The thing with content is that it’s So. Much. Fun.
Even if you’re not actually in a communications-related discipline, content is FUN!
I mean, who doesn’t want to know their TV sitcom personality?
And why would you NOT want to know all about Prince Harry’s American girlfriend?
Thank you to whomever set me up with a People magazine subscription. Christmas came early this year!
But fun can only last so long.
Especially if you’re focused on growing your business, and using content to help with that.
And, to REALLY put it to work, you have to actually measure content.
Why Measure Your Content?
There are two very good reasons to measure content: Time and money.
Time
Strategizing, creating, and disseminating good—the operative word here—content takes So. Much. Time.
Show me a content strategist or Social PR pro who hasn’t had at least one content-related meltdown in their career.
And I’ll show you a purple unicorn doing backflips while chanting the chorus to “Rhythm Nation.”
Money
That leads us to the second—and perhaps the most important—reason: Money.
When we know what it is we’re trying to achieve and how it helps our business, we work more efficiently.
We focus on doing what will bring the most value to our business, ultimately translating into revenue.
We cannot run our businesses without content.
Even companies that don’t understand content marketing are doing content—they just don’t know it.
By factoring measurement into planning we can focus on the content that will work, add value to the business and, ultimately, revenue.
Otherwise you might as well take a pile of money and set it on fire.
How to Measure Content
How do you start to get to grips with measurement?
First of all, you need to know what you’re trying to achieve from a business point-of-view.
That means really understanding what drives the business, and how its progress is tracked.
Second, you need to be very clear on what types of actions you ultimately want to see your target audience take.
Once you know those two things, you can back into how content can support those goals.
You can create content that is designed to provide value and educate, and move your audiences towards taking those actions.
One of the things that’s super important to remember is that metrics are driven by context.
That is, they must be defined based on what it is you’re trying to achieve.
An Example
Say one of your objectives is to increase your share of voice in your space by X percent during Y time period.
Remember, measurable objectives are always time-bound and quantifiable.
Then your goals are going to include getting noticed by the “who’s who” of the space, such as influencers and, perhaps, media.
Next your metrics might include number of influencers who mention or share your content (“influencers” as predefined by you), where you stand in search engine results, and so on.
As you know, content can take so many shapes and forms.
If you’re creating it for media use, you’ll want to come up with a specific set of metrics that show whether or not it worked for you.
In our work for Oxfam America’s 2012 International Women’s Day campaign, which was all blogger relations, we didn’t just measure “hits” and “impressions.”
We really looked to see whether or not our content was generating the kinds of actions the client needed to have happen.
Regardless of what form your content takes, your metrics should be identified based on what you need it to do for you.
Content Should Have a Purpose
I love fun as much as anyone else.
In fact, one of the reasons I love my work so much is that I have a lot of fun doing it.
And that includes putting together really great content such as this monster post on the ultimate guide to Social PR strategy and the related 7C Social PR Framework™ Blueprint for Success (even though it nearly killed me).
But I have zero desire to simply churn out content for the sake of it, much less spend hours and days and weeks (and months and YEARS!) doing so, if it’s not ultimately working to support the growth of my little business.
And neither should you.