Continuing with my recap of the Chicago PR: Get in the Loop posts (recap of the keynote here) , I attended a session hosted by Amber Naslund on “Measuring and Analyzing Social Media.” I’ve been following Amber for a while on Twitter and read her blog religiously (check both out).

Even though our session was only 45 minutes, I could tell Amber could lead a conversation about measurement for hours. In mostly Amber’s words, here are some of her tips:

• It’s critical to set measurable objectives. Your objectives should relate to reputation, awareness, money, engagement, education and entertainment. Find out what’s measurable for these subjects and get to work.
• Start with benchmarking. It’s easy to set a goal or objective, but it’s important to have an understanding where you are at this second before setting goals.
• The ultimate metric is how much money you make through business efforts. The best digital efforts are the ones who are actually making money through online strategies. Remember to be strategic and not just hop on the tactics bandwagon.
• ROI is only one measurement. Executives are looking to see if their investments are worth it, but there may be more to the picture than just measuring ROI. I came in to this session thinking that it’s all about ROI. Amber told me no. I believe her. What comes after ROI isn’t totally clear and you need to guide the measurement beyond just ROI.
• You should always be learning something new through measurement. You can easily get lost on mounds of data, but if you’re not analyzing what’s being said about your company, you’re missing a huge opportunity to engage your community.
• Sentiment is a good guide, but a bad metric. It’s important to understand sentiment in posts but quantifying other things is more important.

Below is the slide show, courtesy of Radian6′s Slideshare page:

Overall, I really enjoyed the presentation. Amber is wicked smart and she made us think big in terms of how we can apply these measurement standards in social media. However, I left with more questions than answers. I suppose that’s both good and bad. I know I have a lot to learn on the subject, but it is so subjective.

How can you learn more about measurement? Any practical advice out there?