When we started brainstorming what should be our theme for the year 2018, we felt last year’s core goal of ‘Maintaining a Unique Voice Online’ deserved another set of 365 days. Because it was such a brand new concept that we exposed the Blogchatter community to and there were still many aspects we had not touched base.

But the growth of community members and their visible hunger for more pushed us to take a giant leap of faith. And we set our eyes on making 2018 the year of “Impact.”

Impact is arguably the most misused word in the Internet space today, where most understand this only from a large visible end result way. But to many of us, the impact is more micro than macro. It is a string of good changes that eventually drive a greater result, yes.

So what can be Key Performance Indicators of Impact?

1 Engagement

For most people – likes or favourites come as a charming metric of online presence. But really, these two are the most non-committal extensions of your online presence. When someone hits reply to your tweet or comments on an Insta/FB post – consider that effort as the Impact of your online journey.

2 Dissociated conversations

How someone talks about you behind your back – is still the most underrated measure of your success. In an online context, this is translated into recall – which says that even when you are not a party to a conversation, an online person tags or mentions you, pulling you into an idea or chatter. This kind of recall or conversation where you are not initially involved denotes your true impact in a more qualitative way

3 Next Level

Stagnation is not comfortable a term when we are measuring impact. To understand this indicator, you must define a status quo for yourself in the current space – be it qualitative (no. of conversations) or quantitative (page views, followers) and build a trajectory leading to the next level. Mapping this will help you further iron out an online communications plan for yourself.

4 Offline

And finally, online is nothing but a tool to reach far-reaching conversations on the ground. Your journey if restricted to an online space will in the end limit your own route. You must bet on your own thoughts and capture an offline result of your actions that can also be a part of your Impact KPIs.

The above four are very simple measures that can help you keep on track. When dissected further, each point can have detailed metrics, action plans and far-reaching impact cycles. But what is important is that you identify them early and initiate this track of covering ground through your online presence.