In the ever-evolving landscape of online communities, the term "community engagement" has become more than just a buzzword. It is a critical aspect of building a vibrant and active user base, fostering connections, and driving the success of various initiatives. Community engagement involves the interaction, participation, and collaboration of community members within a given platform or space.

To measure the effectiveness of community engagement, businesses and community managers utilize a set of metrics known as "Community Engagement Metrics." These metrics provide valuable insights into the health of a community, the impact of engagement strategies, and opportunities for improvement. But why measure community metrics?

Community engagement metrics offer a quantitative and qualitative understanding of user behavior, preferences, and satisfaction. By tracking these metrics, organizations can make informed decisions, optimize engagement strategies, and cultivate a more enriching and valuable community experience.

In this article, we’ll briefly define what is community engagement and focus on building an in-depth understanding of community engagement metrics, why to measure them and how to derive insights from the measured metrics.

Let’s get started!

‍What is Community Engagement?

Community engagement transcends mere participation; it's about creating a thriving ecosystem where members feel a genuine connection, contributing to the collective growth and knowledge of the community.

Community engagement also involves creating a space where members actively participate, interact, and contribute, fostering a sense of belonging and shared interest.

‍What are Community Engagement Metrics?

These metrics are quantifiable indicators that help assess the level of interaction, participation, and collaboration within a community. From tracking user activities to measuring the impact of various initiatives, these metrics provide a comprehensive view of community health.

Different communities will need to focus on measuring different kinds of community engagement metrics depending on the type, size, and objective of the particular community. We’ll cover more on this in upcoming sections with examples.

‍Why Measure Community Metrics?

Performance Evaluation: Metrics provide a quantitative basis for evaluating the success of community initiatives, helping organizations understand what works and what doesn't.

‍Decision Making: Data-driven insights aid in making informed decisions to enhance community engagement strategies, aligning efforts with the community's evolving needs.

‍Continuous Improvement: Regular measurement allows for the identification of areas for improvement and optimization, ensuring that the community remains dynamic and responsive.

‍Different Ways to Engage Community And The Corresponding Engagement Metrics to Observe

‍Gamification and Reward Systems

Implementing a point-based system, users earn rewards for contributing valuable content, enhancing both participation and identification of active members. This is a very efficient engagement strategy that can be implemented by communities universally.

‍Metrics to Track:

1. Points Earned: Beyond mere participation, tracking points earned provides a tangible measure of the user's contribution to the community
2. Activity Frequency: Monitoring how often users engage with gamified elements reveals the sustainability and long-term appeal of the gamification strategy.

Gamification instills a sense of competition and achievement, motivating users to actively participate and contribute to the community. By analyzing these metrics, community managers can identify trends in engagement and adjust gamification strategies accordingly.

‍Joining vs. Completion

This is an engagement criterion as well as a metric to observe and is applicable mostly for cohort-based programs. Communities focused on learning, upskilling, habit-building, and other similar objectives should measure this metric. Time-based nature of such goals and activities is a key factor here. Other areas where this is applicable is workshops, seminars, and events.

‍Metrics to Track:

1. Joining Rate: Understanding how many users initially show interest in joining an activity is crucial for assessing the appeal of the event.
2. Completion Rate: Tracking the ratio of users who start an activity to those who complete it provides insights into the effectiveness of content delivery and user experience.
3. Participation Ratio: In case the overall activity or program is divided into multiple segments, measuring participation across segments can help understand the members’ interests better.

Tracking the journey from joining an activity to completion provides insights into user engagement and the effectiveness of the community's content. This nuanced approach allows community managers to tailor content and activities for improved engagement.

‍Conducting Events and Activities

Live events can significantly boost engagement in a community. Events are low time commitment, high output activities and as such, a great way to keep a user engaged with the larger community goals. Tracking attendance, participation, and post-event discussions gauges the success of each event.

‍Metrics to Track:

1. Registrations: This is where a person shows intent. This is also a great way to establish baseline expectations in terms of the overall outcome of any event
2. Attendance: The number of participants provides a straightforward measure of the event's initial appeal.
3. Participation Levels: Understanding how actively users engage during the event offers insights into the event's impact on the community.
4. Post-Event Discussions: Monitoring discussions following an event helps assess its lasting effect and potential for community-driven content generation.

Events serve as focal points for engagement, providing a platform for real-time interaction and community building. Comprehensive tracking allows community managers to assess the holistic impact of events on community dynamics.

‍Workshops

Similar to events, workshops are also a great way to engage the community. The benefit of the workshop is that it attracts higher intent people compared to events and requires lesser commitment than a cohort-based program which usually spans anywhere between 4-30 weeks.

Workshops act as a middle-ground experience between long programs and one-time events. Tracking engagement during workshops can help in identifying areas that need adjustments, in turn enhancing relevancy and attendance.

