Why You Should Be Measuring Network Engagement
Networking without Measurement is Like Driving with a Blindfold on.
You may end up getting where you are going, but you will expend precious time and opportunities getting there.
Engagement measurements are a diagnostic for the health of your networking. They indicate whether people are engaging with your content, whether your relationships are thriving and which tactics work the best.
Too many practitioners do the mistake of paying attention solely to vanity metrics such as number of followers. These numbers are eye-popping, but they don’t tell the whole story. Real networking success is all about making real connections and creating real relationships.
Core Participation Metrics to Measure
Response Rate
Response rate rates how many times people respond to your direct messages, comments, or connections requests. This number tells you how good you are at reaching out to people and approaching your prospects.
Find it out by dividing the reaction you get by the number of the letters you have sent, and multiply the result by 100. A solid response rate is 15-25% on cold and generally above 50% on warm.
Keep a close eye on response rates by tracking separately for various types of messages. The success of your connection requests can differ from that of your follow-up messages or discussions around your content.
Comment Engagement Quality
Not all comments are the same. It’s more effort that a well-crafted paragraph reply adds more networking value than clicking an emoji reaction.
Watch the volume and quality of comments on your posts. Find comments that inspire conversation, ask questions or share experiences that are related to bond through. These are the ones that demonstrate your higher level of involvement, and higher networking potential.
Implement a basic scoring mechanism to rank comments. Rate comments with questions, personal experiences, or actionable points higher. Keep tabs on these scores to monitor whether your content is driving deeper conversations.
Connection Growth Rate
Your connection growth rate provides a sense of how fast you’re growing your professional network. Determine this by keeping a log of new people you get cozy with over a given length of time.
But a high enough growth rate isn’t everything. The quality is more important than the quantity. Keep track on where your new followers are coming from, and how they’re interacting with your content once they’re in your network.
Keep track of your internet connection acceptance. If you send connection requests and hardly anyone accepts, you’re off target in your targeting or your messaging.
Content Interaction Depth
The depth of interaction measures how deeply people are engaged with your content. A person who does read your entire article and share it is a bit more engaged than a person who only likes your post.
Monitor metrics such as time spent on your articles, video completion rates and click-through rates to external links. These numbers tell you whether your content captures attention, and it prompts people to take action.
There are analytics that social media companies offer that tell you how long people look at the things you post. Leverage this information to learn which types of content and what subject matter tend to drive the most engagement.
High Tech Networking A.C.T. for Serious Networkers
Conversation Conversion Rate
This metric measures how many times your online interactions result in meaningful offline conversations, whether over the phone, in a video meeting or in person.
To determine your conversation conversion rate, divide the number of meaningful conversations by how many total networking interactions you’ve had. This is to see how good you are at taking relationships off the screen.
Keep disparate conversations in their own separate category. There’s a different value to coffee meetings, formal business calls and casual video chats when it comes to networking.
Referral Generation
Good networks produce referrals without anyone trying. Keep count of how many business leads, job openings or valuable introductions those connections indirectly send your way.
Keep track of the referrals that you get and be able to give some too. Generous networkers — those who support others — often receive more referrals in return.
Maintain a basic spreadsheet of referral sources, types of referrals, and results. This information is useful to help you figure out your most important networking relationships.
Follow-up Success Rate
Poor follow-up is the reason many networking connections kick the bucket. Keep track of how many times your messages follow-up actually generate a response or ongoing interaction.
Experiment with various follow-up intervals and types of messages. Some connections do better with two or three days left before you get back at it, and others need lots more time.
Assess the life cycle of your networking relationships. What is the average length of conversations? Which relationships become longer-term professional relationships?
Platform-Specific Metrics
LinkedIn Metrics
Analytics: LinkedIn has some of the most in-depth and sophisticated analytics available to business users. Important statistics include views of your profile, post impressions and possible connections.
Keep an eye on your SSI (Social Selling Index) score, which LinkedIn uses to track your networking activity. Better networking outcomes are often associated with higher SSI scores.
Keep an eye on what types of LinkedIn content elicits the most comments and connection requests. Long-form posts that include industry insights or personal anecdotes often behave differently.
Twitter Engagement
Twitter networking is not about the same kind of metrics as LinkedIn. Concentrate on retweets, thoughtful replies, and mentions from leaders in the industry.
Monitor your involvement in Twitter chats and industry hashtag discussions. Attending such events can really extend your networking reach and the quality of engagement you have at events.
