How can you use metrics to identify stakeholders that require more attention in your relationship building?

In almost all of my community engagement work, the initial step is to carefully understand who is included and excluded, and why? At the heart of any meaningful relationship building and engagement activity is inclusion. The metrics of inclusion helps one identify the gaps and ask the questions that will get us the answers we need to improve our better articulate our relationship building goals and identify strategies to achieve them. Metrics is all about measurements and return on investments. In the case of relationships, attention must be paid to longevity, reciprocity and sustainability.

Communication metrics encompass a wide range of quantitative and qualitative measurements - Few metrics that can be tracked to gain insights and effectiveness are : 1. Level of interaction and engagement in terms of likes, shares, reshares, comments etc. 2. Information retained or recalled after a period of time , topping up with surveys and quiz can help 3. Assessing satisfaction in terms of clarity and frequency

Metrics are only relevant and useful to the extent they help to measure progress and success in realising objectives. At Durham University, the opening question is always, what exactly do we need and want to achieve? What are the expectations we have of stakeholders and their expectations of us? Access, reach, contact, interaction, support, buy-in, influence? To be kept informed, or actively involved? If involved, to what end? Consulted on the what or just on the how? Qualitative and quantitative measures, and ways to tracking change/improvement over time. Benchmarking against others in the same field.

In the age of performance marketing, where everything is measurable or quantifiable, communications has the unfair reputation of being notoriously hard to measure. To quote Peter Drucker "If you can't measure it you can't manage it". Communication metrics allow you to benchmark your progress on achieving your objectives. Which means your metrics will only be as good as the objectives you set in the first place as relevant KPIs. Your communications strategy should be hardwired to the business and map out WHO is your target audience / stakeholder communities, WHAT messages you want them to understand and HOW you bring those messages to life. Your measurement dashboard would be set against your strategy and would be able to identify any gaps.

In my work, I've learned that the real power of communication isn't just in numbers, but in the connections they represent. Metrics should tell us how deeply people understand what we stand for and how willing they are to back us up. My approach is to make every message hit home, to turn every statistic into a story that resonates. It's not just about being seen—it's about being remembered and building a community that's in it for the long haul with you.

The only way to understand whether your intended message resonates with your intended audience is to measure it. Whether that includes “likes”, shares, comments, readership, or time spent consuming your content, these and many other types of measurement provide quantitative data to help evaluate your efforts. Importantly, they should also be used to inform and shape future strategies and plans, and be complemented by qualitative data which at times can provide even richer insights.

I found that introducing the use of web-based platforms essential to properly measure our impact at the HQ's in communicating strategic plans and risks to stakeholders. However, in a national strategic military environments, leaders get reliant on "old ways" of communicating like using email. Ironically, at the national military level, where discipline should be expected, discipline of communication is not good. I witnessed firsthand, more than once, strategic plans and communications failing because leaders could not adapt their habits and trust different, more efficient ways to communicate that would provide a better level of feedback on the value of the communications. Stakeholders did not buy-in and that became a critical failure

Communication metrics are critical to convince the management that PR is offering true value. This value must transcend to earning a seat at leadership meetings and must thereby grant the utmost importance that the Communications team so rightly deserves.

Son importantes para tener una mirada clara de lo que se está desarrollando. No todo está escrito en piedra, debemos realizar esa escucha social de nuestra audiencia justamente para medir los impactos, resultados e ir definiendo estrategias y acciones de comunicación hacia los objetivos planteados.

Communication metrics are important, because they help organizations measure, improve and quantify the effectiveness of their communication strategies. You can measure your performance, you set and achieve company goals, evaluate the effectiveness, optimize the budget, have an impact on business objectives, and so on. All these, and more, play a crucial role in assessing, enhancing, and ensuring the success of communication strategies, helping organizations achieve the desired results from their efforts.

Selecting communication metrics requires a clear alignment with goals and the target audience. It’s important to choose metrics directly related to defined objectives, consider the audience, and combine different types of metrics. Adaptability to changing requirements, considering the entire customer journey, and using industry, benchmarks are also crucial.

