Analyzing my online community’s stats is one of my favorite ways to learn about the people who interact at my blog network on a regular basis.. In fact, my analytics programs sometimes tell me more about my community’s wants and needs than if I had straight out asked them (and, just to be clear, we should be doing that as well.)
Here is what I learn from my daily stats reports:
- Where is search traffic coming from?
- How are current promotions (such as giveaways) doing?
- How are new members of the community learning about products and services?
- Which products and services work - and which need work?
- What are folks searching for before landing on your website?
- Which tags and keywords are working?
- Which community discussions are the most popular?
- What are people saying outside the community?
- Who is linking to my company’s products and services?
- What are people doing once they’re on my site?
- What content gets the most results?
- What content, product or service gets the least amount of interest from users?
- What countries and areas do members of my community come from?
- What languages does the members my community speak?
All of this is important. For instance, when people come from different regions, even different regions of the same country, their wants and needs are different. Also, by learning which content gets the most visits and the biggest response, a community manager or editorial team can write the type of blog posts, articles and other written content tailored to the users’ needs.
I use a combination of Google Analytics and Performancing Metrics, both provide a goldmine of information. If you’re a community manager and your place of employment won’t allow you to have access to the company’s stats, patiently explain the reasons why it’s important. Successful community management depends on knowing your users’ wants and needs. Without knowing where they’re coming from and what they’re doing, the job is made that much more difficult.
Community managers also need to know what is going on outside of the website or online community. What is someone is saying something untrue about the business or has a specific issue in need of trouble shooting? What if a product or service received a glowing review and the community manager would like to reach out and say thanks? Knowing who is linking to you and what they are saying are key when it comes to getting others to drink the Kool Aid.
What do the stats say about YOUR community?
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