For those who haven't heard of it, MeasurementCamp is a loose collective of individuals (mainly from the marketing industry) who meet regularly with the aim of developing an 'industry standard' way to measure social media campaigns.

Having taken a brief hiatus at the start of 2010, this monthly event has recently been revitalised in London with the first of the year taking place on 21st July.

So what did I learn at my first MeasurementCamp?

Well, it was a bit of a case study extravaganza with two of the three speakers focusing on how social media has successfully been used by fashion brands.

Caroline Rolfe spoke about how Debenhams has used their VIP 'Beauty Club' to build a large, engaged community on Facebook and become one of the first UK retail chains to integrate Foursquare. She also highlighted successful, content-led campaigns from brands such as Jack Wills, Burton, Estee Lauder and Boden.

Alice Ratcliffe, ex-fashion blogger & co-owner of online start-up 'ShopPulse', illustrated how immersion is the key to successful social media thinking. Alice comes from what she described as a 'self-taught' background and her talk focused on how you don't necessarily need complex or expensive tools to measure success. But it was clear her blogging past had given her valuable insight into the intricacies of social media that can't be gained through theory alone.

Finally Ciaran Norris offered commentary on measurement from a global perspective and how social media insight can help brands define the wider marketing strategy.

(To view the presentations in full please use the full article link below)

A bit about social media measurement

Measurement has been a burning issue for the marketing industry ever since the emergence of social media. There have been countless articles written by thought-leaders (and non-leaders) in the field that have gone some way to mapping out best practices. But the reality is that social media has an impact on so many areas of a business (marketing, PR, SEO, sales, reputation management, brand development, HR, customer service - the list goes on!) that it wouldn't be feasible to create a 'one size fits all' approach.

Every agency worth their salt knows that, in practice, effective measurement will be based on the overall marketing objectives and metrics will be selected accordingly.

But the core benefits of social media are best illustrated with what we marketing people very sweetly call 'soft' metrics (e.g. word-of-mouth, awareness, engagement and advocacy). These results are the most difficult to quantify (in the same way that PR is) and many agencies have their own take on measurement, which is why it is crucial that we continue to have these open discussions.

MeasurementCamp have funky Wiki if you would like to find out more on how to take part or simply want a bit more info on the subject.