In my experience, there’s no fit all approach. Depending on your industry, business purpose or personal brand; a survey might also help to choose the best communication metric.

Selecting communication metrics involves aligning them with specific goals and objectives. Identify key performance indicators (KPIs) related to your communication objectives, such as awareness, engagement, satisfaction, loyalty, and advocacy. Ensure metrics are measurable, relevant, and provide actionable insights. Tailor your choices to your organization's unique needs and regularly reassess them to stay aligned with evolving goals and priorities.

Choosing communications metrics should really start with a full assessment of your organization's and leaders' audiences and stakeholders, communication channels that already exist and need to be created, and a list of available methods of communication that provide some level of measurement. All of these should be synthesized with purpose of communications and SMART goals of desired effect from the efforts. Whatever the final lines of effort are on communications, the leadership must be entirely bought in and participatory in the plan. Without solid leadership to discipline communication in dependable locations expected by audiences and stakeholders, disappointment & withdrawal of commitment is likely. Satisfaction surveys are key.

It is important to have a targeted combination of process metrics and result metrics. This is the only way we can help to be both effective and efficient. There is a lot of basic implementation work to do, however, this initial investment makes perfect sense and is worth it!

Web-based satisfaction surveys on communication frequency, quality, alignment with strategy, location, and methods are at minimum essential metrics for communication effectiveness or ineffectiveness. This is naturally aside from all other communications attributes such as amount of content access, content subscribership, content reactions, amount of content collaboration, responses, and dialogues.

Centraliser les infos, les contenus et les différentes stratégies (écrans, formats, audience, geoloc) Aligner les KPI Appliquer des taux pour assurer une vision Un dashboard avec des nexts step un pilotage et des prises de décision intelligentes Garder une page dédiée au benchmark et à l'historique.

Effective communication involves setting, clear goals, choosing relevant metrics, (e.g., reach, engagement rate) and using social media analytics tools for insights, Tracking URL parameters, monitoring brand mentions and sentiment, and gathering direct feedback through surveys contribute to comprehensive understanding. Comparing performance across platforms helps identify the most effective channels. Regular analysis and adjustments based on these metrics are key for a successful communication strategy.

Surveys, analytics, feedback, and observations are all common methods and sources for gathering information. I believe the usage and the reliability of each depends on the specific need, business or personal brand.

Implement various tools and methods couldn't be only idea, must including: * Analytics Tools: Utilize software to track website and social media metrics. * Surveys and Feedback Forms: Collect direct input from stakeholders. * Internal Reporting Systems: Use internal databases to track communication data.

I would add that you need to build opportunities to share metrics with your senior leadership team, at a minimum, annually. Explain the story behind the numbers and graphs.

Fundamental. La interpretación de las métricas debe ser precisa y adecuada para poder evaluar el desarrollo e impacto de la comunicación y poder determinar las fortalezas, necesidad de mejora y aprendizajes propios del proceso. Por ello, a la hora de establecer las métricas se hace necesario que estas sean claras y comprensibles para todos los actores que intervienen en la comunicación.

In my experience, graphical representation of comms metrics is the most efficient and effective way of communicating results and impact. Condense your analysis into bite sized chunks for easier assimilation and greater recall.

????Add context to your insights. Don’t just put numbers or graphs in a slide show. Explain it. Tell the story. ????Use insights to inform your strategy. ????Most PR professionals think of measurement as the final step. In fact measurement should be the first step in determining your comms strategy. Volume does not always equal a positive result. ????A key KPI that my team measures in earned media coverage is the number of “story saves” we have on a monthly basis. Ask any comms professional the impact of saving a negative headline or the win of moving a negative story into a positive or neutral is immense. ????Another best practice we have is to continuously look at the KPIs and assess if it works or do you need to pivot?