Check click-through rates of links that you share. That’s where you can tell that your audience trusts your content curation and values what you are recommending.
Industry Forum Participation
Forums and niche communities are often forgotten by many professionals but can be a source of high-value connections.
Monitor your reputation scores on networks such as Reddit, Stack Overflow, or niche forums. More often than not, higher status brings better networking.
Track how many of your forum posts received private messages or connection requests off of other platforms.
Tools for Tracking Engagement
Native Platform Analytics
The majority of social media platforms offer native analytics. On LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook, you can clearly see how your posts are performing and who is engaging with them.
Familiarize yourself with the analytics dashboard of each platform. Export your data on a consistent basis to observe long-term trends and patterns in your networking results.
Get into the habit of looking at your platform’s analytics on a regular basis. Monthly reviews also help you to identify trends and modify your networking strategies accordingly.
Third-Party Analytics Tools
Solutions such as Hootsuite, Buffer, and Sprout Social offer more detailed analytics for a range of platforms. Furthermore network specific monitoring is a must-have feature of these services.
CRMs (Customer Relationship Management) track progress on individual relationships. Basic options like HubSpot’s free CRM, or a well-kept spreadsheet, can be just as effective.
Use URL shortening services like Bit.ly to monitor click-through rates for content you share. This is showing you which types of content your network think are the most valuable.
Manual Tracking Methods
It’s not all about fancy software. Basic list in an excel sheet could assist in monitoring a host of networking statistics.
Develop templates to follow up on networking activities of various kinds. Tracking in a consistent way allows you to more easily notice patterns and track improvement.
Allocate time once per week to keep your tracking in order. Regular maintenance makes sure your data is accurate and useful.
Setting Realistic Benchmarks
Industry Standards
Response rates differ greatly by industry and platform. Look up benchmarks in research for your subject and networking targets.
B2B networking is not usually as engaging as B2C content, nevertheless, the generated relationships are many times more valuable. Keep your standards below that.
You should also keep an eye on industry insights from companies like Hootsuite, Sprout Social, and LinkedIn, so you can track existing engagement trends and benchmarks.
Personal Baselines
The best comparisons are your own past results. Monitoring your metrics for a few months will help you establish baselines for yourself.
Concentrate on getting better rather than numbers alone.” A 10% boost in your response rate is much more important that hitting an industry “average.”
Establish short and long-range targets for your networking measurements. Quarterly reviews help keep you on track without being thrown off course by daily gyrations.
Common Measurement Mistakes
Focusing on Vanity Metrics
The numbers of followers and post “likes” can be good for the self-esteem, but not necessarily for overall networking success. That’s because 500 engaged connections can be better than 5,000 passive followers.
Focus on metrics that are directly connected to building relationships and finding career opportunities. Quality connections trump quantity, any day.
Neglecting Offline Results
The goal of internet networking is to network in real life. Do not forget to monitor real-world results that might include job opportunities, business partnerships and professional relationships that matter.
Inconsistent Tracking
Lack of monitoring periodically renders it impossible to monitor trends or improvements. Put in place systems that facilitate easy and sustainable regular tracking.
Networking Metrics You Can Improve Upon
Content Strategy Optimization
Take your engagement data to inform your content strategy. Double down on content types and topics that drive the most meaningful interactions.
Experiment with posting at different times, posting different types of content, and engaging in different ways. Some subtle shifts can dramatically change your networking experience.
Relationship Nurturing
The strongest metrics on networking often are a reflection that you have done a good job of staying in touch with people. Engagement is better when you do regular check ins, share valuable content and genuinely care about the success of others.
Establish systems to remain in contact with key connections. Reminders in the calendar, follow ups with automation and “checks in for value add reasons” continue to keep the relationship warm.
Using Data to Guide Network Decisions
Let networking strategy choices be guided by your engagement metrics. If you’re consistently getting more responses from certain types of content – make more of that type of content.
Leverage your data for your most valuable networking activities. Concentrate Your Efforts on the Best-Performing Options Focus on the methods that you find provide the most successful outcomes, and stop trying to be a Jack-of-all-trades.
Routine metrics reviews can help ensure you stay above the network-effectiveness fray. We often assume that something is working when the data tell a different story.
Effective online networking is based on accountability and improvement. The measures contained in this guide will enable to develop more productive professional relationships and increase your opportunities for advancement.
To begin with, select three to five important metrics that mirror your networking objectives. Monitor these regularly for at least three months before considering significant strategy adjustments. After all, just like investing, networking is a marathon and steady gains matter more than perfect execution.
