Metrics - Social Media

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Metrics and Reporting

Definition

The measurement of a product's defined Social Media metric(s).

Principles

1. Prior registration of Social Media metric(s) details to ABC

2. Social Media metrics(s) reported separately

3. Evidence to support the claim must be retained and made available for a minimum period

Requirements

1. Prior notification of Social Media metric(s) details to ABC.

   1. You must obtain ABC’s agreement in advance that your Social Media metric(s) is/are capable of being recorded and checked. This will include:

      1. The particular Social Media metric(s) to be certified

      2. The specific product to be certified. For example by URL

2. Social Media metric(s) reported separately

   1. The Social Media metric count will be that recorded on the last working day of a month. The audit will not verify the authenticity of the original source data included in the count.

   2. Data for different products or Social Media will not be aggregated.

3. Evidence to support the claim must be retained and made available for a minimum period

   1. For all Social Media reported, you must be able to provide any records relevant to the claim, including those necessary to support any optional metrics or analyses reported.

   2. Records supporting the claim must be retained, and made available to us on request (in accordance with the ABC Byelaws), until we have completed the audit of the subsequent certificate, unless we agree otherwise.

Reporting

You will report Social Media as follows, which will be reported on the ABC Certificate:

1. By each specific product showing:

   1. The URL (or if not available the name identifying the product). For example: http://twitter.com/ABC_UK, ABC Today App

   2. The Social Media type. For example: Facebook, Line

   3. The Social Media metric. For example: Facebook Likes, Twitter Followers

   4. The metric count.

2. As a minimum, the metric count on the last working day of the last month covered by the Certificate.

3. As an option:

   1. By metric count on the last working day of each month covered by the Certificate.
      And/or

   2. The average of the metric counts on the last working day of each month covered by the Certificate.

4. You must report Social Media for the relevant Reporting Period, which will be a whole calendar month or any combination of consecutive calendar months (up to a maximum of 12).

   1. If you are reporting a particular Social Media metric for the first time this may commence part way through the period covered by the certificate.

5. You may include two or more separate Social Media counts on a single certificate (these can be from different brands):

   1. They will be listed individually, with a figure for each.

   2. They must each fall within the same Reporting Period , being a whole calendar month or any combination of consecutive calendar months (up to a maximum of 12).

6. All products will appear in the relevant data tables and reports. However, where you’re reporting products to these Reporting Standards on an ABC Brand Report or Group Report, you may ask us to not publish the individual certificate(s).

Guidance

G2.    Social Media metric(s) reported separately

1. We will need to access the reported Social Media product. The metric counts may be confirmed by simply viewing publicly available data or via the use of other technologies. We will agree in advance the process for submission of your claims to us and how we will confirm the metric count(s).