This paper is a part of the IPR Measurement Commission.
Download Full Paper (PDF): Ten Lessons Learned from Standards that Failed the Test
The Why and How of Social Media Measurement Standards:
The road from measurement mayhem to standards can be a rocky one, as we learned when we set out to bring some order to the chaos that was social media measurement in 2011. At the time, nearly a billion people were on Facebook and no one really knew what that meant. Twitter was still a toddler, and no one knew who was on it. Nonetheless we were already swimming in new metrics that most of us had never seen before like “engagement rate” and “shares” and “comments.” So, it wasn’t surprising that half a dozen different industry groups were working on their own set of standards for measuring social media.
Several IPR Measurement Commission members thought that the best solution would be to invite all the people working on standards for social media to my farm in New Hampshire and keep them there until we sorted it all out. So we invited representatives from IPR, IAB, WOMMA, DAA, IABC, PRSA, plus the clients and their agencies.
We called it a “Conclave” and the stated goals were:
1. Eliminate confusion in the marketplace about social media measurement standards
2. Gain consensus around a definition for social media measurement standards
3. Document all efforts in progress to establish “standards” for social media measurement
4. Reduce duplicative and redundant efforts around establishing social media measurement standards
