Social Media metrics - counting the power users

The next question that comes out of the Social Media metrics discussion has to do with the ‘power user’.  This name probably doesn’t work because if you’ve built a good social media service, then your users are also your creators and even strategic leaders, perhaps more important than the inhouse staff that build your tools.  Regardless, the coveted customer is the one who has enough passion or self-interest in your service to make it better with his or her contributions and perhaps pay for it or make your service valuable enough for others to pay for it.

There are 3 key metrics that help you identify who this person is.  You can identify the power user when you can map the following behaviors on a curve and find the top 10 to 20% of users across all categories:

1)      repeat usage
2)      volume usage
3)      quality contributions

Repeat usage is an indicator of immediacy and timeliness.  Some people may be coming just to see your home page change.  Maybe there’s a buzz factor from people talking about your site for a brief period of time.  They might just be looky-loos.  Alone, this metric does not define a power user.  But with the others, it’s an indicator of someone who needs your service or who has become obsessed with it.

Volume usage is a better indicator of the power user by itself.  However, he or she might just be diving into your service deeply to fulfill a specific need at a specific time.  This user might just be on a research mission.  But this customer is the most-likely to convert to a power user if he or she isn’t already.

High action quality becomes the determining factor in defining your power user when combined with some mix of the other 2 behaviors.  It may come in the form of conformity…someone who visits a lot, goes deep into the site, and participates in similar ways to everyone else.  It may come in the form of contributions…someone who adds content to the system that others find valuable.  Or it may come in the form of leadership…someone who organizes people and steers the direction of how others participate.

When you are able to identify the cross section of people who are in the top 10 or 20% in all these categories, then you are now looking at your core power user customer base.  The top 10 to 20% in any one of these categories who are not also parts of the other categories are potential conversions for you, but they are not likely going to be a long term core contributor.

If you're working on this kind of thing, please chime in.  I'm throwing ideas out to get reactions and see if there are other ways to think about how to measure success in a social media world.

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