Internal Comms Measurement: The Path Ahead...

If you missed the first of this 2 part series then you can catch up here.

Newsweaver recently launched its first-of-its kind multi-channel measurement solution – learn more about Cross-Channel Analytics.

Like most professions, technology is poised to radically change the goalposts for communicators. So what does the future look like?

Let's dust off that crystal ball of ours...

“If I’d asked people what they wanted, they would have asked for a better horse”

Innovation is nigh impossible to predict. Henry Ford came out with the above quote to highlight this point - if we’re riding a horse to work then the natural progression surely comes in the form of a faster horse? It would be hard for people to expect a motorized vehicle to completely do away with horses & carriages.

Similarly, when Steve Jobs released the iPod, it wasn’t initially obvious that the device would evolve, in just a few short years, to replace mobile phones, GPS devices, maps, computers, newspapers, the list goes on (Click here to see just how much iPhone has replaced).

If you were to ask a communicator what does innovation look like when it comes to internal communication measurement then many would respond that any kind of data, regardless of how elementary it may be, would represent progress.

But communicators don’t need to satisfy themselves with generic or meaningless data. An irrelevant statistic, that might be shared by your SharePoint administrator, means nothing in isolation. So what if there were 8,000 page views? Who was the intended audience of the page and how many of them were amongst that 8,000? Did the page/ message achieve its desired outcome?

Innovation means meaningful and actionable data that can be easily understood.

At Newsweaver, we are committed to providing solutions that give internal communicators the power of innovation. For a long time, marketers have benefited from massive advances in technology, with platforms like HubSpot and Marketo making their life easier.

It’s time for internal communicators to join the party!

Internal Comms Measurement: The Future

Our ambitious product roadmap will, amongst other things, see our Cross-Channel Analytics product evolve to becoming an interactive, dynamic IC map. This map will clearly show the content and events that lead to peaks and troughs in content engagement.

Communicators will also be able to view, via a defined content engagement index, trends and performance in employee engagement over an extended period of time, letting communicators to easily identify what is working with their employee audience and what is not working. Knowing what is not working is just as important as understanding what is working. This knowledge can inform strategic direction and help internal communicators to attain well deserved recognition and reward.

Once upon a time, communicators had to invest a lot of time and effort into extracting and interpreting separate measurement reports from each individual channel before ever starting to unite the reports and make sense of it all combined.

Cross-Channel Analytics is bringing all digital channels under the one roof. In the near future, we will see the breadth of channels continue to expand as surveys, social channels (including Yammer) and events come onboard.

Progress and innovation has finally arrived for internal communicators. This does not mean access to some data. This means easy access to meaningful, clear, insightful and actionable data from across all digital channels.

Oh, and intergalactic travel, but that’s for another blog post.

Sound interesting? Why not explore Cross-Channel Analytics yourself with our self-led interactive demo.