With a little reading online, you might think that running a successful online community—the kind that skyrockets customer retention and helps long-term sales—is the easiest thing in the world. A guaranteed overnight success! 

There are hundreds of different user and community metrics you could monitor, and many different ways to do it. For this post, we’re going to look at some specific metrics which can help you understand your community at different stages of its life, and also your members on their journey from ‘newly registered’ to community…

In the digital age, we are obsessed with engagement. Metrics, stats, analyses, automated tools, business intelligence—everything is geared around quantifying how engaged is your audience (or in our case, community). 

The first thing to do is figure out what’s gone wrong. If your community is dwindling before your eyes, the hardest thing to do is patiently try and uncover the cause. Our natural instinct is to launch into “growth” mode, using hacks and tips from internet gurus or throwing money at the problem. 

Life is good. Your community is enjoying bountiful and engaging discussions, you’re all growing as people and professionals, and there’s a tangible mutual respect that envelopes the entire community.  And then the trolls rear their ugly heads. 

If you can establish some momentum with getting new members in, make them comfortable and engaged with the community (i.e. onboarding them), you’re setting yourself up for success—but more than a few community managers underutilize or ignore this process. 

The reality is that if you’re a young community, it’s the community manager’s job to start most of the discussions—and it’s often a thankless and surprisingly tough one. 

Censorship is a hot topic among online communities. It is your responsibility to step in against behaviors like hate speech and discrimination. At the same time, passionate opinions and honest debate must be allowed to flourish—online communities are not autocracies.