How Should You Measure The Success Of Your Online Community?

Even though it may not be talked about, the success of an online community is important and it gets analyzed often.  While all communities are different in some way, they still use key performance indicators that work for them but might prove to be inadequate for others.  Fortunately, if you know the key performance indicators for your association, you can use them to measure the success of your community.

An association and its community share a purpose and values.  Therefore, the parameters that are used to measure the success of an association should also be applied to the community.

 

If you agree that an association and its community share a purpose, any attempt to measure your community’s success should start with a review of the association goals.  They provide a foundation from which the community goals will emerge and membership management software is the key.  Make sure the goals you set are specific, measurable, and attainable.

 

Once you decide on your community goals and set your key performance indicators, resist the urge to obsess over community growth.  Many people think that growth is the most important measure of success, but immediate growth of the community is far less important than sustained growth.  Rather than basing your measure of success on growth, place an emphasis on the types of customers your membership management software has registered and how interactions are between them.

 

Try to understand how your members measures success.  There’s no point in setting performance indicators that indicate a high level of success if most members are unhappy with the community.  This is why you should understand the meaning behind their behavior before setting KPI’s.

What do they like and dislike about the community?  How do they define value?  Always compare your measures for success with the opinions and perspectives of your members.  Their insights could go a long way towards transforming the way you perceive success!