DigitalEd: How to Measure Impact for Your Crucial Content
Let’s say you got into journalism and media to “make a difference” in the world or in your community. How do you know if you’re succeeding? In the ever-evolving landscape of audience metrics, there’s not a line in your spreadsheet for "making a difference." But don’t let that stop you from assessing the impact of your work.
It all starts with articulating exactly what you hope will happen. Who most needs to see the information? How will they use it or act on it (and how will you know if they’ve done that)? Once you’ve answered those questions, connect your goals to specific metrics and invest time in tracking them. Be sure to pick metrics that will help you make decisions about how you do your job, and ignore the metrics that sound impressive but aren’t actually useful.
Handouts:
- A large brainstormed list of impact metrics.
- Identify what you hope people will learn from your content
- Identify what you hope people will do in response to your work
- Attach meaningful metrics to those goals
- Know ahead of time how you will track the metrics
- Learn to adjust as you go, and continue to learn about your audience
