I got a follow-up email the other day from our vendor to see if I have used a new reporting package, and for some feedback. I really don’t have time now as I’m facilitating at the moment, but I will get round to metrics at some stage.
To tell you the truth, this reporting thing is going to be a whole new component to our CoPs, which means I will have to dedicate some good time to learning about it, practicing, and then putting some stuff together to inform CoP facilitators, and then to support them.
I’m so busy at the moment that I keep putting it off. I would be prepared to spend 15 minutes a day on it, but I’m one of those people who once they start, really dive into something; the momentum, continuity and freshness helps me retain and not forget where I’m up to, or how things work again.
Then I thought, blog fragments.
I asked the vendor if she could possibly use her blog to do a weekly post on reporting. Maybe what’s already available, and what’s involved. And then start getting into the new package…perhaps posting once a week to showcase a report and what questions it answers
eg. If your boss is asking for numbers, but you don’t have the time for this stuff just try this quick and easy report on distinct logins, that will buy you time for now.
eg. The boss may ask for penetration metrics eg. The difference in number between members of CoPs and all employess
eg. If your boss wants a more explicit step up, try this report that tells him how many subscribers there are across all blogs and forums
eg. The boss may want some activity metrics eg. the number of blog and forum posts
eg. What about some engagement, try this report on the number of blog/forum posts a month compared to comments/replies. What about the difference between members and contributors, or compare the number of contributors to previous months.
This would really spoon feed me, and help workaround my attitude, and attention scarcity.
There’s no way I’m going to read a paper or dive into a whole new area right now as I’m too busy, but if someone feeds me little fragments where I can learn in bits and pieces, well then I will pay some attention.
Plus I can always comment on the blog posts to get some clarification and context.
Since we are talking about metrics, here’s what Agnes Kolkiewicz emailed me back, I thought it was interesting:
“As I’m sure you know, adoption and success go hand in hand…so I usually encourage the use of metrics not just to measure ROI, but also to measure progress along the way, as then you have data to fall back on at a later date to say this is how the system improved over time. Measuring things along also helps identify “peak times” in participation so that community facilitators can try and perhaps recreate the event that caused the peak at a later date.”
“I’ll post something tomorrow and will aim at a minimum of one post a week.. your email was a good motivation!”
I replied:
“thx Agnes…you are right…kind of like measuring the heartbeat, the rhythm”
Let’s finish off with a quote by Dave Snowden on the theme of this post:
“The basic idea is simple: Small things are more adaptable than big things, and they are frequently more interesting and more able to gain our attention. People will spend more time surfing the Web and using the fragmented material of an RSS feed than reading documents. It’s easier to write a blog than a book. Fine granularity material can combine in novel and different ways more easily than formal documents.”
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