Measure What Matters

Katie Paine, author of “Measure What Matters”, is considered a measurement expert in the field of social media. All transactions conducted today are driven by one thing: relationships. It only makes sense to measure relationships to get a realistic view of your company or organization. Building, managing and measuring relationships is essential to your success as a professional and the success of your company. Good, solid relationships, lead to profit. Focusing on building relationships should be at the heart of any company.

Paine points out in chapter one the difference between counting and measuring in terms of relationships. Counting is adding things up to get a total while measurement is taking those totals, analyzing what they mean and using them to improve your organization. For example, if you were to solely measure your success by counting the amount of ‘likes’ you get on Facebook, you aren’t going to get an accurate representation of your company. Just because someone ‘likes’ your page, doesn’t really show anything or benefit your company.

In the professional setting, measuring is crucial. You might be asking yourself "why should I start measuring? We’ve been doing just fine without it." Any company who wants to continue being successful should start measuring their relationships because data driven decisions save time and money. Measuring also helps allocate budget and staff, provides strategic planning, gets everyone to agree on desired outcomes, reveals strengths and weaknesses and ultimately, gives you a reason to say no. If you have data collected from previous programs, you gain leverage to turn down requests that would waste time, money and resources. Ultimately, you are becoming an invaluable asset to the workplace when you decide to start measuring relationships.

When you enter the workplace, ensure that there is a measurement system in place. If there isn’t, suggest starting one. Not only will measuring benefit you, but the company as well. Those who take the initiative to start and successfully implement measurement programs often get promotions for their leadership and skill set. Who doesn’t want a promotion?! All future professionals should take advantage of learning how to measure relationships.