There are so many ways for companies to measure online engagement but how do you know what engagement is relevant and what isn’t? For instance, although page views are useful in determining level of content interest, it alone, is not adequate to measure an accurate level of genuine engagement.
We need to change our focus from the number of people who see content to how people engage with the content. The reason that measuring genuine engagement is more important is because it shows an actual level of impact with your readers. What is the point of creating content if it doesn’t move people?
Beyond looking at the obvious page views, the frequency of visits and the depth of visits (e.g. time spent and number of pages viewed), here is a summary of the engagement metrics we should be measuring:
- Sharing: Buzzfeed’s philosophy is that content is about sharing experiences and feeling closer to friends. Thus, demonstrating that content that is not shared, even if it is well written is not worthwhile. By focusing on data that will assist in building a picture of what kind of content gets shared, you can start to understand what type of content resonates with your audience.
- Value exchanges: If you are able to gain an email address in exchange for your content this is a good indication that your content has value.
- Comments: Comments are a great measure of engagement. Is your content inspiring people enough to respond? Monitor the content that accumulates the most comments.
- Continuously test and measure: Learn what works and make your process better. Look at data over long periods of time to find trends. Don’t just look at a week, look over the long-term and compare between different time periods.
