social media measurement
I ahve read a number of articles recently in MSM such as WSJ, NY Times, AdAge and at conferences and on the web regarding measurement by publishers and vendors. And with no set standards and varied ways of measuring as all and sundry keep pointing out, changes are happening and there is more to come.It is inconceivable that in this day and age there are no standard metrics online – a medium that ostensibly does leave a footprint for tracking. It is hard to understand how a vendor and a publisher can have vastly different numbers when calculating (and in some cases simply adding) online activity such as clickthroughs.
With social media, tracking gets even more complicated due to the high number of feed companies and traffic sources. If I take RSS feeds – great – but do I have them all? What about linked sources? Or all of the search engine traffic? or those that came through friends? Am I double counting in some respects? Who can be the trusted independant source and does there need to be one? How do I count traffic where cookies are cleared after each session?
Thinking back to my CPA days, one looked for an independent third party verification of balances especially when the numbers could impact the balance sheet or income statement. The impact of metrics being all over the map does lead to fluctuations in financial statements – as these metrics are a component in the pricing of online ads. It is one thing to go with the best available numbers (if they are standardized) and then correct/adjust post fact when accurate numbers come back as long as this happens in a timely manner and they can be measured with some degree of certainty and accuracy.
Without creating a whole new independent rating system and overhauling the industry groups that currently still result in different interpretations, surely some combination of bi/tri partisan committee of marketers, publishers and advertisers could come to the table and create an advisory board that determines standards and methodologies for measurement? And couldn’t a central clearing house for metrics supported by all who participated in the business result in a better platform – or at least some standardization? In this way, the checkers would not be second guessed by the sellers who are second guessed by the buyers who are looked at by the consumers who just ignore the ads anyway? Nah – this way we can just keep on making the numbers work and leaving room for “good deals and negotiations” where both parties think they have won. (Maybe tonight was just my turn to have a cynical moment!)
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