WAA Publishes Social Media Definitions

The Web Analytics Association (WAA) has released for public comment a draft set of definitions for measuring social media technologies.

Comments and recommendations are invited over the next 60 days from the online marketing, social media and analytics industry, to be fed into a final draft.

The result of extensive deliberation and review, the WAA says the document is designed to provide a framework around measuring technologies that support social media, such as blogs, widgets and social bookmarking, or sharing; and to allow expansion as the sector broadens and develops.

'Standards are the foundation upon which comparative measurement, assessment and analysis relies' says the organisation's President, Alex Langshur, 'and ultimately, upon which investment decisions are made. The social media space has been evolving so rapidly that it's been somewhat of a moving target, and we have seen a lot of definitions and measurement approaches over the past few years. Our goal is to put forward a common understanding on standards ... that reflects the wide input from those who are active in the field. It's therefore really important that we get the community to engage, discuss and debate the draft document.'

The Web Analytics Social Media Standards Draft is available for review at www.webanalyticsassociation.org/?page=c_sm_standards ; comments can also be emailed to sm_standards@webanalyticsassociation.org .

Founded by web analytics industry leaders in 2004, the WAA has more than 1,700 members in forty countries worldwide and is online at www.webanalyticsassociation.org .