“What gets measured gets managed”
How many times have you heard that one! It applies to so many areas in life. Patrick Ward (an Athletic Development, Sports Preparation & Performance Coach) used it in a recent blog post about sports performance. 
I often use this term when it concerns interactive marketing. If you want to see me with an uneasy look on my face is when I am trying to convince you about something without facts, without testimonials, and with no evidence of any kind. Yes, I can sell you something based on my passion alone, and it might do the job, but things get tricky when the response is “prove it”.
What gets measured gets improved.
Now here is another variant in the series of “what gets measured…” Let’s look at the measuring part, because until you have measurements, you are guessing at the places to start improving. Social media has been around for a long time, and now I am starting to see some serious looking tools to help with the measuring part of this statement. I especially like metrics that have real relevance. It does not matter what you are trying to achieve, whether that be interactive marketing or sales or non-profit, you really want to spend some time to devise your objectives. Then the metrics that align with objectives are what I would describe as key metrics. What those metrics are really does depend on the situation. This is what makes any metric into a key metric; its relevance with your carefully thought out objectives.
Don’t always grab for low hanging metrics
Ahh yes, “low hanging metrics”. This is one if the Social Media Jedi’s favorite terms that you will hear me mention a few times. You have a Twitter account? So measure the number of followers, which is all you need to measure success. Here are a few more examples of low hanging metrics;
– x number of likes on our Facebook page
– x number of visitors from x country to a blog
– x number of followers on a Twitter account
– x number of followers on Instagram
– x number of Google +1’d articles on a blog
Do not rush to put these kinds of metrics into a dashboard because they were just standing out in big red font on your Social media tool. Be wary of people who advise you to do that when they have not asked what your objectives are that you are trying to achieve. Do not read me wrong here, you might still choose one of those metrics after careful assessment of your objectives.
The key thing is to map metrics to key objectives. You might even have to custom make a metric when the data is present but not in the form of a metric which you want. An example of this is the “calculated metrics” functionality in Adobe online marketing suite. On occasions, I have had to create a new metric and the
n use it in the SiteCatalyst section of the suite.
Looking back at my early days in web Analytics, the thought of needing to create a metric would have seemed like overkill. I was constantly asked to report on the “hits on the homepage” to my colleagues and customers. That was it, homepage hits. Those were the days!
Have you been tempted to grab for low hanging metrics? Do you constantly get advised to just reach, pick and enjoy these low hanging metrics?
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