The Virtual Gardener
The place where I explore online community cultivation, propagation and harvesting techniques.
I've been working as head of consultancy at Sift for the last four years. The business supports all organisations looking to respond to a Web 2.0 world and truly engage with their audience - and has been doing so for the past 10 years.
This blog originally started out as a comment on a conference I attended about online communities. I'm now using it as a thought-bin for related stuff. Any gaps in posting doesn't mean I've stopped thinking ...
#3 Plum: Measuring
Measurement and analysis must be based on business measures (e.g. increased sales, greater awareness, number of new ideas) not some typical web analytics (e.g. page views and time on site). It’s got to be qualitative, not quantitative, which means getting the metrics has to involve humans not just machines (which costs).
1. Measure impact on business processes the same way as those business processes are being measured today.
2. Recognise the importance of metrics on behaviour (e.g. if customer services are going to be goaled on page views it could kill the community)
3. Beware of ‘rear-view mirror effects (i.e. lag metrics such as Return on Investment rather than lead metrics Return on Information)
4. The importance of stories (e.g. “bloggers proven to move share price”)
Measurements should be based on benchmarks. They should evolve with the community from basic measurements, to ratios, to business metrics.
