Chatting up Social Media Metrics with Leslie Poston, the author of the new Social Media Metrics for Dummies

[image error]I have to tell you that one of my best of parts of my job as head of marketing and sales for Awareness, Inc. is that I can reconnect with old friends and learn about the great things they do in social marketing.  Leslie Poston, the co-author of Twitter for Dummies and the head of marketing consulting firm Magnitude Media, is not only a great friend, she is also one of the top thinkers in the field, who will be coming out with her new book Social Media Metrics for Dummies on June 13.  We are thrilled to have her for our next educational webinar – From Dummies to Genius – Tips for Social Media Metrics on May 24th and wanted to share some of Leslie’s inspirations and insights with our community prior to the webinar and the official launch of the book.

Social Media Metrics for Dummies is for those social media marketers who need to discover how to gauge their online success based on social media metrics.  Please don’t let the title fool you – for this new book, Leslie poured through over 300 social media measurement tools to bring you the best thinking in social media analytics.  Leslie says that the book contains both strategic overview to social media metrics and technical how-tos that are accessible even to those marketers who traditionally shy away from number crunching. It took Leslie over six months to distill her research and knowledge into a solid philosophy behind social media measurement. I sat down with Leslie to ask her about what inspired her to write the book, about her philosophy is, chat up examples and tools and get her to talk about social media success. Here’s what Leslie shared with me:

What inspired you to write about social media metrics? In my work I get to help big global brands and small mom-and-pop shops.  What I realized was that size did not matter – all companies face a very similar dilemma – they get customer engagement but most really don’t know what works and what doesn’t. I figured it is about time a new guide to social media metrics is designed and shared– a guide that sets the right foundation and helps marketers get to the insights they need to inform their future social media efforts.

What is the most valuable social media measurement a marketer can focus on? I think this is in a way the wrong question to ask – marketers need to measure what makes sense for their business.  There isn’t one magic metric that applies to everyone.  Social media metrics is about a programmatic approach to measurement – one that accounts for the unique aspects of your business and helps you learn about what gets traction and what doesn’t.  A social media metrics dashboard for a hospital will look very different from that for an automotive repair shop. That said, I am a big believer that all businesses need to know their key performance indicators (KPIs) and what converts their prospects into buyers.

What are some of the cool ways to use metrics? Here’s one – in my new book I share with folks how to use Google Analytics to track phone calls.  This always gets a chuckle from people.  I also talk about the metrics of sleep – I am an avid supporter and active member of the Quantified Self movement – and I have been tracking the metrics of sleep and sleep’s impact on my health using my FitBit. You can learn a lot about working too much and not sleeping enough and the effects on your health downstream.

Which social media monitoring and metrics tools do the best job of helping marketers? Do you have any favorites? It all depends.  Not every marketing department has the budget to pay for monitoring or measurement tools. Two tools that I really like are CrowdFactory and ShortStacks – great tools to for Facebook fan pages and apps. Needless to say, the Awareness Social Marketing Hub is on the top of my listJ I reviewed over 300 tools in the Social Media Metrics for Dummies book so there are a lot of choices marketers have these days.

Can you share one of your client successes – and how you helped a client master the art of social media measurement? I can’t name the brand, but a favorite client (and yes, I like all of the companies I work with) is using social media metrics to get people to use their product, which is located in someone else’s store and not allowed to be advertised using traditional signage. We used a combination of Google Analytics insights and CrowdFactory to connect with their army of influencers to get people in those stores to buy the product. So my message to marketers is – stop being afraid of metrics – use social media metrics to put your efforts where it makes most sense.

Thank you, Leslie, for making the time to talk to us and for participating in our free educational series on social media marketing. Join us for From Dummies to Genius – Tips for Social Media Metrics on May 24th – send any questions to Leslie on Twitter using her official hashtag #SMM4D and #awarenesstips.  To stay up to date with Leslie and her work, follow her on Twitter, like her new Social Media for Dummies Facebook page, and link up with her on LinkedIn   @BostonMike

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