These slides are from the Socious webinar, The Pros Guide to Online Community Metrics (http://socio.us/1Ehsh6U). Do You Know If Your Online Community is Thriving? Find out what to measure & why. Learn how to get a handle on the hundreds of data points in your online community. In these slides, you'll learn when to use each of the four types of social community metrics, how to analyze your online community data, and tips for creating an action plan from your conclusions. Get practical tips for using your community platform's analytics tools to efficiently grow engagement and see a return on your investment more quickly.

1. COMMUNITY METRICS:
GETTING ACQUAINTED
MAY 2015 
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@SociousSoftware
@kbapple

2. DO YOU KNOW WHAT IS
HAPPENING IN YOUR COMMUNITY?

3. What are my
objectives?
How do I measure
success?
How will I know if
what I am doing is
working?
DO YOU KNOW THE ANSWERS?
How do I show
ROI?
How do I grow
participation?
What do members
want from the
community?

4. Step One: Discover Your Data

5. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
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E
S
S
The Organization The Community
Member

6. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
Talk to Staff About: Talk to Members About:
• Their departmental goals
• The challenges they are facing
• How they think the online
community can help them to
achieve those goals
• Their thoughts on what the top
priorities for the online
community should be
• What they enjoy about their
online community experience
• What they find challenging
about their online community
experience
• Their current behavioral traits in
using the online community
• Resources and/or
programming that could
enhance their user experience

7. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
S
U
C
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E
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S
The Organization The Community
Member
Find and connect with like-minded
peers around common interests
Get quick answers to challenges I
am facing from trusted sources
Easily access valuable resources
that will help me stay “in the
know” or provide important
development opportunities
Reduce overhead support costs
by making it easier for members to
find the answers they are looking
for
Find a way to get better user-
generated ideation and
experience feedback
Have access to greater member
segmentation to create more
targeted communications

8. TYPES OF COMMUNITY METRICS
TRAFFIC ACTIVITY MEMBERS ROI
Page Views
Visits or Logins
Unique Visitors
Page Views/Visit
Referral Traffic by
Source
Total Posts
Total Blog Posts
Blog Entries
Blog Comments
Total Forum Posts
Forum Questions
Forum Answers
Wiki Posts
Wiki Edits
File Uploads
File Downloads
Event Creation
Event Registration
Answers/Question
Cumulative Members
Net New Members
Deleted Members
Blog Authors
New Blog Authors
Active Members
Contributing New
Members
Volunteers
Acquisition Rate
Attrition Rate
Subscriptions
Time to First Response
Staff Compensation
Renewal Rate
Attrition Rate
Upsells
Online Store Sales
Sponsorship/Ad Sales
Event Sales
Membership Sales
Marketing Costs
Which data points apply to your online community
and the goals you are trying to reach?

9. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?

10. WHAT ARE YOUR GOALS?
EXAMPLES:
- Increase total active members by 10% YOY
- Average 50 posts/month in each forum by end of year
- Conceptualize a new community member volunteer program
to promote community-sourced ideation; implement by 1H;
recruit 50 active volunteers by EOY

11. Step Two: Capture Your Data

12. WHERE IS DATA FOUND?
- Platform level reporting
- Third party integrations: Google Analytics, Adobe Marketing
Cloud, etc.
- Database queries

13. CREATE A DASHBOARD
Tips:
1. Start from the beginning
2. Group similar data points
together
3. Be granular – look at data
points by module and/or sub-
community
4. Track data trends over time, in
consistent intervals

14. CREATE A DASHBOARD
5. Get visual – graph data to
review trend lines more clearly
6. Keep a Notes section in your
metrics dashboard dating
events or activities that might
impact community activity
7. Make a habit of updating your
dashboard on the first business
day after end of month/end of
week, etc.

15. Step Three: Analyze

16. Community data is most valuable
when you understand how different
types of metrics interrelate.

17. HOW TO ANALYZE COMMUNITY DATA
KEY PERFORMANCE INDICATORS:
- Illustrate how basic online
community data points
interrelate and impact one
another
- Provide clear indications of
community health
- Assigns value to metrics

18. HOW TO ANALYZE COMMUNITY DATA
0
50,000
100,000
150,000
200,000
250,000
300,000
350,000
2009 2010 2011 2012 2013
Active Members (Avg) Total Posts
Net New Members Contributing New Members
Graph data to look for
patterns between metrics,
such as trend lines running
parallel to one another. This
illustrates a direct
correlation of one behavior
impacting another.

19. HOW TO ANALYZE COMMUNITY DATA
Regularly review KPIs for specific
areas of the community, versus the
community as a whole.
For example, measuring KPIs at
the forum level will uncover
different behavior patterns than if
measured independently for blogs
or files, making strategy
development more targeted.
0
200
400
600
800
1000
1200
1400
1600
1800
0 500 1000 1500 2000 2500 3000 3500
Activity
Subscriptions

20. Metrics can be affected by:
 An increase, decrease or replacement in online community staff
 Seasonality (i.e., national holidays, summer break, etc…)
 Changes to the community management calendars and roadmaps
 Platform updates
 Special events, such as conferences
 New member surges or deletions
THINGS TO KEEP IN MIND

21. Step Four: Find Conclusions

22. DISCOVERIES
What did you identify as your
community’s strengths?
What did you identify as your
community’s weaknesses?
How can we leverage this
knowledge to pursue both
short term and long term
goals?

23. Online Community Health Check
Time
Development Area 1
Identify 50 XYZ
members to be
influencers in online
community decisions
Reach out to a random
sample of active
members, offering the
opportunity to impact
the community
experience
MeasureProcessTactic(s)
September 30, 2015
20 active volunteers
recruited by end of
Q3
Development Area 2
Opportunity 1
HOW CAN I MOVE FORWARD?

24. ALIGNING WITH QUANITATIVE GOALS
Set monthly goals that align to your
both your long term and short term
objectives. This will make stretch goals
more palatable and keep staff
motivated.