Metrics to Track:

1. Registrations: Monitoring registrations helps in identifying the resources and tools needed to conduct the workshops successfully. This is also a great touch point to ask the members questions so that you can deliver on their expectations.
2. Workshop Attendance: Monitoring the number of attendees helps identify trends and preferences related to the workshop content.
3. Participation and Interaction: Understanding how actively participants engage with workshop content provides insights into the quality and relevance of the material.

Workshops offer valuable learning experiences. Metrics help fine-tune these sessions for maximum engagement, ensuring that the content aligns with the community's evolving interests.

Q&A

Questions asked in the Q&A section can help in identifying content gaps. Addressing these gaps can not only improve engagement but also enhance the community's information value.

This is also an easy way to engage the members of the community by creating opportunities for volunteer-led activities as well as giving the active members of the community a sense of recognition.

‍Metrics to Track:

1. Number of Questions Asked: The volume of questions indicates the community's thirst for knowledge and areas where additional content may be needed.
2. Response Time: Efficiently addressing questions contributes to a positive user experience and enhances the community's reputation as a reliable knowledge hub.

Q&A sessions serve as knowledge-sharing hubs. Metrics showcase the community's thirst for information and problem-solving. Understanding these metrics aids in refining content strategies and ensuring that the community remains a valuable resource for its members.

‍Expert Advice on engagement activities

We asked some people about their go-to engagement activities and here is what they responded with:

We always seek out opportunities to connect community members and facilitate networking. That can be through in-person events, virtual sessions, or simply tagging the relevant member on another member’s post. Community members want to feel seen and derive value from your space, and this is one of the top ways you can provide that for them.

Another engagement strategy is offering opportunities for members to be featured in content or speak at our events. Once they’re involved in your programming they are likely going to be more engaged and naturally share with their own networks.

A re-engagement strategy we use is a targeted email campaign to reactivate dormant users, requesting their feedback on how to best tailor the space and provide value for them.

Said Ruthie Berber, Head of Community and Brand Programs at Yotpo.

On the question of corresponding metrics to track for said activities, she responded with “Impact on engagement metrics such as monthly active members, referrals, or content creation post-event or engagement strategy implementation.

For re-engagement, % of account reactivated/returned logins post-campaign”.

When we spoke to Mark Schwanke, Ex-Global Community Manager at Motorola, he gave us a list of 3 ways that have always worked for him:

1. Mention various members of the community who might have expertise based on a particular topic or question. This re-engages people who might not have seen the post and also shows you value community input. It also creates connectedness and shows the community you are viewing the content and doing more than just moderating. If you also seek input or get someone else involved within your company to respond directly and also seek additional community input it shows the community is really a listening post and a resource that is utilized.
2. Curate community-found solutions to be official solutions then attribute FAQ solutions to the community with cross-linking for soft discovery of the community
3. Introduce the Community in your IVR. Ask the customers if they would like a link to a community post that relates to their topic, they can look at it while they’re on hold and possibly they will drop the call and use the community.

To ensure efficiency in these strategies, Mark tracks the following metrics:

1. The average increase in unique responders in threads where the community team participated vs the ones where they didn’t
2. Average post per user for people you mentioned WoW for people you mention
3. The average number of posts per topic for topics that have employee engagement vs topics that don’t

‍Benefits of Measuring Community Engagement Metrics

‍Effectiveness of Community Engagement Initiatives

Any engagement activity is as good as its adoption by the intended users and members. Tracking post-launch metrics of a new feature or activity can guide refinement and promotion, showcasing the impact on user interaction.

Understanding the effectiveness of community engagement initiatives requires a meticulous analysis of post-launch metrics. By doing so, organizations can identify successful strategies and areas for improvement, creating a continuous cycle of optimization.

‍Data-led Decision Making

Using the engagement strategies discussed earlier as an example, observing the number of questions asked and answered, the member behavior around this particular data point can inform content calendar optimization, aligning posts with peak engagement topics and times.

Data-driven decision-making involves leveraging insights derived from user behavior data. This approach ensures that content and engagement strategies are tailored to align with the community's activity patterns, maximizing impact and relevance.

‍Segmentation of Audience

Segmenting based on preferences allows the community management team to do better-targeted promotions and outreach, including refining the communication approach itself. This can lead to increasing engagement and sales within specific user groups.

Audience segmentation involves categorizing community members based on their preferences and behaviors. This allows for the creation of targeted engagement strategies, ensuring that communications resonate with specific user groups.

‍Content Customization

Analyzing content engagement can help in designing a tailored content strategy, ensuring the delivery of what the community values most.

Content customization involves tailoring content strategies based on user engagement patterns. By understanding which types of content resonate most with the community, organizations can refine their approach and provide content that adds genuine value.

‍General Metrics for Evaluating Community Success

‍Engagement Rate

Monitoring engagement rates guides the refinement of content and engagement strategies for social campaigns.

