Every ‘input’ into a school’s marketing activity incurs some kind of cost. At the admissions level, you are ultimately measuring admissions and retention yields. If you want to measure brand development/awareness, you can do that too…

I think you bring up a great point. Although it’s important to track the ROI of social networking, it is also important to understand that there are other results (going to a football game) that cannot be counted. It’s not an exact science and I agree that we all need to listen to each other. I apologize if my comment took a “I know everything, you know nothing” tone. It’s nice to have someone to keep us all in check.

Some may come to our sporting events, or theatrical productions or just like to hang out in our quad.

I honestly find some of the comments here frustrating. The tone in some of the comments make it seem as though the author(s) of them are always correct and have the only right answer. I’ve found this across many blogs that the author(s) make comment on or even author the posts.

I’m all for discussion–even disagreement–but the tone is just frustrating. Each of us has our own experiences. Let’s be open minded enough to listen to each other, rather than thinking that OUR way is the only right way.

We use these criteria:
1) Number of links to myUsearch
2) Number of mentions of the myUsearch name (it’s great if you can measure whether these are positive vs. negative)
3) Traffic from social networking sites

And then we compare these numbers to a drop or increase in sales activity. It’s pretty simple. If you measure it for long enough, you will probably see a fairly similar increase in sales in proportion to your social networking activity. Then you can prove that there is a ROI.

As tech-heads, I think a key part (if not the primary part) of our job is facilitating interactions at as high quality a level as possible. Surveys can help provide some numbers around this measure, but they can be misleading depending on the situation. At the end of the day, you have to be able to talk to the bosses about your success, and often that can be achieved with compelling anecdotal evidence (as Brad did in the chat post). I love psychometrics as much as the next person, but we are increasingly moving into a space where success is not defined by bounce rate.

Sorry, but I don’t care how much explanation you put behind it – people who do not TRY are lazy and you taking issue with my last statement basically amounts to you condoning people who do not TRY. That just doesn’t fly with me.

Don’t know web analytics? I’ll give you a book so you can learn it. That will allow you to use it in your strategic decision making. If time and knowledge are the only things standing in their way, then make the time and seek out the knowledge. We work in education for crying out loud! If you can’t make the time to LEARN then, yes, you are being lazy for not trying. People can make all the excuses in the world but we can always find time for the things we WANT to do (though those aren’t always the same as the things we NEED to do to be successful).

1. How many of you use web analytics? (Maybe half)

2. How many of you use analytics in your strategic decision-making? (Maybe 1-2)

3. For those who didn’t raise your hands to both questions, what is getting in your way? (Time and knowledge should rise to the top. I’d be interested to know what else makes the list if you do ask.)

We can’t lose sight of what our colleagues “on the ground” are facing daily. We should help them advocate to their managers, VPs and presidents on the value of establishing a culture of measurement and data-driven strategic (marketing/pr) planning.

Sighting my earlier comments regarding the economic downturn, now is the time for us to help our colleagues learn how to translate analytics into language understood by their superiors.

It’s another reason why mapping online applications/activities to tangible KPI’s is so important. It bridges the gap between the outcomes/goals leadership value and the online activities themselves.