Social Network Engagement Metrics: I was thinking for the past few weeks about how to best measure effectiveness of engagement for brands on facebook. I struggle with the exact metrics that can measure the true value of what occurs between friends in the social graph when a brand is in the middle (or on the side).

Currently you can use the traditional metrics: page views, image views, app installs, attrition rate, click rate, time engaged, etc.

But facebook and all social networks need to be thinking in the following types of metrics. This is what matters and where great value can be shown to brand managers and marketers; thus freeing up more dollars.

The following points for measurement might be interesting in social networks: They are all far in the future; but it is how marketers and brand managers need to try to understand the value of what occurs within social networks like facebook.

engagement metrics
spread metrics
conversion metrics
contribution metrics
influence node metrics
gravitational metrics
share metrics
video metrics
image view metrics
velocity metrics
viral metrics
attrition metrics
age metrics
sex metrics
demographic metrics

Worthy of note is that Microsoft has just announced today that they are offering “Engagement Mapping” for their ads.

The ‘last ad clicked’ is an outdated and flawed approach because it essentially ignores all prior interactions the consumer has with a marketer’s message,” said Brian McAndrews, senior vice president of the Advertiser & Publisher Solutions (APS) Division at Microsoft. “Our Engagement Mapping approach conveys how each ad exposure — whether display, rich media or search, seen multiple times on multiple sites and across many channels — influenced an eventual purchase. We believe it represents a quantum leap for advertisers and publishers who are seeking to maximize their online spends.”

This is not meant for social networks but this is a step in the right direction for the industry on the whole.

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