Signaling and Confirming

Technology has paved the way for social change organizations to significantly increase their reach and to enable more individuals to take action online and offline to address important issues.  These new forms of “low-barrier” action have been criticized as “slacktivism” despite their proven ability to form the backbones of movements.  This is largely because impact measurement strategies have not yet been adapted to the rapidly shifting landscape to effectively measure participation.

Enter Purpose Strategy Director, Erin Gore, and Senior Strategist, Emma Bloomfield. In a recent article published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review, the two sketched out a framework for social sector organizations seeking to quantify their impact and update their measurement strategies. Organizations can implement the following steps to better gauge the willingness and power of their participants to create change, which will ultimately lead to better decisions on how to engage audiences for optimal impact.

Step 1: Define a small set of measurable goals

When defining goals, stay focused on your organization’s most important work and develop a handful of goals that will drive toward impact.

Step 2: Detail Signaling and Confirming Metrics

Organizations should track two important metrics for each goal: those that indicate progress toward achieving goals (“signaling metrics,” such as Facebook “Likes”) and those that provide demonstrable proof that you have achieved the goals (“confirming metrics,” such as statements by influential decision makers).

Many organizations measure only signaling metrics, because they are generally quicker and easier to track. But only by tracking both signaling and confirming metrics, and drawing the relationship between them, can you tell whether your work is making a difference.

Step 3: Set and share aspirational but achievable benchmarks

Next, attach specific values to each signaling and confirming metric—and if you can’t put a number on the metric, think of a new metric.

These benchmarks should be aspirational so that organizations can communicate them to supporters and inspire greater action, but they should also be achievable and not exceed the effort required to meet the goals. While five million petition signatures might be a bragging point, for example, getting there will just waste organizational resources if you only need 500 signatures to change the policy.

Step 4. Gather data and learn from the metrics you’ve defined.

Organizations can use free online measurement tools (such as Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, and SurveyMonkey), as well as offline measurement tools (such as focus groups and one-on-one conversations). Choose the simplest possible tools to collect data and begin learning from day one.

What Does This Mean for You?

We can measure the real impact of participation, and the more organizations that do so, the more we can gather a shared repository on what metrics and actions make a difference.

As you experiment with this framework (download a blank version here) consider these questions:

• How can you use this measurement process to take more risks?
• Which of your signaling metrics do you think are most likely to indicate eventual impact?
• Which metrics are members of your community likely to take the most pride in?

For more insights, read the full article here.

Links from the article: 
http://www.ssireview.org/blog/entry/signaling_and_confirming
http://www.ssireview.org/pdf/Metrics_SSIR-worksheet.pdf