Social networking footprint

Social networks have changed how people connect, exchange information and relate to organisations. A social networking footprint attempts to describe how effectively a brand participates in that environment.

When to use it

• Answer the performance question: “How well are we using the internet to build our brand?”
• Assess online presence within the marketing and sales perspective.
• Define the required collection method, formula, reporting frequency and data ownership.
• Compare performance with relevant targets, historical trends and defensible peer benchmarks.

Origins

The metric developed in practice as mass social platforms extended older audience-reach and network-size measures to connections, followers, mentions and multi-platform presence. There is no standard formula. Because a nominal network can include inactive, duplicated or irrelevant accounts, footprint measures should be interpreted alongside engagement quality, audience fit and business outcomes.

What it is

Perspective: Marketing and sales perspective.

Key performance question: How well are we using the internet to build our brand?

The following statistics are historical rather than current benchmarks. Nielsen reported that social networks and blogs led online categories by average time spent in December. Facebook recorded 206.9 million unique visitors, ranked No. 1 among global social-networking destinations in December 2009 and was visited by 67% of global social-media users that month. Users spent nearly six hours a month on the site. Average time spent by US users grew year over year by 200% for Facebook and 368% for Twitter, outpacing category growth. Among the five leading US sites, Twitter was the fastest growing by unique visitors in December 2009: a 579% rise from 2.7 million in December 2008 to 18.1 million in December 2009, despite a month-over-month fall of 5%.

The audience was also broadening beyond younger users. Between January 2007 and December 2008, Facebook gained nearly twice as many visitors aged 50–64, an increase of 24 million, as visitors under 18, an increase of 7.3 million. More than a quarter of visitors were over 50.

A concentrated and engaged audience creates opportunities to reach customers internationally, develop brand affinity and invite participation. It also creates risks. Organisations benefit only when their messages and behaviour fit the norms of the networks in which they participate. That challenge remains strategically important in a 21st-century economy built on knowledge and connection.

How to use it

Measurement

Define whether the footprint is intended to measure presence, conversation, audience, engagement, message penetration, sentiment or a combination. Report the component measures as well as any composite score.