With a massive boom in communities in recent years, tracking community success has become crucial more than ever. Several metrics are available there to measure community engagement. Creating, engaging, and growing a community is no easy task. As a brand, you need to look for ways to make your community successful and offer value to your audience. You need to focus on the different aspects of community engagement and compare results. That’s why we are here with our guide. In this blog, we will cover the top key performance indicators that you should follow to make your community successful.
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Why Tracking and Measuring Community Success Crucial?
First things first, why should you measure community engagement? Community engagement directly shows the level of commitment or dedication your members show for your community and engages in different activities or sections of a community. Therefore, metrics play a vital role in website success That’s why brands are crazy behind community-based marketing.
By leveraging the power of metrics, you can find the key performance indicators to better understand your audience. But how would you make sure measuring the type of metrics would work for your website? First, have a look at the top metrics you should focus on for community success!
Customer Loyalty
Customer loyalty is an integral term for brands to measure community engagement. You might have heard a lot about retention rates before. Do you know why there is so much noise about the retention rate? A retention rate is calculated as an average of total users who visit your site and return in a given period. But why is it important to measure retention rate?
A retention rate is one of the most important metrics to measure community engagement. This is because it tells you how often your members visit your community and pays attention to activities. Several analytics tools are available to measure retention rates, like Google Analytics. You can choose the most reliable option for your community type.
Also Read: How to disable Google Analytics for logged in users?
Member Generated Contributions
Do you know the power of member-generated contributions for brands? The biggest achievement for brands is when their members start contributing to the community. These are genuine and purpose-driven content created in several forms. Also known as user-generated content (UGC), typically focuses on how many community members are actively participating in different activities and events. When community members start creating their content for the community, it shows they start developing an interest in the community’s activities.
However, a higher user-generated content percentage does not mean members share high-quality and thoughtful content. You need to have a look at the content quality and check how others are reacting. Some of the more examples include:
- Forum posts
- Comments on blogs/forum posts etc.
- Reaction/Upvotes/Downvotes
- DMs and Group Chats
Average Session Length
Have you ever noticed what your members do after visiting your website? That’s where the average session length of a community comes to play. It is the average time a user spends on your community website after every visit. The more the user spends time on your website, the better they will explore the community.
Remember, the task is to reduce the bounce rate always. Whether it is a general website or a community website, you need to engage your audience to save from bouncing away. Also, it indicates that the longer they stay in your community, the greater value they find in your content.
It is easier to find the average session length for WordPress community websites. You can easily measure community engagement rates through Google Analytics to better understand the metrics.
Moderation
Have you ever paid attention to why users don’t contribute to your community? Lack of security is among the primary reasons users hesitate to share their thoughts and opinions on your community. In addition, online communities are easily prone to spam and abuse. That’s why community owners need to pay great attention to moderation activities.
It is essential to have good use of your moderation team. As a community owner, you need to pay attention to the community’s various activities, such as comments, posts, and other activities. Make an effective strategy for how you will respond to each activity in your community. Assign roles for different tasks to help make a safe, friendly, and welcoming environment.
Total Reach
Do you think it is enough to only keep track of your user’s activities? It is equally essential for you to check how well your community works for your members. It is not possible to make a strong community without knowing how efficiently your posts reach your audience. Sometimes, your posts and activities don’t reach a wide section of your audience. You need to make sure that the content reaches smoothly to your members, influencers, and affiliates for a great impact. Being a community owner, you need to make sure that most people are aware of your posts.
Also Read: 6 Ways To Retain Your Online Community Members 2022
Measure Community Engagement: Is it the Right Time to Start?
How often do you feel that your community lacks the right engagement? To revive your dead or dull community, one needs to pay attention to some crucial aspects. Several key performance indicators help community owners find what they are looking for. There are several reasons to measure community engagement. But most importantly, you should follow the above key community metrics to keep track of how your community responds to your member’s needs in order to calculate its success.
Community-based marketing has helped several brands to gain larger profit margins from their audience. So if you are new to the community industry, pay attention to the above pointers and compare to find what more you can provide to your audience.
Wrapping Up
Improving community engagement is not an easy task. However, a carefully-crafted engagement plan can help you reach places. All you need is to keep a check on all the above KPIs to measure community engagement and later use them to plan your new strategy. You can use several tricks, such as organizing interactive activities, posting engaging content, or welcoming new members to make their presence feel valued. By leveraging the top key metrics, you can turn your dead or disengaged community into life. For any doubts or queries, you can share your thoughts in the comment section below.
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