Getting in on the Conversation

June 26, 2008 | Posted by: Thea Roberti

I was intrigued by KD Paine's recent blog post in which she proposes a new "un-standard for social media measurement." Called the Optimum Content Score, this "non-standard standard for media measurement" works for traditional media as well, according to Paine. The idea is that you define what the perfect article, blog post, or other item looks like based on certain criteria such as visibility, messaging, tonality, etc. You also need to decide what constitutes the opposite - the type of story you wish would never appear. You then rate each article/blog post accordingly on a scale of + 1 to -1 (depending upon the presence or lack of these criteria) and average the score for the week/month/quarter.

This idea of a single numerical score, representing a rollup of criteria, is not a completely new one. I have seen it appear in different incarnations from research houses and analytics providers over the years, and I myself have employed a variation of this approach for certain clients in order to measure traditional media. There are some challenges with the approach. For example, as a report is passed on to new parties who were not involved in the original determination of what constitutes "perfect content," the underlying meaning of the score can get lost. Clients can become obsessed with whether or not they had a "good" or a "bad" score for the month, without even understanding what good or bad means. Sure, you can post your methodology/criteria at the front of every report, but who reads the methodology section?

...back to Paine's idea...although the concept is not entirely new, what is unique about her proposal from a social media standpoint is that one of her suggested criteria involves what type of conversation is taking place. According to Paine, there are 27 distinct types of conversations, and "understanding the nature of the conversation is critical to knowing what to do about it." The 27 types are:

1. Acknowledging receipt of information

2. Advertising something

3. Answering a question

4. Asking a question

5. Augmenting a previous post

6. Calling for action

7. Disclosing personal information

8. Distributing media

9. Expressing agreement

10. Expressing criticism

11. Expressing support

12. Expressing surprise

13. Giving a heads-up

14. Responding to criticism

15. Giving a shout-out

16. Making a joke

17. Making a suggestion

18. Making an observation

19. Offering a greeting

20. Offering an opinion

21. Putting out a wanted ad

22. Rallying support

23. Recruiting people

24. Showing dismay

25. Soliciting comments

26. Soliciting help

27. Starting a poll

 

Whew! My head hurts just thinking about coding hundreds of blog posts with those 27 conversation types in mind. Paine's list serves to underscore the complexity of social media measurement and reminds us just how much thought needs to go into determining an appropriate measurement campaign for our clients.