Inside Out

I just found Rachel Happe’s Blog www.thesocialorganization.com - how social media is changing communication and organizations. This is not only a very interesting topic, she also provides us with brilliant thoughts, lists, question an further information.

Social Media is one of the most popular buzzwords these days. So how do you put metrics on a blurry phrase?

Rachel formulated a couple of question to understand what social media provides and what the value we want to meassure would be:

- What is the value of having a better conversation?
- What is the value of meeting someone?
- What is the value of getting more accurate information faster?
- What is the value of being able to drive consensus around an idea faster?
- What is the value of building trust?
- What is the opportunity cost of not innovating?

And how can we measure that? Just try to answer these question for yourself, your social media life…

Can you measure the value of a conversation and if you do, don’t you forget a lot of aspects that these numbers won’t show and therefore you miss more information then you gain? Not measuring at all can’t be a solution but always be aware of the fact that a lot of information especially regarding social media can’t be measured but is at least as important.

Still companies need some numbers as a basis to decide if things work, if they improve, if they are worth the investment. So if you are looking for numbers to put some sort of handle on these question try Rachel’s list. They might not make sense for everybody in every case, but it’s a great starting point to decide where to start and what you need in your special case. So go to the list, answer the questions and get some inspiration.