What are the most effective ways to measure a community manager's success?

The digital realm is ever-evolving. What works today might not be as effective tomorrow. Community managers must keep up with these changes to ensure they're using the best practices. Part of measuring a community manager's success is evaluating their adaptability and commitment to professional growth. How often do they seek out new industry knowledge, and how do they apply it?

Having an Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) will help guide your community strategy. You can either penetrate an existing community or create a new one. The latter tends to be easier for well-known brands. Clear ICP's will help community managers be more targeted in their efforts.

Think of setting goals as the first step on your journey. To measure success in your community or on social media, you must first define clear and specific objectives. When you define your goals with precision and purpose, you're not just getting ready for effective measurement but also making sure your digital efforts are on the right track and valuable. This clarity will help you steer your community towards real and meaningful growth.

Measuring my success as a community manager is crucial to evaluating my effectiveness in nurturing a thriving online community that aligns with our organization's goals. Here are some of the most effective ways to assess my performance - Community Growth and Engagement, Content Performance and Reach, Member Satisfaction and Sentiment, Goal Alignment and Business Impact, and Community Advocacy and Brand Reputation.

Effective ways to measure a community manager's success might include tracking engagement, growth, response time, sentiment, conversion rates, customer satisfaction, issue resolution, feedback, benchmarking, ROI, content quality, and brand advocacy. But it all depends on his/her goals...

Instead of focusing on vanity metrics like follower count or number of likes per post, look at engagement, reach, how many and what kind of comments, what kind of dms you're receiving, how many times has the post been reshared, or saved. This is much more significant and indicative of the true community and audience you are building and cultivating on each platform.

While growth of a community can certainly be impressive (i.e. "grew to 2,000 members in our first year!"), I wouldn't put so much emphasis on that number. Sure, it's important to track, but if you have 2,000 members and only 20 show up and are active, do you really have 2,000 members? Focus more on the engagement of your members. Are they showing up on a daily or weekly basis? Are they sparking conversations on your community platform? Are they showing up to events your hosting, whether virtually or in person? In my experience, engagement is your North Star metric for communities. ?? Don't create a virtual ghost town focusing on the wrong metrics, no matter what your c-suite says. ??

A significant part of a community manager's role is interaction. Thus, direct feedback from community members can be a goldmine of information. How do community members feel about their interactions with the manager? Use regular polls or surveys within the community to gauge sentiments. Positive feedback is a good sign, while constructive criticism can be used to make necessary adjustments.

As more brands move online to sell, communities become a differentiating factor in setting your brand up for success. But that said, setting up a community should not be about growing numbers (quantity metrics) but quality metrics ( engagement, content production, referral etc) as you want your community to become your voice and brand evangelist.

Community Managers should be focused on two things: 1. Outbound Communication - Community updates, content, TLC check ins, surveys and customer research. Don’t let the things you are doing for your community go without being promoted. 2. Inbound communication - who is having a problem? How many people are they referring to support, sales, or partners? How quickly are we replying to questions or messages? Blow the mind of your community with how responsive you are.

Social Media Management Tools: Like Hootsuite, Buffer, or Sprout Social for scheduling posts and monitoring engagement. Community Platforms: Such as Discourse, Slack, or Facebook Groups for building and managing the community. Analytics Tools: Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, or community-specific analytics for tracking engagement and growth. Customer Relationship Management (CRM) Software: To manage member data, interactions, and feedback. Email Marketing Platforms: Like MailChimp or Constant Contact for newsletters and community updates. Project Management Tools: Trello, Asana, or Monday.com for tracking tasks and goals. Surveys and Feedback Tools: Tools like SurveyMonkey or Google Forms for collecting community feedback.

Community growth and engagement don't usually happen overnight. It's consistent effort, day in and day out, that fosters trust and engagement. Track the consistency of posts, responses, and engagement initiatives. A drop in consistency might signal burnout or decreased motivation.

How well does the community manager work with other teams like marketing, customer support, or product development? Their ability to collaborate effectively can be a significant metric. It not only helps in ensuring brand messaging is consistent but also that any feedback or issues from the community are addressed holistically.

In the age of viral content, even a small misstep can blow up. How well a community manager handles such situations can be a clear indicator of their expertise. Review instances of negative feedback or PR crises and assess the community manager's response. Timely, empathetic, and transparent handling of such situations can turn potential PR disasters into trust-building opportunities.

Couple of other metrics to add: -Growth in community size -Brand Advocacy -Cost-efficiency of the community manager's efforts -Quality of responses