The AMEC Social Media Measurement Framework User Guide has been developed to address a common issue that troubles many communications practitioners – how do I set meaningful objectives and then measure the effectiveness of my digital and social media communications campaigns?

Ever since the Barcelona Principles declared that communicators should focus on measuring outcomes as much as outputs and that Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE) are not the value of public relations, communicators have been looking for a revised set of appropriate metrics to demonstrate the value of their work.

A common question has been whether there is a single number or score that can be developed to do this job. The answer of course is no. The reason for this is that all communications campaigns have different goals, objectives and seek to create different outcomes. A single metric can never hope to be meaningful in so many different situations for so many different organisations.

The appropriate route to measuring communications success depends in every case on what it is that you are trying to achieve. Understand your organisational goals, map your communications objectives against them, then ask yourself what success looks like in each case.  Work across each stage of the funnel – as you plan, think about the inputs that you will undertake, the outputs that result from your efforts, and then importantly the outtakes and outcomes that the organisation desires. This will identify the appropriate suite of metrics that will matter for you.

Using the AMEC Social Media Measurement Frameworks will guide you through this important process and ensure that your measurement is both meaningful and credible, whatever your objectives.

Richard Bagnall,
CEO of PRIME Research UK and Chair
of the AMEC Social Media Committee.