4 Easy Tips for Measuring the Performance of Your Blog

Recently, I had the pleasure of having a conversation with some marketing professionals about blogging and how it has changed in recent years. We had the chance to look at the ways these changes have had an impact on what organizations need to look at when it comes to measuring the success of a blog. What we discovered are some great ideas, both new and old, for organizations large and small.

When you get a chance, you really should check out the whole session. I wanted to take some time here on the WSOL blog, however, to pass along some of the great nuggets of wisdom that came out of the panel discussion. 

First, take a look at my summary of what exactly we were trying to get at in the virtual panel discussion designed to help organizations with their blog (the captions are on the screen in case you are not in a place where you can listen to the audio or are hearing impaired). 

We covered a lot of topics, but one theme that resonated was that it may be necessary for organizations to get out of a certain mode of thinking when it comes to content. Specifically, the notion that more is better runs counter to the existing landscape. Increased access to tools has led to an overall increase in the volume of content online, and that makes it pretty hard to get your content into a place to be effective. 

Listen to what Hana Abaza of Uberflip had to say about this very important topic (again, the captions are on screen if you don't have headphones and still want to know what she said while you watch on mute):

Using data to be smart about your blogging is not a new idea, but with the increase of access to tools to publish content of all kinds online has come an increase in the number of data points to analyze as well. As difficult as it is for consumers of content to sort through and find the most relevent content (and on the flipside, as difficult as it is for content producers to get content in front of the right consumers), producers of content also face challenges in getting value from the data about how people are engaging with their content. Which data points are most relevant to look at when it comes to being smarter about your blogging? 

Keidra Chaney, publisher of The Learned Fangirl and a writer for Citizen Engagement Lab, paints a picture for organizations who are blogging that helps them understand what due diligence they can perform as the best approach to help their blogging efforts. Listen below as she talks about the extra efforts that could be most worthwhile to pursue from a data point of view (again, the captions are on screen):

When it comes to picking the metrics that can help you determine success, Audrey Schroder, Global Community Manager for McDonald's Corporation, advises looking at how your readers move through your content from one element to another (along with making sure they can do so). Listen as she describres this process (captions on screen):

Our fourth panelist, Kalle Eko from MacArthur Foundation, believes very strongly that the right information about your users can ultimately keep ineffective content at bay. Listen as he describes the value of this added intelligence (captions on screen):

We covered so much in our virtual panel discussion, and all our panelists had so much great advice. If you haven't yet, please take the time to view the entire session today (the entire session is closed captioned for the hearing impaired or just to watch with the sound off).

With all we covered there was also so much more we wanted to talk about, so make sure to stay tuned for future sessions and let us know in the comments below or on our YouTube channel what else you'd like to know more about.