I only dream of attending someday.  If you couldn’t attend, I seriously recommend you browse through her presentation.

3. 5 Free Sentiment Analysis Tools, 5 Very Different Results by Craig Hodges — I think that all companies need to be measuring, and I think there is a lot of value in sentiment analysis.  This article examines five different tools, though and shows that maybe these tools aren’t perfect.  I like that someone is taking the time to evaluate these different tools, to me that’s a pretty big deal for measurement in and of itself.

4. How to Set Up Your Google Analytics Account Structure to Avoid Headaches Later by Helen Overland — Having a Google Analytics account in the first place is a huge step in the right direction, but I love this overview of how to set up your account.  It will seriously help you make sure that you set your goals ahead of time and make sure you don’t end up confused.  I really strongly recommend this article if you’re considering using Google Analytics (and you should be) to measure campaigns or your work.

5. Introducing the Social Analytics Lifecycle by Ken Burbary and Chuck Hemann — I absolutely love this!  This shows a very insightful look into the lifecycle of social analytics and why everyone should be taking advantage of the data available through social media.  You should definitely take a look at this graphic that they have created and comment on it.  This is a perfect start, and I think it will evolve into a great tool.  What do you think?

6. “Listening” graphics have a long way to go by Mark Schaefer — I’m all about measurement, but I have never claimed that the current methods or metrics are perfect.  I love that Mark Schaefer took the time to analyze what is currently available to demonstrate what we still need.

7. Coke Weighs in on Earned Media ROI by Carol Kruse — Another big WOW!  A major corporation has weighed in on ROI, and I can’t get enough!  I’m happy to see a big player recognizing the importance of ROI and hope it will show other corporations that they need to be measuring, too.  There’s also just some plain good insight, which is worth a read in and of itself.

And with that, I intend to enjoy the rest of my weekend by being completely unproductive.  Enjoy the rest of your Sunday, y’all!