(Annette Moser-Wellman) – We've all seen the stats. Online news is growing in popularity. But what do commonly-available usage statistics really tell us about the attitudes and behaviors of consumers on a news site? Wouldn't you love to have a deeper understanding of your online users? Better data to share with your advertisers? The future of online measurement is changing and Susan Hickey, Chief Marketing Officer of Nielsen Online explained to me some of the opportunities and barriers in the world of online measurement.

"We have a lot of metrics about how consumers use the Web, but when you are thinking about brand impact or consumer involvement you want to be thinking about the quality, not just the quantity. We are spending a lot of time working with clients to define engagement metrics, which may differ by industry – for example, e-commerce, media, health and consumer packaged goods," she said.

"As the Web has quickly become a communication platform for individuals, we are working to measure and analyze the impact of these consumer conversations…Who are the influentials? How does our overall online strategy work within CRM strategy? How is consumer generated media impacting our brand equity? Social networks and blogs have become the world's largest focus group," she said.

This type of consumer understanding is what advertisers are going to be looking for across the three screens of computer, television and mobile. As users consume content across platforms, measurement is going to have to merge across platforms.

Susan explains: "Advertisers don't want to differentiate between a TV campaign, an online campaign or a mobile campaign. It's all got to work together and so the metrics will have to work together. The questions they will ask are, ‘Am I reaching an incremental audience across these platforms? Or is it just the same audience in three difference places?'"

Measuring mobile content usage presents its own set of challenges. With the lack of standards in cell phone technology, it's tricky to build a software meter that translates across operating systems.

"Our clients see cell phones as a big area for growth and opportunity. Relative to other market sizes, cell phone penetration is high for things like texting and voice, but how people actually use it for content is not clear. Mobile content is still in its very early stages and will be a big growth area in the future, especially because of the global nature of it."

She noted that developing meaningful Internet metrics has always been a challenge.

"When Nielsen started measuring television 50 plus years ago, a handful, not even a handful, of networks were measured. But since Day One on the Internet, there have been potentially hundreds of thousands of sites to measure," she said.

Getting a clear picture of the who, how and why of online activity is a daunting task fraught with complications. How do you correct for traffic data without duplicating the same user from two different PC's? How do you deselect the activity of bots and crawlers? How do you use US panel data when you realize it isn't going to represent visitors coming from in around the world?

As online ad spending continues to increase relative to traditional media, these measurement questions take on a new urgency. More and more advertisers want to understand their return on investment. And they have high expectations. The Web is seen as so inherently measurable that it makes measuring the medium even more challenging.

"There are almost limitless numbers of data sets that you can get to - whether you use them to monetize your site, understand your consumers or benchmark against competitors. So establishing measurement standards, while supporting ongoing innovation, will be the key issue for the online advertising industry going forward. It's going to take the understanding and agreement of publishers, agencies and the research companies to come up with the right set of metrics we can all agree upon," Susan told me.

Even still, Nielsen is making significant strides in measurement of online video. The growth projections for both online video consumption and video advertising revenue are significant and advertisers want to know more about consumer behaviors. Nielsen's VideoCensus product combines panel and server research methodologies to provide an accurate count of viewing activity and engagement with in-depth demographic reporting.

And what they are learning about consumers is eye-opening. For example, online video watching by women tends to be more network television segments, yet men skew toward more consumer generated content. And, Susan said, "There is now a mini-prime time at work between 12:00 - 2:00. People are catching up on what they may not have seen previously."

They are finding that network websites are destinations for fans to deepen their experience – they go to see favorite scenes, episodes and outtakes. These viewers are very loyal and engaged and the Website is a place to become immersed in the program.

By contrast, with shorter clips and a viral nature, consumer generated media sites are much more about discovery and consumers are likely to view content on more than one.

Susan expects a balance will occur in measurement between the quantity of users and the quality of the content experience. In the future, there will be ways to measure the consumer engagement of a social networking function or a blog.

So accurate measurement may still lag behind adoption of technology, and certainly advertising, in many ways. But you can take comfort that someday and maybe even soon, you'll be able to get a bit closer to the who, how and why of your Website user. And won't your advertisers like that!

What do you think? Please share your thoughts, experiences and reactions by clicking on the comment button below.

Annette Moser-Wellman is President of Firemark, Inc., an innovation consultancy, and author of "Running While The Earth Shakes: Creating An Innovation Strategy To Win In The Digital Age," published by Media Management Center. She teaches in MMC's Advanced Executive Program and Digital Strategies for Media Executives seminars.

This TechScout article is part of a new series of Moser-Wellman interviews commissioned by Media Management Center to explore opportunities and insights at the intersection of technology and the news media. Click here to view others in the TechScout series.