Social Media, Analytics and Story

Those three converged for me rather serendipitously at yesterday’s Analytics Camp here in the Triangle area. Nathan Gilliatt, the driving force behind the event, and the folks at UNC’s Kenan Flagler Business School and Ornpaka ‘Tong’ V, as well as Ikong Fu, did a wonderful job organizing and presenting this event. It was, without a doubt, one of the best events I’ve been lucky enough to attend. And it was free! Chris Anderson would love it ‘eh? Nathan and all of the presenters donated their time and experience, the folks at UNC donated the facility and services, (and what a facility it is!), Capstrat donated the coffee and pastries throughout the morning and SAS donated what was, without doubt, the best lunch at any event I’ve ever attended. I’ve been lucky enough to eat at all kinds of technology events over the years, sponsored by the likes of Microsoft, Intel, Apple ,etc. and not one of them came close to this. I’ll likely post a review of sorts the first of the week so that those who might be interested and thinking of doing something similar can get some idea of what it was like. For now we’ll get back to social media, analytics and storytelling.

Some of the storytelling leaders of the last 10 years or so have said, on more than one occasion, that “stories work where spreadsheets don’t.” And for the most part, I agree with that. But, we’ve talked before about how numbers play a part in some storytelling. Your business plan, your quarterly and annual stock reports, your sales goals and quotas, all tell a story and all use numbers to help you in that telling.

The same can hold true for analytics if you think about it. They’re a measurement of how well you’re doing at something. And that something could be how well you’re telling your story. Or, it could be that you could use those same analytics to help you to frame a story.

One of the afternoon sessions was led by Adam Covati, of software startup Argyle Social. It was titled “Social Media Impact, Know Your Impact.” I got to the room a little early. It was one of the first sessions after lunch and after eating, checking email, Twitter and the like, I had headed up to get a good seat. I wasn’t the first one there however. A few other people clearly had the same idea. Adam came in to get setup for his presentation a short while later. Once he got his netbook connected to the overhead projector he brought up PowerPoint and started to ready his slide deck. Once he got settled in with all of that, he displayed the opening slide as people continued to fill the room and time drew near for the start of his session.

That opening slide was what looked to be a slight modification of an Argyle Software business card. Front and center on that card was “Social Media Actions Tell a Story.” I almost fell out of my chair. Only minutes before, I was getting acquainted with one of the folks sitting near me and when asked what I did, I responded that I was a freelance writer and storytelling and marketing consultant. She sort of rolled her eyes at the storytelling part. Not an unusual reaction. She did a bit of a double take after seeing Adam’s slide though. I got a few sideways glances as Adam started into his presentation.

He was starting to use stories to frame social media actions and analytics. One of his next few slides said this: “At the end of the day your story is your goal.” I would perhaps expand on that a bit and say that giving people the space to find and see themselves within your story, to give them the opportunity to form those emotional connections that really let you use story to influence and get your point across, are what you should be aiming for. Be that as it may, he’s right on target.

He then went on to ask “What is on the last page of your story?” His point there, I think, being, what are you trying to accomplish with your analytics? In storytelling terms, how are you going to frame and build this story you are wanting to tell? After that he asked about the first page of the story. Where do you start? What are the sorts of things that you measure and analyze? What are you trying to accomplish? He listed the following for consideration:

Customer Service

Drive Targeted Traffic

Raise Brand Awareness

Move the sales needle

Broaden your reach

Increase engagement

Improve SEO

(As a quick aside, I loved seeing “move the sales needle” up there. What good is any of this if it doesn’t do that?)

While talking about each of these he even made mention of how they could contribute to subplots within the story. He didn’t expand on that topic but I suspect that had as much to do with time constraints as anything. Story arc and subplots can certainly be key elements as you are framing your social media story and your analytics story.

He tied everything together very nicely by saying that “now that you know what to measure, you can build your story.” If you were a writer, you might relate measurement and analytics to the research you do for your own stories. That research, done well, will lend credence to the elements of your story and once you’ve completed that research, you go about building your story. The same holds true for that person building a story around analytics.

I am really curious to see how Adam’s new venture goes about incorporating story into the field of social media analytics. That guy in me who spent 29 years in the software business thinks that Adam and Argyle Social might really be onto something here. What about you? Are you curious as to how story and analytics can work together? Have you stopped by Argyle Social’s site and signed up for the beta?