ROI: Measuring Brand Buzz Online

You know times are a-changing when the executive vice president and global research director with a top media buying agency like MediaVest tells Advertising Age that ROI is more than just counting eyeballs.

Our time has come, online branders. Rejoice!

Kate Sirkin, the aforementioned executive, goes on to say that when measuring the performance of Super Bowl advertisers, she looks at “online buzz, online traffic, people talking about your brand and searching online” to find out how much people are talking about a brand and which brands received the biggest jump in positive conversations pre- vs. post-game.

There are many ways to measure online buzz, including the basics like share of discussion and consumer sentiment on particular topics. Other metrics look at the “influence” or “activity” of certain posts or sites by capturing the number of comments left following a blog post or the number of blogs that link to another blog a la Technorati.

One of the challenges lies in limited ability to capture traditional metrics like reach and audience demographics, since that data isn’t available for many blogs and message boards.

What kind of metrics do you use to measure online buzz? Is buzz a true measure of ROI? Post your thoughts here.