PowerPoint Presentation

Cross-Channel Storytelling for Social Marketers

2As marketers, data fuels us.

But how can we bring it all together to tell our story most effectively?

Youd be hard pressed to find a digital marketer that doesnt see the value in data. Data fuels everything we do, or rather, it can when it makes sense. The sad reality is that the amount of marketing data were exposed to can be overwhelming, and many social media marketers struggle to bring it all together, make sense of it, and tell a story with it.

This is an even greater challenge as social media is being more deeply integrated with broader marketing initiatives. Simply Measured recently conducted a survey of over 1,300 social media marketers to find their biggest pain points when telling the story of their social performance through reporting. 2

Social Marketing Survey The survey showed that the majority of marketers struggle with five key areas of their data analysis:

"Big Picture" understanding Appropriate benchmarking and comparisonsOwned and earned media in context Gleaning deeper insightsComplete understanding of your audience

@SimplyMeasured@lindzeemccain

More than 80% of those respondents said social media is either somewhat or very integrated into their companys overall marketing strategy.

The survey found that the majority of marketers struggle with five key areas of their data analysis, and they all boil down to the ability to tell a story:"Big Picture" understanding Appropriate benchmarking and comparisonsOwned and earned media in context Gleaning deeper insightsComplete understanding of your audience

Today, we're going to focus on the first of these, the cross-channel understanding.

3

51% of respondents ranked a Big Picture Understanding as their biggest challenge for reporting on social performance.

Data storytelling isnt a new concept, but it is receiving an ever-increasing amount of attention, budget, and time as marketers get more sophisticated and get their hands on datasets from more places. From the Community Manager to the CMO, were all looking for one thing in our data; a story.

In our recent survey of social media marketers, 51% ranked understanding and standardization across social networks as their biggest challenge when it comes to reporting on social performance.

4

Why is it so difficult to see the big picture?The puzzle pieces dont seamlessly fit together. More networks, more metrics! The problem with stakeholders.

@SimplyMeasured@lindzeemccain

But how can you tell a complete story if the pieces of the puzzle dont fit? Here's why it's challenging:

The pieces of the puzzle dont fit together seamlessly. It's easy to understand the differentiation and weight differences of metrics between networks if you're intimately familiar with social, but without taking a step back to look at the big picture, it's easy to zero in on things that are too tactical.

As you move up the ladder, it becomes an even bigger burden to explain and justify activity your social performance to stakeholders, especially when their background lies in a more traditional form of marketing or advertising. The nuances between Retweets on Twitter and shares on Facebook become more and more difficult to explain.

Many marketers are also moving beyond the traditional networks into emerging or niche places to engage with their community. And as the number of social channels grows, consolidating and standardizing these metrics become even more difficult. More than half of the marketers surveyed said they report on Facebook and Twitter but, even more surprising, a quarter of respondents say they spend time reporting on activity from at least six networks. This equates to a lot of data, a lot of time, and a lot of energy spent aligning or explaining various metrics.

5

The solution: standardizing and normalizing your cross-channel metrics.

Though there are two of the most effective ways to mitigate this: Standardizing and normalizing your metrics.

6

Standardizing Terminology The key to putting massive amount of data in context is standardization, and it's surprisingly simple.

Aggregate all cross-channel data into one place. Establish standardized terminology. For example, instead of Facebook Likes and Pinterest and Twitter Followers, you'd use a term like "Audience." Bucket the channel-specific metrics into your new standardized terms.

Now, you can see your activity cleanly and with holistic context to make your analysis more effective.

@SimplyMeasured@lindzeemccain

Standardization. The key to putting this massive amount of data in context is standardization, and it's surprisingly simple.

First, you'll need to aggregate all of your cross-channel data into one place. The next step is to establish standardized terminology. For example, instead of Facebook Likes and Pinterest and Twitter Followers, you'd use a term like "Audience. Finally, you bucket the channel-specific metrics into your new standardized terms.

By putting all of the information in one place with standardized terminology, you can understand and share your holistic performance more easily with more effective analyses.

By standardizing terminology around similar metrics, youre able to look at activity and engagement cleanly, and with holistic context. This context is what will make your analysis more effective, ultimately helping you to optimize your social strategy and investment.

7

8Example: Total Engagement

9Example: Brand Post Volume and Engagement

10Example: Brand Post Volume and Engagement

Without normalizing your cross-channel data, youre not comparing apples to apples.

Normalization. Instead of aggregating and standardizing metrics like we just discussed, many marketers are still reporting on networks separately. The problem with this is that there are often significant variations on audience size within these networks, so the analyses fail to compare apples to apples. Growth Rate: Looking at growth rate gives you insight beyond your audience size so that you can see which networks are gaining momentum most rapidly. This is especially effective to track because it can help you determine where to allocate your resources. Engagement as a % of Audience:This looks at the total engagement divided by your audience size for each cannel. It's a great metric to determine exactly which channels are most effective in resonating with your community. If you want to dig deeper into the channel level, look at Engagement Rate. My favorite example of this looks at a page using paid media on Facebook. Of the two posts below, which do you think resonated most with your audience? [FBAD IMAGE]Even though post one received a much larger number of engagements, it was shown to a substantially higher number of people that chose not to interact. Post two was shown to fewer people, but a higher percentage of those people chose to take an action, meaning it was actually the most effective. Benchmarking: Benchmarking can be tricky business. In order to get it completely right, youd need to be leverage analyses like regression models and confidence intervals. In the interest of keeping it simple, the most effective and commonly used methods by social marketers are:Trailing three periods as an average: For more recent benchmarking (like pre-campaign performance measurement or a monthly report), simply average the last three months.. This will give you a solid rolling average.Period over period: With this type of comparison, it makes the most sense to focus on rates and ratios (especially for long-term comparisons like year-over-year.) You should focus on measuring things like Growth Rate and Engagement Rate. This will allow you to normalize over time periods without worrying about the scale differences.

11

Example: Growth Rate

Growth Rate: Looking at growth rate gives you insight beyond your audience size so that you can see which networks are gaining momentum most rapidly. This is especially effective to track because it can help you determine where to allocate your resources. 12

13Example: Engagement as a % of Audience

This looks at the total engagement divided by your audience size for each cannel. It's a great metric to determine exactly which channels are most effective in resonating with your community.

13

Example: Benchmarking

Benchmarking can be tricky business. In order to get it completely right, youd need to be leverage analyses like regression models and confidence intervals. In the interest of keeping it simple, the most effective and commonly used methods by social marketers are:

Trailing three periods as an average: For more recent benchmarking (like pre-campaign performance measurement or a monthly report), simply average the last three months.. This will give you a solid rolling average.

Period over period: With this type of comparison, it makes the most sense to focus on rates and ratios (especially for long-term comparisons like year-over-year.) You should focus on measuring things like Growth Rate and Engagement Rate. This will allow you to normalize over time periods without worrying about the scale differences.

14

There are many ways to tell your cross-channel story, but you must first understand it holistically.

For the rest of this story, stay tuned for the 5 Data Storytelling Essentials For Social Marketers whitepaper.

Thank you!