I read an interesting article this morning: CPSA: The New Pricing Model For Social Media?
David Berkowitz, the author, highlights a list of measures that clearly were not built for Social Media and gives great rationale as to why they shouldn't be used. He also points out, and he's right, basically we're dealing with yet another measure we have to learn, work with publishers, educate clients, etc. I think the sad truth is that is the way it is going to be moving forward.
I responded to his article - below is my response.
David, I agree we need another TLA (three letter acronym) like we need a hole in the head. That said - I like the fact that you're keeping this dialogue alive.
I like CPSA because (as you said) it gives us something we can share with our client so that they feel like they're paying for something social and relationship-oriented.
On the other side of the pancake.
I don't like CPSA because (to your point) it is vague. The tactics recommended within a Social Media plan are as varied and unique as a fingerprint. To compound this issue CPSA basically seems to me to be a new higher level model that uses key performance indicators that could be applied to Social Media plans right now but are more independent and isolated:
- Repeat Rate
- Time Spent Rate
- Take Rate or Download Rate
- Send to A Friend Rates
- Comment Rates
- Linking Rate
Maybe we should consider looking at the tools available to us that listen to the social ecosystem (BuzzMetrics, Spiral16, Radian6, etc.) and the results our efforts produce. In the social space, what has our current spend created in terms of conversation/relationship sentiment (positive, level, or negative). A possible measure could be around the impact our efforts have on that sentiment score and our ability to sustain a positive level.