The success of your social media community can not only be measured in numbers, but also in the interaction and reactions that you get from the community. Drew Neisser’s recent case study of thriving B2B web hub, The SAP Community Network, offers useful examples of how to go about using the resources at hand to measure the success of a digital community. Below are the ones that can be applied more broadly to any blog or site that seeks customer/user engagement and success.
Having daily interactions with community members is a good way to see how well your site is doing, with a high number of posts and an even higher number of unique visitors. Neisser mentions that criticism is inevitable on a community bulletin, and most brands are quick to defend themselves in a response post. However, loyal members will do the defending for you in response posts, which is ultimately more effective than if the brand itself had responded. SAP worked hard on listening to customer suggestions and ideas and tried to incorporate them into their latest solutions, effectively showing community members they are valued, and letting them know their input is being taken into account. Also worth mentioning is Neisser’s statement that “the community drives cultural change within marketing.” One-way street marketing has changed. The invention of social media allows customers and community members to give feedback to businesses and sales-email blasts are a thing of the past.
The last tip Neisser gives is to do your part in keeping content fresh. Giving the community new material on a daily basis allows members to stay interested, initiates more discussion, and keeps them coming back. The SAP case study showed that by not only increasing the frequency of their content, but optimizing it for search; they were able to more than double monthly site traffic. Any of these measures can be taken to increase the success of any site or online community. What have we learned? Engagement and interaction are the keys to success!
