Monitoring Your Networks Growth

Building your network will not happen over night. This is especially true if you can’t afford to invest in a large advertising campaign, or you don’t have large following to initially direct to your new network. It takes time to build a good community, so as you do so it is worth your while to regularly monitor your networks growth. With respect to monitoring my own Networks I do the following:

• Every ning network has a statics page, which you can use to post tracking code and monitor your network’s visitor trends. I use both Google analytics and Quantcast. They are both amazing, free tracking programs that help me better understand the number of impressions each network gets, as well as the pages that are most commonly used on these spaces. Having a Quantcast page also enables me to share my networks’ statics with potential advertisers.

• Every month I set a goal of how many new members I want to acquire and at the end of the month I assess my networks’ growth in comparison to my initial goals. This monthly activity helps me better understand how quickly or slowly the group is growing. It also helps when tracking the effectiveness my marketing campaigns.

• I regularly monitor the growth of other networks I am affiliated with, to get a better sense of whether I am in the top five, and also if there are any things that others are doing that might help boost my own ad campaigns.

• I daily review my latest activity sidebar on my networks’ main page. When the latest activities happened several minutes ago verses several days ago, you know that your network is being actively used by members on a daily basis.

• I also keep my eyes and ears open to what members are saying about my networks. I regularly respond to member emails and create ongoing discussions centered on what members feel they are getting from these groups. These activities help me subtly survey my networks’ usability.

This post is a part of my blog series / eBook ‘Create Your Own Ningalicious Network‘. You can read most of the Chapters of this eGuide on the SistaSense blog. To get the complete guide, with tips not featured on the blog, download your own copy here.