I was the featured guest today at #smmeasure and here’s a summary.   A visual summary can be found here.

shinng QUESTION 1: Where do you think the industry of social media analytics will be a year from now? @webmetricsguru #smmeasure -12:08 PM Sep 8th, 2011

Answers included:

1. G+ might take the cake with a closed loop SM ROI
2. There will be  more free applications that  focus on CRM.
3. Search engine algorithms will increasingly be using  social signals. In fact, a lot of @Sysomos clients are using Sysomos for SM and SEO purposes
4. The SMM industry will continue to converge, hopefully start to standardize itself, & tie in w/ business metrics.
5. Analysts will  force SMM companies to innovate to keep up with demands
6. There are viewers who do not see much change in the industry because People still don’t know what they’re looking for in SM insights
7. As social transforms business, it will also transform metrics > ROI becomes more broadly defined.
8. Social media analytics will  be just as important as web analytics , as new tools are released daily
9. ROI needs to be defined for each business and individual with business mapping needed, but often missed but the ROR (Return on Relationships) is defined first, then we will be in a much better position  to define ROI. It’s not always about  $$
10. People will finally recognize that it’s the social analyst who has the real power, not necessarily just the tool(s) or the marketing managers/biz development.
11. Factor in  retention  and a KPI, it is a huge factor of ROI from SM but often forgetten

I brought up there hasn’t been a good integration of Social Analytics and Search Traffic/Visibility, and challenged vendors to work towards such integrations over the next year.  Certainly Searchmetrics has a part of puzzle, but they are more search focused, we need a more social focused approach, for social listening, instead.

  
webmetricsguru q2: Would the community embrace standard definitions for social Analytics if standards organizations would propose,ratify them? #smmeasure -12:23 PM Sep 8th, 2011

I had asked the second question as I was curious what people in the community planned to respond – they said:

1.  Standard metrics for social is difficult as people have different goals and setting “standards” can be tricky bc not every biz has the same goals though it would be easy to create standards based on dif. goals however most will argue the definitions & who is setting them. i.e. Klout
2. Some felt the Barcelona Principles were loose enough to fit into almost any situation
3. Some standardization of social metrics may be smart, but a tough call when they really are industry and role-specific
4. Some felt that standardization isn’t possible, and therefore we should let people customize what metrics are important to them on dashboards.
5. That  getting consensus on standards is a tough mountain to climb, even though it may make life easier for some and Standards would help limit the snake-oil in the space
6. It’s up to P&G – When P&G defines metrics then many CPG companies will likely closely follow their lead. Ha!
7. Standards would help people get on same page, they create own KPIs off of this framework for objectives
8. Industry standards necessitates competitors coming together for greater good. Will be altruistic? Give up competitive edge? Some felt  standards are the foundation innovation can be built off of.
9. Some felt that Standards would just interfear with innovation – part of what I love about SM is its never ending evolution & possibilities and sometimes adoption is not optional. Minimum industry standards, etc., re: food regulation, etc
10. A standard is not a perfect thing though, it’s a baseline – and that’s where @klout does well according to one person. But then again, look at acctg & elsewhere, where stds create boxes that are hard to fit to indiv needs

There was more but I’ll stop here.  You can see how divided the #smmeasure community was on both questions – especially Standards – some want it, others don’t.   I think it will take a few more years to sort this all out, based on what I heard today.