In the last few months as communicators have been returning from conferences on social media, I've seen a number of comments made on online networking sites that concern me. For example:

1. A communicator who wanted to convert his company's electronic newsletter into a blog.
2. A communication manager who wanted to develop a strategic plan for using social media.

Strategic plans
The problem is that these communicators are focusing on the channels themselves rather than on how these media can help communicators support business goals better through more effective communication. It's not unlike buying a shiny, new hammer and then inventing ways to use it for pulling out screws and loosening bolts. The results can be just as destructive.
           
Instead, we need to go back to our strategic plans for communicating key organizational subjects and see where – if at all – specific web 2.0 tools can increase the likelihood our campaigns will succeed. In some cases, a new tool may replace an old tool, such as the ability to comment on online newsletter articles replacing written letters to the editor.

In other cases, a new tool may supplement more traditional tools, such as using a live web meeting to extend the reach of executives beyond the small number of face-to-face Town Hall meetings they can conduct.

Unless we focus on the business purpose of a specific new tool as part of a broader campaign, we're going to end up measuring the wrong things about new media, for example, simple activity statistics of how many people clicked on a link, added to a wiki or responded to a blog.

Instead we need to measure the contribution of these channels to improving knowledge and changing attitudes that lead to desirable new behaviors that have a financial value.

Traditional measurement approaches focused on outcomes still make sense for our shiny, new media tools.

See you next time.

Angela Sinickas
President, Sinickas Communications, Inc.
measurement@melcrum.com

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