New audience metric needed: engagement « Scobleizer – Tech Geek Blogger
Some great blog reading this morning on metrics. I found Scoble blogging on the need for an “engagement” measurement via Andy Lark via James Governor’s del.icio.us links:
“I was just reading Jeneane Sessum’s post about the latest Ze Frank/Rocketboom dustup and she’s right, we need to measure stuff other than just whether a download got completed or not. She says we need a “likeability” stat. I think it goes further than that.There’s another stat out there called “engagement.” No one is measuring it that I know of.”
Max Kalehoff at BuzzMetrics writes:
“Engagement is “turning on a prospect to a brand idea enhanced by the surrounding context.” That’s the Advertising Research Foundation’s definition of the hotly debated buzzword”
I was writing yesterday on the same topic:
“Engagement is the new imperative in marketing, across the board, not simply a technical novelty enabled by blogs and blog search engines…engagement must begin at every point of contact with the customer and the tools required must be adopted throughout the organization.
“Consider the Attention Trust, a clearing house for an online user to share his or her “attention” or interests, with publishers and marketers seeking to form a relationship. What constitutes attention? I propose a different measure: engagement.”
I haven’t dug into the Attention Trust — but heard about it several times during Steve Gillmor’s Gillmor Gang podcasts. From Attentiontrust.org’s principles:
“When you pay attention to something (and when you ignore something), data is created. This “attention data” is a valuable resource that reflects your interests, your activities and your values, and it serves as a proxy for your attention.”
Quantifying “engagement” is different than “attention.” Attention, in my view, is a clickstream. You went here, you went there, you spent N time focused on this piece of media before going elsewhere. Attention is also a measure of multitasking. Does reading a book and listening to the classical music channel on XM radio constitute full attention or half attention? Engagement is a measure of direct action: did you read Scoble’s blog and leave a comment? Or, in a corporate environment, engagement is whether or not you:
- Purchased
- Discussed a purchase
- Complained
- Praised
- Told a friend about your purchase
On a blog, engagement is:
- Did you visit and read?
- Did you tag?
- Did you comment?
- Did you post a trackback from your blog?
The metrics companies will work this one for the next six months. Omniture has some yet-to-be discovered blog analysis tools in rev 13 of SiteCatalyst and I’ve blogged earlier about BuzzLogic and BuzzMetrics. I need to renew my Web Analytics Association membership and see if they have a group studying the issue.
