Where is your information going?

Any organization, despite the industry, is tracking metrics day in and day out. These metrics play a significant role in the organizations overall performance, and every organization tracks and monitor some type of performance metric, these areas could include: sales, finance, social media, marketing, lead generation, consumer data, and the list goes on. These metrics are vital for the organization to improve in those areas and their overall performance and can also be used to increase customer satisfaction, customer retention, revenue and employee performance. Without metrics, these organizations would be left without key consumer data, have a challenging time marketing their products or services, understanding their consumers, tracking sales and revenue, and their research and development would slow down tremendously. Metrics support and improve the overall performance of organizations, that is why Metroland Media remains one of the media industry leaders in Canada, due to their strong metric management.

Media companies in specific, have such a large and diverse group of metrics that they track, monitor and utilize for their everyday operations. Being able to track these metrics, is what allows media companies like Metroland to market their products, improve their products, target the desired audience, track employee performance, generate revenue and understand consumers and their needs. These metrics and the information they provide, also play a key role in how their organization will perform better in the future and essentially keep them aligned with their organizational goals and objectives. Metroland has their hands full with around the clock tracking and monitoring metrics. They have over 39 community sites across Ontario, over 110 print publications and many other digital properties containing a mass number of metrics and data. The number of Metrics that they must track to keep up with consumer needs and to make sure their organization is performing adequately, is astonishing.

The multitude of products and services that Metroland offers, means that there are more metrics they need to monitor. Metroland being one of the media industry leaders in Canada, means monitoring and tracking metrics to improve overall organization performance to remain one of the best in the industry. Even though they are known for their print products and distribution services, they have amazing digital properties. Both the print and digital products and services they offer, have their own set of metrics. Digital advertising has many metrics that are used in several different ways, some of these metrics can include; clicks, reach, impressions, click through rate, cost per click, visitors, bounce rate, conversion and page views. Print being more one track, has a different set of metrics that have their own values. These print publications are Metrolands number one source of revenue, so tracking these print products is on the top of their priority list. Some of the print metrics Metroland track are; subscribers, copies sold, demographic of readership, geographical distribution, distribution returned, distributed for free, how many were sold through subscriptions, revenue generated, frequency of publication and a huge list of many other important metrics. These metrics are just scraping the surface of what Metroland monitor and track daily.

Since not all companies are media companies, telephone surveys are almost obsolete and focus groups are expensive, where do most organizations get their metrics? Social Media. With the boom in new age media, social media is used now more than ever. There are 2.3 billion active social media users in the world right now, that means there are 2.3 billion people sharing personal information, purchasing products and becoming brand advocates without even knowing it. Social media has more than 100 ways in which you can measure it, that is why it is becoming more relevant and popular in today’s business settings. Even though people are becoming more hesitant to give out personal information, people are more likely to sign up to a social media platform without thinking twice. Someone signing up to a social media platform will enter their age, gender, birthday, email, phone number and some other basic personal information that organizations can benefit greatly from. Then while in the social media platforms, the metrics the organizations are exposed to is outstanding.

Organizations that treat social media like a tool and not a platform love these metrics and see remarkable results from them. Social media platforms give access to organizations to metrics they have never seen, it is said that social media knows more about us then we know ourselves. Social media metrics, though there are more than 100, have some categories that play a significant factor in any organization if used correctly, some examples are; change, impact, internal, rates, demographics, cost and savings, buzz and user actions. All those categories have sub categories, and they all have great benefits to the overall function of any organization.

Lessons for Others

As mentioned in some of my previous case studies, Metroland does not currently have a strong social media presence inside their organization and for their consumers. This means their consumers must find alternate ways to contact them or find out more about what’s going on inside their organization on a more consistent basis. Having very little to no social media presence, also means Metroland offers no products, provide services or promotional offerings through any type of social media platform. They are also missing out on substantial social media metrics that can be used to improve their products, customer satisfaction and overall organization performance. However, they are tracking metrics day in and day out, but are missing out on the many benefits and metrics social media has to offer.

Metroland Media thrives off providing access to a large and engaged audience, they also have significant reach within their products and services. Therefore, this is why consumers choose to advertise and market with them regularly. They use their metrics well and it shows in ROI within their own organization and within their client’s campaigns. As large as an organization Metroland is, it is understandable that we have yet to see any type of social media come from Metroland Media yet. Great things take time, but capitalizing on the capabilities, data, and functions social media has to offer is something Metroland and all organizations need to consider.

If you have concerns as to the accuracy of anything posted on this site, please send your concerns to Peter Carr, Program Director, Social Media for Business Performance.

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