I’m still in London, wrapping up my European trip including Davos, London, Brighton and Norway; attending and spoke at #socialPR today in central London and back to New York Tuesday evening.
On this trip it’s been difficult to post to WebMetricsGuru much, but here’s a post I have meant to write for close to a week, and my travels have given me additional perspectives on Analytics Reporting.
For one thing, I’ve seen. the same type of unsatisfying Analytics reporting is being done, with the Analyst caught between a client unclear what they want and a PR/Marcom or Vendor who has time and Analytics constraints, and seems to often lack a deep contextual view within the reports.
On the other hand, I saw much better reports and decks, here, when analysts were given and scope to really drill down. It’s also true, an Analytics ask that is vague can affect the time it takes to deliver insights by a factor of 3. However an ultra specific ask can also increase reporting by almost the same amount.
Perhaps what we need is Analytics ask that are in “the Zone”, or are “just right” amount of information.
Decided to address a remedy to what appears to be a widespread, and possibly universal issue with unsatisfactory Social Media Analytics reporting.
First, SMM (Social Media Monitoring) is nor Market Research (yet) and can not provide, in most cases, the precision report required for a variety of reasons covered in my book, however I feel it is too often being sold as a proxy for market research.
The platform and workflow immaturity i have observed can be remedied through a 3 phrase deliverable including an initial readout and up to 2 additional refinements to a report, all billable with expanded time frames for execution and delivery for lockdown.
It appears to me there are nearly universal misrepresentations of workflow and timelines making this social media reporting unsatisfactory for all concerned.
It’s also true realistic timeframes and pricing, while making an Analysts life easier who works for a PR, Marketing or Services firm (for a change) would increase pricing of reporting beyond what most clients are willing to pay for this level of reporting at this point of time.
I think far more satisfying deliverables come from better leverage the advanced reporting capabilities of an SMM platform with the clarified ask.
And I really hope my book on Social Media Analytics sets the stage for a more realistic and improved reporting and insights. It may be that Analysts need to push back and ask the clients and agency what they really want to achieve with this report, or work according to Jane Wilson who leads the CIPR this year in the UK (I’m listening to Jane Wilson and Philip Sheldrake in front of me in London at #socialPR right now).
On another note when I was in Davos last week Brandtology was acquired by Media Monitors. Here’s the information my main contact at Brandtology, Jay Vasudevan, shared with me.
I would like to bring you the exclusive news that Media Monitors has acquired a majority stake in Brandtology. As a group, we now have over 1,000 employees in 17 countries serving 5,000 clients globally.
The combination of Media Monitors and Brandtology will provide our clients/partners an unprecedented, holistic and deep insight of mainstream and digital media.
This is the logical and exciting next step for Brandtology, allowing us to continue our rapid growth globally and to serve our clients better. We remain our strong commitment to R&D and high level of quality of services.
Attached please find the press release – there is a video link inside and hope you will enjoy it.
URL : http://bit.ly/brandtology