Comparer à l'historique Comparer au marché Comparer au résultat escompté Voir les deux c?tés quanti/quali Enrichir d'ab/testing et de next steps.

In my perspective, it involves conducting sentiment analysis on social media and other platforms to gauge the overall perception of your organization. Proactively seeking feedback through surveys or direct communication allows you to understand the specific needs and concerns of different stakeholders. Analyzing customer service interactions and identifying recurring issues or challenges provides insights into areas that may need extra attention in your relationship-building efforts. Additionally, monitoring industry forums and discussions helps uncover key influencers and stakeholders who may impact your organization. These strategies go beyond traditional communication metrics, offering a more nuanced understanding of stakeholder dynamics

From an IT perspective, I like to conduct a business fitness assessment of the organization's software portfolio (I'm partial to Gartner's TIME Model) to see which stakeholders utilize the most tech and are dependent on mission/operation critical products. I also conduct quarterly business reviews by value stream (i.e. constituent engagement, program delivery, resource management) to bring cross-functional players together, as well as an annual communications survey. A series of T/F questions ensures they know how to ask for help, what projects are underway/planned, how IT prioritizes the backlog, how to raise concerns, and understand the tech costs incurred by their teams, etc. Where significantly false, we know more attention is needed.

I like to use best practices from other disciplines - in this case it's change mgmt / heat mapping. Identify the most networked and influential members of your target group and seek them out personally or ask them to contribute to a forum or focus group in some way. On a heat map, these 'hot' talented people have a multiplier effect in their chosen channels and can help you pulse test and amplify your messaging. They seldom have the top titles, but their social capital is gold. Consult them respectfully and carefully. Most importantly, listen!

Some ways to get started is by identifying the needs, by prioritizing, by sorting, and by specific selections. These are the best ways to get results using communication metrics.

Observe the unmet needs of the stakeholders who require more attention. Consider if they are still relevant to the bigger picture and whether there is a need to expend additional energy. The disengaged stakeholder may have a different starting point in the journey of familiarity with you/ your organization, so what you perceive to need more attention may be an opportunity to acquire more information.

The only metric is engagement. But this word is very role specific. So, we have to zoom out to see: What do we expect this stakeholder to be doing? Buying our product? Talking well about it? Referring us? Introducing us to others? Attending meetings? Replying to emails? Contributing funds? Speaking up when asked? Etc etc etc Then triangulate between the stakeholder, the expectations from a particular stakeholder type (ideal), and the actual engagement metrics we see. The problem will be clear. And the answer, right on its tail. All the best!

In the realm of effective communication, impact speaks louder than words. As a seasoned communications professional, I've long championed the idea that communications metrics are the compass guiding our strategies. It's not just about likes; it's about understanding engagement, reach, and conversion rates. These metrics aren't just numbers; they're critical for business success. They fuel informed decision-making, provide tangible evidence of our value, and pave the way for continuous improvement. In the dynamic landscape of our industry, metrics are more than data points – they're our North Star, guiding us towards meaningful initiatives.

I always work from the perspective of "speaking into their listening." This means it's not what we want to say, but what they need to hear, to do what we want them to do. As such, gaining insight into constituent listening is a key element of segmenting. Using various forms of focus groups or feedback forms can offer useful insights into why certain communications are more or less effective for different audiences. This information then informs our understanding of their 'listening,' what matters to them, what they like, what they don't.

Communication metrics always remain the core of any business. Wrongly understood or partly understood metrics deviates or dilutes the essence. Can be more effective by: 1) Keeping it simple: Easy to understand and to-the-point. Not all are SMEs. To reach out to not-so-responsive segment, need to present the metrics accordingly. 2) Talking budgets/costs: it should involve the cost factor. It's either in numbers/quantity or quality. This grabs the attention more. It gives 'see, now you are talking' feel 3) Making progress - 'where are we now, as compared to where we started' is essential.

La réflexion ne doit pas perdre de vue que peu importe l'étape du funnel et l'objectif, la communication doit servir la croissance.