Novice membership managers tend to gauge success by looking at overall member participation levels. While this does provide some insight, it's rarely the best method. Instead, it's much more helpful to measure the actual engagement of your membership base. Having an AMS that allows you to capture and report on these metrics is invaluable, so choose an AMS that includes this functionality.
When trying to determine overall member participation, you should focus on studying membership engagement instead of individual activities and contributions. Not only does this provide a more accurate picture, but it also gives you further insight into the relationships of your most engaged members.
Although it's difficult to measure member engagement, and different companies use various strategies, several approaches are common.
Regardless of the method you choose to track membership activity, the following are important metrics to focus on.
Don't forget to follow up your online membership tracking activities with offline measures, too. It's easy to do - with so much focus on the internet, offline strategies are sometimes neglected. However, there's still a lot of value in the traditional channels.
Moreover, some of your members may not be active online at all. While rare, it's still common in some social circles - particularly among older generations. If this is the case, offline tracking might be your only recourse.
For more information on membership tracking, including details about additional metrics that are widely used today, visit the professionals at Impexium.