Engagement rate can be defined as the percentage of active community members relative to the total user base.

The engagement rate is a key indicator of the community's vibrancy. By tracking this metric, community managers can assess the effectiveness of their engagement strategies and make necessary adjustments.

‍Retention Rate

A high retention rate indicates engagement success. Regular feedback analysis facilitates continual improvement.

The percentage of users who continue to engage with the community over time is the metric to track retention. The important thing here would be to define what action or activity qualifies a member as a retained user. Some examples of activities can be replies and their frequency, reaction to a post shared, opening the community space, etc.

A high retention rate is indicative of sustained engagement. Regular analysis of user feedback helps identify improvement areas, ensuring the community remains appealing and relevant.

‍Content Contribution

Tracking user-generated content helps identify top contributors, fostering a sense of community leadership.

User-generated content can be tracked by measuring the content created by community members and showcasing their contributions. Gamification strategies can also be implemented here for certain communities such as a coding community or a language learning community where users needs to share their daily activities to top the leaderboard thus enabling better retention and content contribution through gamification.

User-generated content is a powerful indicator of a community's health. By recognizing and incentivizing top contributors, community managers encourage a culture of active participation and leadership.

‍Expert examples of metrics to track

When leading a CX first community, resolving user issues takes the center stage in defining every activity around engagement and retention. For this, Mark shares a comprehensive list of activities to track. This includes:

1. Average time to first response
2. Average time to solution found
3. Average number of responses per post
4. Percentage of posts with answer
5. Percentage of posts with a response, Excluding bumps from the Author
6. Recency of the last visit
7. Percentage of members with the last login in last week, month, 3 months
8. Comparison to 90-9-1 rule. Are numbers at, above, or below the rule?
9. Tracking customer sentiment. Are posts negative, neutral, or positive?

According to Ruthie, tracking monthly returning members, % of active members (engaged with or generated content), and monthly % of content created by members is a good general metric strategy for most communities.

Deriving Insights From Engagement Metrics Data

Insights is the NorthStar metric of measuring community engagement metrics itself! Did you see what I did there ;)

A lot of times deriving insights from data metrics can be a bit of a challenge. It could be either because data is coming from too many sources, or there is too much or too little information to create benchmarks. Let’s understand how can we aggregate data and derive insights.

‍Aggregating Data From Multiple Sources

Integrating data from various sources into a central dashboard offers a holistic view, identifying cross-channel engagement patterns.

Aggregating data from diverse sources, including the community platform, social media, and website analytics, provides a comprehensive overview. This holistic approach helps community managers identify patterns and trends that may not be apparent when analyzing individual data sets.

The focus here should be on creating a simple, centralized view. The dashboard can be on a simple Excel sheet or have elaborated visualizations as long as it serves the purpose and doesn’t become a hurdle in getting to the insights.

Mark has done data aggregation manually in the past indicating how crucial it is to stay focused on gaining insights and not getting caught up in the processes itself.

‍Understanding Patterns and Insights

Analyzing patterns involves scrutinizing data to identify trends and recurring behaviors. Understanding these patterns allows community managers to anticipate peak engagement periods and tailor strategies accordingly.

For example, in an e-commerce community, analyzing buying patterns can reveal peak engagement during product launches, allowing planned, targeted engagement strategies to maximize buying by addressing user problems and pain points through said product(s).

‍Incorporating Data-Driven Insights into the Engagement Plan

Incorporating data-driven insights involves translating metrics into actionable strategies. By aligning engagement plans with data trends, community managers can optimize their efforts and ensure sustained community growth.

For example, if engagement spikes during themed campaigns such as around holidays, events, and workshops, or when festive discounts are offered, a data-driven insight can be derived to focus on incorporating more themed events into the annual engagement plan instead of general activities.

In conclusion, community engagement metrics serve as invaluable guides for organizations in building and sustaining vibrant online communities. As community managers continue refining their approaches, the journey toward meaningful engagement becomes a data-driven, continuous process. The detailed understanding of metrics and their implications empowers community managers to make informed decisions, foster deeper connections, and create a more rewarding experience for their community members.

‍About LikeMinds

If you have been planning to introduce community features in your app to boost engagement and retention, we are here to help.

LikeMinds elevates businesses in unlocking the true potential of their users through their in-app community and social network. Using LikeMinds, businesses achieve higher conversion and retention, by building custom community experiences in their existing platform unlocking community-led growth.

With LikeMinds, businesses get an easy-to-implement and highly scalable infrastructure with a fully customizable UI. All of this with a customization time of 3 days and a deployment time of 15 minutes.

Our Chat and Feed infra have pre-built widgets such as image carousels, PDF slides, short videos, polls, quizzes, events, forms, and more for user engagement and retention along with moderation capabilities to ensure frictionless community operations.