Social Media Success: More Than Fans, Followers, and Likes

Yesterday, GovLoop’s blog in the Huffington Post addressed a hot topic in our community: how to measure social media success in local government.

The GovLoop community came back with several responses on the original thread, agreeing that the number of fans, followers, and likes was not an accurate measure of success; rather, citizen engagement was the key to a good social media campaign. As Public Information Officer Jill Parker, said: “For us 10,000 followers from all over the world is not nearly as effective as 100 from our community who are willing to ‘talk to us.'”

It seems like for local governments, there is no single magical formula for measuring this type of engagement.

At Memphis Light, Gas and Water, [Supervisor of Communications and Public Relations Glen] Thomas says they “measure the number of interactions, ratio of positive/negative interactions and ‘problems solved’.” In other words, are people getting what they want from us via social media, and how often are we providing solutions through social media.”

How do you measure social media engagement in your agency?

More Than Fans, Followers, and Likes: Measuring Social Media in Local Government