Here's a new guide to government 2.0, designed to offer success strategies for applying proven social networking principles within the government and military, just in time for the Open Government and Innovations taking place next week.
Social media and networking web sites, along with successful social learning communities, provide powerful examples of the principles that government and the military can apply to their social learning programs. Principle #4 is outlined below:
Principle #4 - Measurement Matters
To truly ensure the success of your government 2.0 initiatives, metrics need to be clearly defined and measured on an ongoing basis. Metrics are central to being able to plan and strategize efforts and activities in a project. This enables users and community managers to have tangible metrics so they can know what is working/what is not, who is participating/who is not, and setting targets for growth of the project.
Social networking sites are driven by metrics, numbers of friends, followers and so on. Enterprises need to take these metrics much deeper to identify short, medium and long term goals, manage and nurture top contributors and determine what is most successful within the community. A project without substantiated ROI is not a project for long, so measuring items like page information and overall community information can make a critical difference in the adoption and success of the community.
Watch the video of Andrew Chambers talking about measurement - he has run community and social networking initiatives for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland and is now Technology Director for Northern Lights Canada.