The key to success in any endeavor is measurement. Without a quantifiable sense of where you are vs. where you were, you can’t know whether you’ve succeeded or not. Data is POWER. The more information you have, the better equipped you are to update your community activities and strategy.
If you don’t have measurable value, then you don’t have a budget - and if you don’t have a budget, then you don’t have a community. You have to show measurable value in what you are going to do in the community.
It is important to keep in mind that every community has its own metrics. There are probably unique elements in your community that you'll want to measure, as these will lead incrementally towards your overall community goals. We can divide metrics into two categories - operational and business impact metrics.
Operational metrics are typically based on data captured by systems, and may include some data that needs to be captured manually. Analyzing data sets provided by your community platform, Facebook, Google Analytics and similar tools can indicate best practices to grow the community while providing new ways to measure the impact of these efforts:
Check and evaluate these numbers on a regular basis.
Business impact metrics are harder to capture but also important:
How do you measure a feeling?
We intrinsically know that a sense of community is important for members to feel welcome, engaged, and stick around. The Sense of Community Index is a tool that puts some analytical muscle behind this concept. So how do you measure a feeling? Well, you ask the right questions.
Find more inspiration here:
“Community is no longer a nice-to-have. It’s essential that businesses invest intelligently in community programs and show the results to prove that they’re making an impact. I believe we will see more and more businesses doing this in the coming years.” Jeremiah Owyang, Founder, Crowd Companies
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