Engagement = ?
In a recent tweet, I asked, the question why is there so much confusion about how to measure social media? Social media is trackable, it requires some action to be taken. Actions or interactions like posting, reviewing, rating, commenting, sharing, connecting, etc.
Engagement is the big picture, the summary of all trackable actions. Engagement = Time spent+ action taken+ brand takeaway? Web analytics professionals feel that engagement is a metric is a function of a visitors lifetime of visits and actions taken on a particular site. There seems to me much confusion about how exactly to standardize the actual engagement equation. This is probably because it will need to be customized to comprehend brand objectives. The equation may look different for depending on business and brand objectives. The following link http://www.imediaconnection.com/content/19896.asp includes a video of industry representatives as they discuss “engagement” and how best to measure it.
Forrester Research has written a lot about this topic. Back in 2007 a Forrester analyst proposed what he calls the four components of engagement. They include involvement, interaction, intimacy, and influence. These components are measured both online (web analytics, log files, brand monitoring services) and offline (surveys, focus groups, etc). The goal is to try to provide a 360 view of customers actions. According to Forrester the four components of engagement can be measured in several ways. The involvement component will paint the picture of how often a visitor comes to your site, how long they stay, and the amount of content they consume. The interaction component uncovers many of the social actions a visitor can take, conversions, and possible purchases. The third component may take some human interaction to interpret and is not as easily captured by raw numbers. Intimacy can be understood by monitoring and analyzing the things people say about a brand or the tonality (positive, negative, neutral) of a blog post. The fourth component is influence. I am sure you are aware of the overwhelming affect of word of mouth. Influence is a loyalty metric, it will uncover how likely someone is to recommend your brand, product, or service. To read more on the Forrester components of engagement check out the Forrester blog http://blogs.forrester.com/marketing/2007/08/new-research-on.html
What do you think about measuring engagement? Do you feel it is am online metric or does it stretch beyond and capture the holistic picture of customer interactions? A 360 view sure would be nice! Any thoughts?