This is a wiki post, editable by any member of The Village.
Community metrics is a topic that comes up time and time again.
- What community metrics should be tracked? And why?
- What limitations do we have for tracking data and metrics?
- What are some pitfalls to avoid?
The hope is that this can be a reference point for all these types of questions.
How do to decide on what metrics to track?
- What value do they add to your community?
- How do they align with the business goals?
- How do they align with the community goals?
- …
- …
Community measurement pitfalls to avoid
- avoid getting caught up in vanity metrics
- some metrics are for understanding, not for measuring community performance
- …
- …
Community metrics that could be measured:
Format: [Name of metric] - [Description] - [How to use or calculate it]
- Signups
- Topics
- Posts
- New contributors
- Active Users/DAU/MAU
- Total membership
- Engagement rate
- Active members
- Total activity
- Response rate
- Most active member
- Sentiment
- Retention rate
- Attendance
- Satisfaction
Screenshots from Discourse community metrics
Screenshots from Common Room
Resources
- ROE: Return On Engagement — the metric of care and community - Chelsea Haring
- DevRel Qualified Leads: Repurposing A Common Business Metric To Prove Value - Mary Thengall
- The Evolution of Communities Pt. 2 - Why ‘Feeling Metrics’ are Just as Important as Engagement Metrics - Nichole Devolites
- Sense of virtual community: A follow up on its measurement - Science Direct
- How community building can help an organization’s bottom line - Vicky Brasseur, Open Source