Social Metrics for Churches: What is Success?
readscott poses some interesting questions;
As churches approach social media with intentionality, enhancing real-world community with online tools, how are they measuring success?
Success is measured in a bunch of ways in churches. Sometimes it involves numbers (quantitative). Sometimes it involves stories of life-change (qualitative). When it comes to social media and churches, is there a way measure with both quantitative and qualitative data?
For example, if part of your web strategy is to use Twitter for communication, what does success on Twitter look like? What if its purpose is conversation? What is success for your church’s Facebook page, your pastor’s blog, or the youth pastor’s MySpace account?
Do you measure with hits, time on site, number of comments, number of content-shares, number of unique people involved in conversation?
What about stories? Can you extract meaning from those numbers? Are people in your church talking about how your social media strategy is helping them learn more about the Bible, grow closer to Jesus, or love people?
