“Social Media Metrics” by Jim Sterne
I know what you are thinking…aside from the cover, there’s no way measuring, or metrics can be interesting. Let me help you change your mind, because if you at all are thinking of adding Social Media to your business, let one of the smartest guys in the industry, Jim Sterne, show you the way. Before picking up this book I was actually in the middle of reading Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics, An Hour a Day when it actually came time for me to work on a project for my MBA Business of Social Media Class. Our project was to put together a Social Media plan for a company, and I decided it was high time to rid my fear of numbers, and tackle the “how to measure part.” It was at that moment I picked up Sterne’s book and plunged in.
This is one of the quickest reads I had the pleasure of experiencing in quite a while. I know…it’s about metrics! Sterne starts you off by making sure you understand the big three core business concerns:
1) Raise Revenue
2) Lower Cost
3) Increase Customer Satisfaction
Jim Sterne uses these three core business goals, and guides you through various ways that Social Media can used to effect them. Sterne doesn’t go it alone however, like many “sage of the stage” social media folks do, he cites numerous people from industry that offer their insights including: Avinash Kaushik, Jason Stamper (ROI of Blogging), Jeremiah Owyang, and many more.
In addition to offer insights on how companies can utilize Social Media for their business, Sterne offers a plethora of new tools that are available to you. His resources actually inspired me for one of my latest articles for Bostinnovation entitled Top 5 Free Twitter tools for Business.
So…how’d the project turn out? Before reading this book, I thought it would be impossible for someone with a creative background, musician, media producer, to possibly look at marketing from an analytical point of view and find it interesting. After reading this book from the uber-smart Mr.Sterne, I’m sold…the Kool-aid has been drunk. I can’t wait to plunge into Avinash’s book and continue my knowledge and understanding about how businesses can use metrics in Social Media to make smart, effective business decisions.
For those interested, I will post the slides for our MBA Business of Social Media class in my next post.
For more information on the Jim Sterne be sure to check out:
http://www.targeting.com/sterne.html
http://emetrics.wordpress.com/
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