This post is following a blog post on The Wall by Jed Hallam. The post, Social media monitoring: absolutely pointless, essentially says that statistics from SM monitoring are useless. That they encourage people to focus on the minutia of their profile growth and interactions rather than looking at the big picture. I couldn’t agree more and less.

I couldn’t agree more

So many services offer SM monitoring. They will let you know how many new friends you have. How many are women. How many are men. What your primary age demographic is. How many interactions you had. But this is all useless information without an analysis behind it. As Aaron Levenstein said, “Statistics are like bikinis.  What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital.”

Without context these numbers mean nothing. When looking at a report we know our basic facts. But what is the meaning behind those facts. Why is your demographic mainly women between 25 and 34? Why did you get a lot of interactions one week and almost none the next? They lead you to focusing on growth in your numbers not the why or how. This is where so many people will work towards quantity over quality. The numbers make you feel like you are doing well, when the reality is you don’t actually know how you are doing.

So what value are these numbers giving you except more numbers? Little to no value.

I couldn’t agree less

Numbers in a vacuum are useless. If a tree falls in the forest and only a lumber jack is there to hear it, did he still cut it down? The interpretation of those numbers in context is what is important. Levenstein was right, what statistics conceals is important. Knowing that you had 100 interactions one week and 500 the next is interesting. But why is it interesting? Good interpretation of statistics will break down those interactions. They will tell you that you got 500 interactions in one week mainly divided between 4 posts. Those 4 posts were on a highly controversial political topic of tree chopping by lone lumber jacks. Your fans were hosting a debate on your site, and telling others about their debate. Therefore generating new fans. All of your other 20 posts were virtually ignored. Now you know that your fans like heated discussions about lone tree chopping lumberjacks. Next week, try posting that the link to that t-shirt you design that says “say not to lumberjacks” and you might be able to create a new revenue stream.

The interpretation of statistical data in context leads to trending. Trending is key to understanding the interests of your fans/friends/followers. Once you understand what you audience is interested in, your social media presence will strengthen. This process is called analytics. It is not just statistics, it is a continued study of the evolution of trending to create a social media presence of significance.

Social Media monitoring is useless.

Analytics are invaluable.

*this blogger has nothing against lumberjacks, lone or otherwise.
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