Screw Metrics, Just Care

I really liked the comment Sarah Blow left below about the way she measures the effectiveness of online communities.  "We measure our impact through the reach of our network and through the feedback that we get from our members. The day that we aren't helping or people no longer feel the need for such a network is the day that we will fold up and move on to something else.  Another way of looking at impact is to ask people where the value in the community lies. Look at the information, the connections, the ability to create change and so on. There are all powerful things within communities. Also look at the number of members and how many are active participants."  Easy, huh?  Who needs metrics?  Just care!

Comments

[Bill Johnston]

I love it!

I've been noodling a post about online community metrics for a week (still in draft), and the title of this post sums up my current sentiments.

If the main activity in your community isn't some version of "people helping people", you are, to paraphrase the title... screwed.

[James Cherkoff]

Thanks Bill, I'd love to see that post when it's done.

[Sarah]

Steve Clayton just linked to an interesting report on online metrics. It's pretty much all about influence and ways of measuring such things. I thought you might find it interesting.

The conversation seems to have got sticky!

http://technobabble2dot0.wordpress.com/2008/01/16/white-paper-distributed-influence-quantifying-the-impact-of-social-media/

from: http://blogs.msdn.com/stevecla01/archive/2008/01/16/quantifying-the-impact-of-social-media.aspx

[James Cherkoff]

Great, thanks Sarah.

[Daniel Mcgonagle]

Thanks for the heads up! Love to see the post when its done :)