Data…for most community managers, this word can spur feelings of inadequacy. How many of us are experts in data and analytics, after all? The problem is that we cannot ignore these numbers and just hope all will be ok (remember, hope is NOT a strategy!). For one, community metrics are a huge part of understanding what is going on with your community. Good data allows you to make sure your initiatives and campaigns are working, and identify areas that aren’t. And how do you prove that the community is impacting the organization? It takes data, but you need to have the RIGHT data.
The first step in taming the data beast is understanding what data you need to collect and track. There is a lot of data available to you within the Vanilla dashboards, and even more when you begin considering API options. Most community managers track a ton of data because they can. However, while some data is important to understanding the health of your community, others are less important and fall more into the ‘nice to have’ category.
Just because you can, doesn’t mean you should.
So this week, let’s take a dive into the types of data that might matter to you. I am not going to tell you not to track all the data you want to, but I am going to highly recommend that you put a lot of focus on that data that aligns with your goals.
Here are some resources to help:
If you have any questions or need a hand, just let us know!