Hats – a social media metric
Just back from SXSW and had a great time. Met up with lots of friends and put real faces to the faces I already knew on Twitter and such. During at least one of the discussions there the topic of social media metrics came up. It’s a hot topic, especially with the folks with a traditional media background. Many are used to standardized measures like click-throughs, eyeballs, GRPs and it’s occasionally said that social media doesn’t have metrics because it doesn’t have any standardized ones. For me that’s completely the wrong conclusion to draw. Social media has lots of different ways to measure success – and frankly that’s big advantage in my books. It really depends on what you are doing in order to determine the measurement technique.
Take for instance my favorite event of SXSW this year – All hat, no cattle – organized by @richardatdell, the Dell gang, and @armano. Yes, you could look at the ton of #allhat buzz on Twitter. You could look at the real world attendance numbers and the smiles on the faces of those attending – and the compliments after. But you could also look at the number of people now wearing hats with their avatars on Twitter (@shashib, @conniereece, @catchuplady, @jennfowler, @mackcollier, @geoffliving, @jasonfalls plus myself included – @davidalston. NOTE: I also see that @markdrosos has a hat now too.)
Update #1: Adding more that I missed…
Update #2: More folks I missed (you can see this success metric gets better and better)
I have to thank Geoff Livingston for pointing this out this obvious metric to me.
And it’s true. Take a look at the hat’s being worn by a number of the folks who attended the event. Richard Binhammer and David Armano were the original hat guys but the number has grown – and the stories behind why each one is wearing a hat as well. That’s a pretty cool metric for success IMHO.
Did I miss anyone?
March 20th, 2009 - Posted in social media | | 6 Comments
on March 20th, 2009 at 12:53 pm
LOVE this metric. And yes, add these new hats: @JackieHuba, @storyspinner, and @livepath.
on March 20th, 2009 at 12:56 pm
Jackie Huba’s got a hat pic too.
(I would have added one, but apparently I look like an idiot in a cowboy hat & the people around me in the store advised me against getting one)
on March 20th, 2009 at 2:50 pm
Another great hatvatar … @jennfowler
on March 20th, 2009 at 3:36 pm
Thanks for the updates. I just added the additional 4 that I missed. And I hear that @catchuplady @armano and @dougmeacham have submitted #allhat as a case study for presentation at Blog Potomac. Great idea.
on March 20th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
@bethharte has a “hatvatar” too!
on March 21st, 2009 at 12:15 pm
What a great way to truly measure the impact of an event. I see this as similar to how companies should measure the impact of social media on their customer relationships. If the social media they are using causes a message to spread virally, continuing the conversation long past the “event”, there is success.
This happened with #allhat. Plus, I now have a great hat to wear when I want to get my cowboy on!