Media Rating Council Issues Social Media Measurement Guidelines For Public Comment Period

NEW YORK, Sept. 15, 2015 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Media Rating Council (MRC) announced that the Social Media Measurement Guidelines are now available for public review and commentary.  The 30-day public comment period extends through Oct. 15, 2015.

These guidelines aim to establish a detailed set of methods and common practices for entities that measure social media activity.  They also are intended to:

• Establish and document good practices of measurement
• Improve practices and disclosures used by practitioners
• Educate users of social media data from all segments of the digital media industry
• Establish a recommendation and a benchmark for audit processes whereby the practices and disclosures of social media measurement organizations can be validated by third parties.

All vendors seeking accreditation for any social media measurement processes will be assessed against the guidelines.

"Social media is a growing, viable and powerful medium for advertising and brand message transfer, making it increasingly important for brands to be able to measure the impact of their social media investments," said David Gunzerath, SVP and Associate Director at MRC. "The MRC is committed to continuing to promulgate standards and guidelines for media measurement, for the benefit of all parties in the media industry, which is why we have worked with some of the industry's most knowledgeable experts to create these social media measurement guidelines."

The Social Media Measurement Guidelines establish definitions and baseline metrics for original content Authorship, subsequent Engagement and resultant Reach.  Additionally, they provide guidance for social media coverage and projection, measurement within applications and outside them, measurement of User Generated Content (UGC), collection and use of aggregated social media platform data, filtration, reporting and audit guidelines.

The initiative's principal co-sponsors, along with the MRC, include the American Association of Advertising Agencies (4A's) Social Media Committee, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) and the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA).  The project also included the participation of a large group of organizations that included media advertising buyers and sellers, as well as measurement vendors, auditing organizations, and others.

During the 30 day public commentary period, interested parties can visit http://mediaratingcouncil.org/Soc%20Guidelines%20v4.1%20Public%20Comment%20Version.pdf and provide commentary or suggested revisions via email. Revisions made as a result of these comments will be reviewed with the working group prior to the release of the final version of the Guidelines.  Please email all commentary or suggested revisions to Ron Pinelli at [email protected].

For more information, please visit www.mediaratingcouncil.org.  

About the Media Rating Council (MRC)

The MRC is a non-profit industry association established in 1963 composed of leading television, radio, print and Internet companies, as well as advertisers, advertising agencies and trade associations whose goal is to ensure measurement services that are valid, reliable and effective.  Measurement services desiring MRC Accreditation are required to disclose to their customers all methodological aspects of their service; comply with the MRC Minimum Standards for Media Rating Research and other standards MRC produces; and submit to MRC-designed audits to authenticate and illuminate their procedures.  In addition, the MRC membership actively pursues research issues they consider priorities in an effort to improve the quality of research in the marketplace.  Currently approximately 100 research products are audited by the MRC.

SOURCE Media Rating Council (MRC)

Related Links

http://www.mediaratingcouncil.org