It’s easy to condemn metrics, ROI and objectives (fun too).
But we risk opening the door for less scrupulous community professionals to sneak in. They promise little, demand trust and take a lot.
How can you know your community builder is doing a great job if there are no metrics? It’s obvious, don’t ask quantitative questions, ask qualitative questions. For example…
- What have you done to grow and develop the community?
- What have you learned so far?
- What has the community achieved?
- How did you identify members?
- What are their common characteristics?
- What does the community want from us?
- What have community members been saying?
- What hasn’t gone well?
- What are the major issues in the community?
- How many community members have you gotten to know?
- Where do we need to allocate our resources?
- What’s holding back progress?
- Who are the key players in the community?
- Why are they key players?
- Who are our best helpers? How can we get them more involved?
- How many of these key players like you?
- What’s the next step?
Like metrics, expect distortions, exaggerations and Houdini-like vanishing acts.
