Month: November 2009

Coming attractions: AACRAO, AMA

This Sunday, I’ll be in Dallas to talk about social media at one of the pre-conference workshops offered prior to the AACRAO Strategic Enrollment Management Conference. I hope to see some of you there although I won’t be able to attend the full conference.

Then later this month, I’ll be in Boston for the American Marketing Association’s Symposium for the Marketing of Higher Education. I won’t be presenting, but our chancellor, John F. Carney III, is one of the keynote presenters. Hope to see some of you there, too.

A 7-step program for social media measurement

Many of you probably have read Karine Joly‘s University Business article about social media measurement, since it’s been out for a month. (Karine blogged about it exactly one month ago, on Oct. 2.) But for those of you who haven’t yet read this article, check out Social Media Measurement 101. In the article, Karine outlines a very simple seven-step formula that can be used to measure just about any sort of communications campaign.

Here are the seven steps:

1. Define measurable goals for social media activities.
2. Choose key performance indicators (KPIs) carefully.
3. Plan ahead and properly set up the right measurement tools.
4. Capture the data at preset intervals.
5. Don’t forget some benchmarking.
6. Share your measurement data.
7. Use measurement data to craft your next moves.

It’s a good primer that anyone in communications or marketing should find helpful.

If you’re really into measurement, you ought to follow K.D. Paine’s Measurement Standard blog for frequent news and insights.