IAB Hopes Industry Stands Behind New Social Media Metrics

What are the best metrics to gauge social media campaign results? It’s been a subject of debate in recent years. There’s little doubt The Interactive Advertising Bureau’s just-released social media definitions and metrics will spur further debate.

“This document defines these supplemental metrics in more detail in an effort to
stimulate growth by making the reporting of metrics for agencies and advertisers across
multiple media partners more consistent,” writes the IAB in its “Social Media Ad Metrics
Definitions” document (download the .pdf).

The doc defines Social Media Sites, Blogs, and Widgets & Social Media Applications, and provides a set of metrics that should apply to all three including unique visitors, cost per unique visitor, interaction rate, video installs, and measures of other actions such as games played, invites sent, or re-posts. It goes on to lay out metrics specific to social sites, blogs, and widgets.

“The IAB hopes that all players in the Social Media space will coalesce around these metrics to encourage growth through consistency,” continues the doc.

Will it?