4 C’s For A Clean Social Media Score Card

You’re a salesman (or saleswomen) whether you want to be or not. I’m not talking about an elevator pitch or positioning, rather the success of your vision determines how well you can sell it. Insert your cliches about reaching for the sky but with a realistic view on your goal it can be reached – the only limitation is your determination. So what does this pep talk have to do about a social media score card? If you can’t accept that “selling” is tied into every step of progression through life then you can quit reading now.

Recently I have been reading the book “Idea Selling” by Sam Harrison. I have been comparing the ideas presented of “selling” in the book to evaluating the success of using social media to “sell”. Thus the idea of redefining the “score card” mentality from just bigger numbers to meaningful metrics.

The simplicity of the scoring social media struck me since the underlying concept behind it is … communication. The process used to develop an idea and then turn this idea into practical application can also be used to determine the value of social media. In the book there are four metrics to measure an idea by that can be used to determine value on your message:

1. Clarity – does it meet or solve the problem. In researching the emergence and success of the varied social networks it is quite clear that each fills a particular valuable niche. Such as LinkedIn for business networking, Twitter for short message communication, Flickr for photo junkies or Facebook for taking over the world.
2. Content – is there substance or prior planning. If you put a message on any social network I guarantee that at some point someone will be able to associate with that message and maybe even respond. The content is what
3. Creativity – is it original or worth the consideration. icanhascheezburger.com is is a prime example of taking something already known – lolcatz – thus not original, but worth consideration and building an empire from it.
4. Craft – does it have polish. Twitter is a prime example of crafting a tweet to fit within the 140 character limits and still maintain some semblance of legible communication.

Recently I asked my twitter followers if they thought there is a place or use for single page websites – especially for business. The responses I received back were very close to the book – maybe these ideas aren’t rocket science, but it doesn’t make them any less valuable.

So where does this leave us for measuring? We have to determine the message and goal of communicating first – then calculate the effect that it had to reach this goal. No longer do fluff numbers work, it is time to adjust the metrics we are using to determine success. Social media is proven as the magic recipe for turning customers by quality and quantity. Inviting inquiring minds to experience, solving costumer’s concerns and engaging on a personal level is all social media is about. Salesman training 101 – get to know your customer – to translate for social media it’s getting to know your audience.