The Outdoor Recreation Industry is becoming awash in new media data, much of it generated by consumers. And the management teams in many of the major outdoor companies are becoming frustrated.

The top of the funnel is the collection of the data. The middle  is where it gets distributed to the various departments and action taken, and the bottom of the funnel is where management is presented with the data and investment decisions are eventually made.

And here is where the problems become real.

1. In most instances, marketing has the challenge of showcasing the data in an understandable fashion to management.

2. It is failing.

3. Management is becoming frustrated because it wants context, interpretation and return-on-investment information.

Here’s what needs to be done.

1. Investment. Build a bigger investment behind the infrastructure that interprets and reports on the data. If a company is investing in monitoring the incoming data, why not invest in accurate measuring of that data?  This means spending money on an analyst who organizes, helps interpret and reports on the data. This can be accomplished internally (hiring) or  externally (with an outside firm).

• Investment also means that time is allocated in the Marketing Department to work with the analyst to organize the report. People in Marketing need to support the analyst and build a report that shows the value of social media business intelligence.
• Invest in the feedback loop. Feedback from consumers coming in is fine, but there needs to be responses. Content in the form of answers back to consumers, content for the Web Site and content for the company blog.

2. Reporting. Present data that can be understood and measured. And what does this mean?

• Segment the data along the lines of your corporate structure. Customer reviews go to the Product Development Department. Blog and twitter activity around marketing initiatives go to Marketing. Twitter complaints about service go to Customer Service.
• Once the consumer feedback and company response is received and recorded,  the reporting begins…and it is segmented by either Channel or Departments.  Senior management is looking for month over month trends. Is the new media conversation trending up? Are our customer complaints trending down? And are consumers talking about our marketing events?
• Make the data granular, but understandable. What does that mean? If the report states that ” The Phoenix Desert Run Event” received 5,000 mentions on Twitter…define what that means. For example, “that means 5,000 people took the time to mention our event and pass that information along to their followers, a total of 500,000 followers.  Our estimate is that 10% of those followers (5,000 people) read the information and 10% of those followers attended the event. (500 people)  And 50% of those followers tweeted about the event either during or afterwards. (250 people) So, those 250 reported back to 25,000 followers…10% (2500 people) read those tweets.

3. Action. Here’s where Senior Management comes in. Social media can be in real time. And that means that you don’t have to wait six months to see if a program is working. You’ll know in a month or two…maximum. Yes, there are some events that need to build, but the feedback is immediate and clear. Now, if a Department wants to stay with a program fine, let them make the case, but the data coming in is clear. And if it is not building after a few months…the event should be seriously questioned as to return-on-investment.

Most people in senior management believe in the general concept of collecting and measuring new media. The value comes in the reporting. And if management can not measure, they will not continue to invest.

They become believers when they understand the metrics. And that allows them to assess value.