Social measurement is based around being able to codify behaviors, opinions and descriptors of our reality. Our new social media is presenting a great deal of challenges to the codifying of relevant information. The variety of sources and our ability to define the relevant from irrelevant is subjective and best. My advice would be to remember that all measurement has flaws and our goal is to gather the best evidence available given our resources and the nature of the decisions we need to make. Frank Ovaitt President and CEO Institute for Public Relations reminded us where to start, “Like any communications effort, you need to start with clear objectives to have something to measure.” Recently Katie Paine wrote a paper that reminds us of the fundamentals of communication research and applies this wisdom to social media. Some of the highlights that I thought were of particular value to our communication strategies and measurement plans:

• We can not control what other people say and blogs are the best example yet of how futile it is to try and manage by control.
• We may not yet know how the social media is impacting our work but we need to actively listen to be able to adapt to the changing uses of the internet.
• Measurement is still as simple as defining outputs, outtakes and outcomes and then gathering the information to support decision making.
• Our communication efforts are based around influencing attitudes and behaviors.
• Our ability to understand why certain voices on the web have credibility and influence will determine our future communication strategies.

Chime on in. Are you monitoring and measuring the impact of web conversations on your organizations and on your communication strategies?