This is the fifth article in our Community Management Series. In the last piece, we explored how to select the right community platform for your association.

Measurement is the key to demonstrating the value of your community to stakeholders, to refining your strategy, and to making informed decisions that will help your community grow and thrive. Yet many associations and organizations dive into community-building without a clear plan for tracking impact or defining what success even looks like.

Without measurement, it's difficult to improve. Without alignment to business goals, it's impossible to justify investment.

To create meaningful, lasting communities, we must move beyond vanity metrics and start using community data to tell a strategic story.

The Metrics That Matter Most

Community success is multi-dimensional, but four categories tend to tell the most complete story: engagement, growth, retention, and contribution. While the specific metrics will vary depending on your community’s purpose, these categories offer a solid starting point.

• Engagement reflects how involved your members are with the community. Are they showing up? Are they interacting with content and with each other? Key indicators include the number of active users (daily, weekly, or monthly), frequency of posts or comments, reactions to posts, and time spent in the community. Events tied to the community — virtual or in-person — also count here. Strong engagement suggests that your community is relevant, timely, and valuable.
• Growth measures how your community is expanding. This includes the number of new members over time, the rate at which existing members invite others, and how many of your broader membership base participate in the community. But growth for growth’s sake isn’t enough. Sustainable growth should reflect increased visibility, interest, and value perception.
• Retention looks at whether people stick around. Many communities attract lurkers — those who read but don’t post — which isn’t necessarily bad. But high churn or a declining percentage of returning users may indicate a lack of relevance, poor onboarding, or content fatigue. Retention metrics are key to understanding whether your community is delivering value over time.
• Contribution gauges how much of your content and activity is generated by members versus staff or moderators. Peer-to-peer content — especially content that gets liked, saved, or shared — is a strong sign of a healthy, self-sustaining community. Look also at leadership participation: Are members stepping up to lead discussions, organize events, or help guide the direction of the community?

These categories provide a comprehensive view, but they’re only meaningful when interpreted in context. A spike in engagement might be positive — or it might indicate a problem that stirred controversy. The key is to look for patterns and connect them to your goals.

Strategic Alignment: The Real Purpose of Metrics

Metrics are only useful if they help you make better decisions. That means tying them directly to your organization’s strategic objectives. A vibrant community might lead to increased member retention, stronger advocacy efforts, or more effective professional development. It might also reveal product opportunities, inform policy positions, or support fundraising campaigns.

But you have to know what you're aiming for.

Start by revisiting your community’s purpose. Is it primarily about peer support? Thought leadership? Innovation? Advocacy? Each purpose suggests a different set of outcomes and, by extension, a different set of metrics. If your community exists to foster innovation, you might track the number of new ideas generated and how many turn into pilots. If it’s focused on member value, retention and satisfaction may be your top indicators.

Mapping your community metrics to business goals also makes it easier to demonstrate ROI to leadership. Show how increased engagement leads to better retention, or how community-driven content reduces support costs. Translate participation into strategic value.

Tools, Frameworks, and Benchmarks

Measuring community success doesn't mean you have to start from scratch. Most community platforms — like Higher Logic, Circle, or Mighty Networks—offer built-in analytics for tracking activity and engagement. You can also layer in tools like Google Analytics or user behavior software to understand what members are doing, where they're clicking, and how long they're staying.

There are also frameworks to help interpret what you're seeing. The Community Health Index, for example, aggregates core engagement and growth metrics into a composite score. The SPACES model focuses on six dimensions: Sense of belonging, Purpose, Access, Contribution, Engagement, and Support.

Benchmarking can be tricky because communities vary widely. It’s often more useful to benchmark against yourself. Start by establishing a baseline. Then, set smart goals and track progress over time. What "good" looks like will depend on your stage of development and the purpose your community serves.

Telling a Story with Data

The most powerful way to use community metrics is to tell a story. Don’t just report numbers — explain what they mean and why they matter. Did engagement spike after launching a new resource center? Did a peer-led discussion lead to a new advocacy position or product idea? Data without context is noise. Insights tied to outcomes are strategy.

Combine data with narrative. Use quotes, screenshots, and anecdotes to show real impact. This not only makes your reports more compelling, it also helps stakeholders understand the human side of the community — which is, after all, the whole point.

Avoiding Common Pitfalls

It's easy to fall into measurement traps. Tracking too many things without analyzing them leads to overwhelm, not insight. Obsessing over vanity metrics — like raw post counts or member totals — may make the numbers look good, but they don’t tell you whether your community is actually working. And failing to act on your findings turns measurement into busywork.

Instead, focus on a few high-value metrics that align with your purpose. Analyze trends over time. Ask why certain behaviors are happening — and then use that knowledge to adapt.

Begin With the End in Mind: Define Success, Then Design for It

Successful communities don’t happen by accident — they’re designed. And that design is guided by data. When you know what success looks like and measure what matters, you’re not just reporting on the past — you’re shaping the future.

Start by selecting a small set of purposeful, actionable metrics. Connect them directly to your community’s purpose and your organization’s business goals. Use the data to tell a compelling story — and to continuously improve the experience for your members.

In a world increasingly driven by connection, the communities we build today will shape the success we achieve tomorrow. Measuring wisely is the first step to making that future real.