Understanding how your Switchboard is progressing is incredibly important. While anecdotal and qualitative data provide a means of understanding how your Switchboard is doing, clear benchmarks allow you to understand the state of your Switchboard and identify next steps to pursue to further foster it. Defining what success looks like on your Switchboard will support you in building momentum and prioritizing actions that will help you reach your goal.
In this lesson, you’ll learn what obvious and subtle success benchmarks on Switchboard are, the specific benchmarks for various points in a Switchboard’s life, and ways to move your Switchboard towards those benchmarks if your Switchboard is off course.
What are obvious success benchmarks?
Steady adoption of new users
Consistent/steady posting
Consistent/steady commenting on posts
High response percentage
High participation percentage
Number of engaged users
What are more subtle success benchmarks?
Switchboard has an array of posts
1:1 ratio of asks/offers
Intergenerational interactions
Healthy ratios between affiliations
Newly adopted user participation in their first month
Steady activity behind the scenes (e.g. messaging, clicking on links in posts)
Number of active users
Steady stakeholder engagement/involvement
What are the benchmarks for Switchboards at any given time?
1-3 months
Response Rate = 100%
New posts every week
Meeting adoption goals set with Tim
Posts cover gamut of content that is of interest to community
1:1 ratio of asks/offers
Stakeholders engaging with adoption and posting
Alumni most numerous affiliation (depending on intended community for Switchboard)
Daily interactions average = ~1
3-6 months
30 posts per month
Response Rate = 100%
New posts every week
Daily interactions average = 1-3
1:1 ratio of ask/offers
Participation Rate percentage = 65%+
Engaged users = 10%+ of total Switchboard population
Continued engagement with adoption and posting from stakeholders
50% of new users interact in their first month
6-12 months
30 posts per month
Response Rate = 80%
New posts every week
Meeting adoption goals outlined in Onboarding Guide adoption calendar every month
Daily interactions average = 3-5
1:1 ratio of ask/offers
Participation Rate percentage = 65%+
Engaged users = 10%+ of total Switchboard population
Continued engagement with adoption and posting from stakeholders
30% of new users interact in their first month
At least 2 community-wide communications about Switchboard
Ratio of alumni to students approximately 3:1
1-2 years
At least 30 posts per month
Response Rate = 80%
5+ new posts every week
Daily interactions average = 5+
1:1 ratio of ask/offers
Participation Rate percentage = 65%+
Engaged users = 10%+ of total Switchboard population
Continued engagement with adoption and posting from stakeholders
30% of new users interact in their first month
At least 2 community-wide communications about Switchboard
Ratio of alumni to students approximately 3:1
2+ years
At least 30 posts per month
Response Rate = 80%
5+ new posts every week
Daily interactions average = 5+
1:1 ratio of ask/offers
Participation Rate percentage = 65%+
Engaged users = 10%+ of total Switchboard population
Continued engagement with adoption and posting from stakeholders
30% of new users interact in their first month
At least 2 community-wide communications about Switchboard
Ratio of alumni to students approximately 3:1
How to get to success benchmarks if your Switchboard isn’t there
One of the great benefits of Switchboard is that there are always opportunities to generate momentum, regardless of the age of the Switchboard. If you’re not meeting certain benchmarks on your Switchboard, there are solutions. These solutions fall into essentially two buckets:
Stewardship
Communicating frequently with your community
After you seed your Switchboard and have enough content for your community to understand its purpose and value, the community needs to hear about your Switchboard and how it can impact their lives frequently. If they don’t know about it, they won’t come to use it. But it’s not enough to just bring them to the Switchboard. Once they come, they must be supported. This means providing suggestions or solutions in all asks, thanking all offers, and nudging new users who haven’t participated to do so. Because when people feel heard and that their time wasn’t wasted, they’ll return to continue using the Switchboard for future interests and needs.
So, if you’re short on the benchmarks below, take time to steward posts and facilitate connections and next steps that’ll be useful to users.
Response rate
Daily interactions
Participation rate
Engaged users
If you’re short on these benchmarks below, build out a more thorough communications plan so you communicate about the Switchboard more frequently with your community.
5+ new posts weekly
Participation rate
Stakeholder engagement
2 community-wide announcements
Ratio of users
Ask/Offer ratio
Action Items
Determine how many benchmarks you’re meeting for the benchmarks for the age of your Switchboard.
Create next steps to remedy any benchmarks that you’re not meeting and input those next steps into the Goals section of Insights