COMM 740 Module 5 blog post – Summary of Chapter 13, Measurement, Evaluation, Budget, and Calendar Consideration for Social Media

In Chapter 13 of the text, Freberg discusses the importance of measurement, evaluation, budgets and calendars for social media campaigns and programs. 

Determining if a campaign’s initiatives, ideas or programs were successful is “one of the most important tasks of a social media professional” (Freberg). Social media professionals must use both data and insights – and keep in mind that these two things serve different purposes. Data are the points of information that are collected by various tools and programs, and insights are what connects the relevant information to tell the story on what the data are saying. Insights show the “so what” factor of analysis. Furthermore, metrics and data, according to Freberg, show social media professionals the initial results and the actionable behaviors that audiences take because of a brand’s social media activities. 

Freberg goes on to list the components defined by the International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) that social media professionals must consider: objectives, inputs, activities, outputs, outtakes, outcomes, and impact. Each of these aspects can provide hard numbers and data, as well as insights, for a social media team to present to senior management. They demonstrate how effective a social campaign is for a brand.

Professionals must also have a measurement strategy. Freberg says a measurement strategy “should be interwoven throughout the process” (Freberg, p. 342). Having a measurement strategy lets us be more informed on our key audiences throughout a campaign, execute and create effective content, take advantage of real-time trends and topics on specific platforms, and more. Professionals must make sure they take the time to set measurement tools, methods and metrics before a campaign is implemented.

The text also discusses the three areas of outcomes that social media professionals must measure throughout a campaign: cognitive (whether audiences comprehended the messages), attitudinal (how audiences felt about our messages), and conative (what actions audiences took as a results of our messages). These outcomes can be measured by the following types of metrics: cost per action (conative), cost per conversion (conative), cost per engagement (conative and attitudinal), cost per click (cognitive), cost per impression (cognitive), adn cost per action (conative).