GigaOm released an interesting article about 6 weeks back regarding the most important metrics to track in Mobile Advertising efforts.  Considering that Gartner has forecasted that Mobile Advertising will grow a staggering 74% in 2009 – measurement of that activity is paramount.  The industry is moving away from CPC and CPM as the standard measure of media effectiveness - while they are still somewhat relevant, it doesn’t accurately represent how ‘engaged’ a user is on the mobile platform.  The important metrics are:

• Reach
• Targeting
• Engagement
• Viral
• Transactions

For the full explanation on why those are the metrics to focus on, I encourage you to read the full article.  What struck me as a key statement was the following quote:

“We don’t want to just capture the “moment of first sight” but the “duration of sight” and how the user interacts within that duration with both the individual ad and the overall campaign. In order to differentiate and be effective, mobile has to measure and report on how users are engaging with the campaign, from first impression to the last so-called “moment of sight.” It should take into account the time spent during the visit as well as the actions and reactions.“

From my perspective this holds true not just for mobile, but for every advertising effort in your media mix.

Razorfish released their 2009 Digital Outlook Report yesterday.   Interesting read that covers a new role for agencies, what’s emerging, consumer conversations, the evolution of research and measurement, and 3 things every executive should know in 2009.  I thought the “Trends in Social Influence Marketing” and “Bringing Media Mix Models Into the Digital Era” were very insightful.

There are many debates among industry experts on the practice of measuring social media success.  Over the last several years, we’ve run some pretty successful social media-based programs in our local market at the technology company I work for.  Personally, I look beyond the standard web metrics of unique visitors, total visits, page views, etc.  From my perspective the more valuable measurables are somewhat less tangible.  That’s not saying that we don’t measure the number of comments by the audience in the experience itself or the number of listings we see in Google when doing a search on the keywords for our program – those are important. 

More important to me, is the tenor and tone of the conversation.  What, specifically, are those consumers engaged in our social media program saying about the experience itself?  Are the comments favorable?  Are we seeing an easy flow in the conversation between our participants and the community?  Have we seen a positive change in emotion and favor during the extended conversation?  Those are most important to me because from that pepspective, I can see if we are actually making a difference in how people feel about us and the products we are discussing.  In addition – are we being recognized by credible resources within the industry as approaching our social media efforts in a thoughtful, credible, and collaborative way? 

If we are being recognized positively by the community we are interacting with and by objective industry experts, that spells success in my eyes.  Your definition of success may be different.  Regardless of where your definition lies, remember this important step in your program development: have a goal of what success looks like to you.