The New Metrics

A fascinating development in the Internet Age...

The idea of reputation, much like buzz marketing, is something not easily touched or conceived. Anyone would be interested to know to what degree their company is "out there" and making a name for itself, but there has traditionally been no way to measure it. Its an intangibility.

Its one thing to structure the intangible, for example, as Malcolm Gladwell does with his book The Tipping Point. It deals with how a "social epidemic" is manifested and spread. Various incentives, groups and processes are propositioned, but no measure can be made due to the fact that reputation remains intangible.

Within the enormous framework of the Internet, and as a direct consequence of its digital nature, many companies are offering services that propose such groundbreaking measurements.

On web pages around the world, this idea is called social climate, mobilized opinion, reputation management, buzz metrics, etc...

The Promise: to deliver social impact metrics to business managers and marketing teams...

"Also it’s not just about blogs, it’s about tracking ALL mediums that are used by the people. It’s more than just listening, it’s helping to apply benchmarking and intelligence around social media, not just one-off instances."

(Jeremiah Owyang, Web Strategist)

If these companies can deliver on such a boast, it could become a standardized requirement for business everywhere to adopt.

Naturally, one could be a little skeptical upon hearing of such services. An obvious argument can be made that media doesn't reach a representative population (for example, there still is no way to measure what people say to each other around the water cooler).

Regardless, it is one of the latest developments of the evolution of the Internet, and these services should only get better with time. And no matter how one feels about it, it is something that business leaders everywhere should keep an eye on.

More...

• Social Climate Analysis - Asomo
• Nielsen Buzz Metrics
  
• Companies that Measure Social Media, Influence and Brand