Riding the Social Media Measurement Waterfall

Image: Hamed Saber, Creative Commons

I’m tickled pink (and not just because that’s the color of the Elvis hoodie I’m sporting today, a little like this one) that Chuck Hemann will be our featured guest on the next #measurePR Twitterchat (have you marked your calendars? April 13, 12-1 pm ET, follow/participate on Twitter using the #measurePR hashtag).

Chuck Hemann, a 2010 Society for New Communications Research Fellow, is currently a social media associate for WCG, a global media services company focused on the corporate and product marketing and communications needs of leading healthcare companies. If you don’t already, you should follow and engage with him on Twitter.

When I was in Cleveland a couple of weeks ago, Sean Williams (another research and measurement rock star, who was featured on the second #measurePR chat), said Chuck was the “oldest 30-year-old” he knows. Now, I don’t know if that’s how old (or young) Chuck really is, but you can see where Sean was going with this remark.

Much like Rebecca Denison, I was curious about how and why this young man with an old soul developed this passion for PR measurement. Here’s what he had to say:

“About 5 years ago, a colleague of mine at Dix & Eaton gave me a copy of Katie Paine’s “Measuring Public Relationships.” At that point I was just starting at D&E and was brand new to public relations research. Sure, I had conducted research while in graduate school, but primarily my background was in political science/political research.

“After reading through the book I knew that this was the right career move for me. I, like Katie (and so many others), share a love for research and analytics. Determining the starting point for our campaigns, and then whether or not we executed against those goals gets me excited to come into work every day.

Now, with the explosion of social media my focus has shifted from traditional PR research to social media research. This includes a heavy dose of monitoring, but also use of Web site analytics and search platforms (both free and paid).”

So what are we hoping to talk about that will get Chuck’s juices flowing? Well, a few things:

First, and probably foremost, how do we use monitoring and analytics tools to inform benchmarks for social media campaigns?

Second, is there a “right” suite of tools to utilize?

Third, is there a new model of measurement/research in PR because of the explosion of social media?

Chuck is hoping for an interactive discussion so let’s get it rolling! Do join us: Tuesday, April 13, 12-1 pm ET. And don’t forget: #measurePR is the magic hashtag!