> ## Content Index
> Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.philsimon.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further.

# Measuring Is Easy. Evaluation Is Hard.
- URL: https://www.philsimon.com/measuring-is-easy-evaluation-is-hard/
- Published: 2010-04-14T12:58:51.000Z
- Updated: 2025-07-01T20:37:03.000Z
- Description: Lessons from the Social Media Meet-Up this week.
- Author: Phil Simon
- Tags: Analytics, Collaboration, Management, Social Media, Technology, Trends, Facebook/Meta, Marketing, Twitter, Web 2.0

I had the pleasure of attending the Social Media Meet-Up this week. In general, it was a very informative day with a good deal of content from dynamic speakers. I took copious notes and figured that I'd impart some knowledge to my readers. *I have to justify my complimentary media pass somehow, right?*

## Panel on Social Media ROI

The attendees eagerly awaited this discussion, as this topic has been getting a great deal of play these days. [Robin Carey](https://twitter.com/robincarey?ref=philsimon.com) did a great job of moderating the panel and handling questions.

### Christopher J. Frank, VP of Global Marketplace Insights at American Express

*Phil's note: Great presentation from a wicked smart guy. Note below how Christopher focuses on what really matters with respect to social media. I spoke to Christopher for a bit after his talk and could tell that we had a great deal in common in how we approached consulting and issues in general.*

- Measuring social media is easy. Counting is also easy. Evaluating is hard.
- Analytics isn’t as important as decision making.
- We don’t lack social media data; we lack insight.
- It’s not about the data; it’s about the questions.  
  - What are you trying to achieve?
  - What’s your time frame?
- Ratios are more important than “volume-based metrics”  
  - Rather than ask, "How many posts did this commercial/campaign spark", it's better to ask "How many of these posts are serviceable?"
- Social media is not new; it’s an extension of previous marketing and engagement efforts.
- Current social media ROI has too many means, not enough ends.  
  - Buzz is fine, but does it lead to anything?
- Focus on Ins (intent, input, investment) to get to Outs (output, outtake, outcome)

### Andrew Meurer from P&G and Steve Kerho from Organic

*Phil's note: At the risk of being totally immodest, I had probably the funniest line of the day. Read on and this will make more sense.*

- Case study on social media and tampons (yes, tampons) for Kotex.
- Recent study – done only three weeks ago.
- Start by knowing your audience; it all starts with the idea.
- Brands are out of touch with today’s consumer.
- When you don’t talk about stuff (like feminine hygiene) leads to a suppression of related issues.
- Goal: to reinvent the category.
- Take a low interest category and make it of interest to the target market (girls/women aged 14-22)
- Brand is growing; campaign is successful.
- Three buckets:  
  - Who’s talking about it?
  - How much conversation is happening?
  - What are they saying?
- You don’t really know where a campaign is going to go until it gets there.
- Velocity and acceleration of a SM campaign – use first and second derivatives from calculus to determine each. *(Yes, the same one from college. And you thought that you were done with that!)*

#### My 15 Seconds of Fame

*OK ...now to my fifteen seconds of fame.* *With microphone in hand I said, "This has to be the only presentation in the history of the world that has combined calculus and tampons. You know what kind of odds I could have gotten on that prior to the event? I could be near retirement if I had thrown down $100."* 

*This is easily the funniest thing that I've said in public this year. OK ...back to the notes.* 

- Acceleration is highly correlated with fan growth.
- Positive relationship exists between number of tweets and number of sample requests received.
- Huge spike in tweets during ads on Tyra Banks’ show.
- Why does this matter? It allows for increased accuracy vis-à-vis forecasting. You won’t have to wait until the end of the campaigns anymore.
- It also allows for new optimization opportunities.
- Looking heavily at sentiment analysis, attempting to learn more about the impacts of “mentions” and other types of communication.
- They worked closely with Facebook (shared a great deal of data.)
- The tool required to analyze the data hinges on what they’re attempting to accomplish.
- Social media is still underfunded, but that’s alright because we still have to learn more about it.

Finally, I met two authors:

- Erik Qualman, Author of [*Socialnomics: How Social Media Transforms the Way We Live and Do Business*.](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470477237?tag=phisim-20&ref=philsimon.com)
- Larry Weber, Author of [*Marketing to the Social Web: How Digital Customer Communities Build Your Business*](https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0470410973?tag=phisim-20&ref=philsimon.com)[.](https://Marketing%20to%20the%20Social%20Web:%20How%20Digital%20Customer%20Communities%20Build%20Your%20Business)

Smart guys. I suspect that I'll be reviewing their books or doing a podcast with them soon.

That's it. There were some other speakers and I'll try to get around to posting my notes.