Since I think very analytically (maybe too much at times), my first thoughts are that in order for social networks to become a prime driver of an organization’s success, then their benefit must be visible. Therefore, some type of metrics are required although they may not have to be defined strictly in monetary units or even the same for each company. As mentioned in the following article (http://blogs.wsj.com/biztech/2008/07/16/why-most-online-communities-fail/), one of the top 3 reasons why a company’s social network fails is due to bad metrics
So I started looking into what type of metrics do company’s use and how they are able to realize the benefits of their social network. Well, it seems that this is quite a debate and many organizations are not clear about this. In fact, there seem to be a few companies that offer their consultant services to help other organizations setup a plan for their social networks along with advice on how they can see its benefits. One interesting article written by Maki, the author and manager of DoshDosh (a blog offering internet marketing and blogging tips, alongside social media strategies) breaks down the main goals of company’s social network along with strategies on how to be able to see the benefit. The article can be found at: http://www.doshdosh.com/social-media-networking-and-roi/
Another interesting item is a presentation posted by a blogger named chris at the following link: http://kiwilight.blogspot.com/2008/10/measuring-success-of-social-networking.html. Within this presentation, he proposes to use metrics such as comparing the number of people who benefited from a resource (i.e. piece of shared knowledge, etc) to the number of people who contributed. Basically, the number who benefited could be equated to your revenue and the number of contributers is equated to your costs.
Oh, and on a side note, here’s a couple of sites with some interesting data in regards to the use of social media by Obama:
http://www.smartadvantagecoaching.com/pages/home/commentaries.php
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2008/11/03/snapshot-of-presidential-candidate-social-networking-stats-nov-2-2008/
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This is the million-Euro question, indeed. The sources you cite are bloggers; it's interesting that this important conversation--on SN metrics--is going on mainly in the blogosphere. Coming soon: books from academics on this very subject (as well as an article from me.)
As I've said to others, please make your hyperlinks clickable.
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