There are a variety of social media tools out there – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc. – and you may be using more than one of them.  You may have many followers or likers or connections depending on what tools you use.  And having friends and followers is a great initial metric for figuring out if you are getting value out of the time you spend maintaining all these sites.  However over the long haul, I suggest there are a few more measurements that you need to consider.

Engagement comes in many levels; from casual to significant extended personal participation.  Social media is designed to bring people together and your goal in using social media is getting someone to move from observer to participant.  I have outlined below my thinking on each level of participation and how you can begin to assess where your supporters fall on the spectrum.

Level 1: I am going to assume you already have some supporters that you connect with using more traditional means – newsletters, press releases, etc.  Before you move online; you might want to ask what social media tools your existing friends already use.  That will help you meet your supporters “where they are”, often literally.   No point in setting up a Twitter account if your supporters are predominately on LinkedIn.

The first level of participation is marked by individuals giving you some ability to connect with them electronically by more than email.  A friend has moved closer to you when you have graduated from email to a social networking tool.

Level 2:  Your existing customers or supporters have now become your online friends – so how do you know they are reading your content?  Checking out your status updates on Facebook or reading your blog or seeing your tweets?  There are lots of ways to monitor traffic regardless of what tool you use.  For example: Facebook Insights, Google Analytics, Twitter searches, etc.  You should be paying attention to what these statistics say but you should also be collecting some additional stats on your own:

How many comments do you get?  Responses from your customers or supporters are definitive evidence that they are reading your status updates, or your blog, or following your tweets.  You should be responding to those comments and creating a conversation.

How many nested comments do you get?  This is a fancy way of saying is more than one person responding to your content and are they reaching out to each other – commenting on comments made by your organization or by other supporters?  Do you get repeat commenters (individuals that comment often on a variety of content)?  Pay extra special attention to those folks – they wield influence in your sphere and you need to be aware of what they have to say.  This level of participation – commenting on your content – is a yet still closer level of engagement.

Level 3:  Where are your commenters coming from?  Are they using mobile technologies –their cell phone? – to stay in touch?  I would say this means you have connected more intimately to a supporter that is following you by cell phone – which they carry with them at all times – instead of by a laptop or desktop.  These supporters can be a huge asset in times of crisis or disaster as they will be the easiest to reach and will most likely respond the fastest.  You have to ask to find this out but it is a worthwhile piece of data to begin collecting.  Knowing what percentage of your folks are connected by a mobile technology – and how that changes over time – will tell you how close you are to your community.

When do they comment?  Individuals that comment during the standard 9-5 workday have one level of engagement.  Individuals that comment on the evenings and weekends are committed to your cause or your organization at a more intimate level.

Now I know that these measurements are also driven by factors other than your supporters commitment to you – age will play a factor (younger folks tend to be more tech savvy and to spend more time online and to use mobile technologies); income will also play a factor (higher incomes tend to equal more technology and education meaning a greater use of technologies generally).  So the measurements I have suggested here are not perfect.  However as you try to get a picture of how “engaged” your friends are – these are a way to get started.  Know who comments, and when, and how often, and whether they are doing it from mobile technologies is a great way to flesh out the demographics of your followers.

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Blog by Joyce