Is There Anybody Out There?
If you work in communications, you’ve probably felt an unspoken pressure to prove that what you’re doing is working. We are asked to show that our outreach is effective — that messages are landing and resources are being used well. For small organizations, municipalities, and nonprofits with two staff members and a shared Google Drive, understanding our impact is a key part of sustaining our mission.
But most of us were not hired as analysts. We are here to manage programs, serve residents, coordinate volunteers, oversee purchasing, and run operations. Analytics may cross our minds, but it is often an afterthought rather than a central function.
Without designated traffic management, the instinct is often to track as much as possible and sort it out later. So we log page views, impressions, click-thru rates, time on page, follower growth, open rates across platforms. There’s almost no end to the data we can collect – but toward what end?
Measuring success isn’t the same thing as collecting data. Success is about how well we meet our goal. Data provides supporting evidence. If we are trying to increase meeting attendance, for example, we might look at registrations or turnout. But if the aim is to inform neighbors, then downloads or time spent reading may be more useful indicators.
Rethinking What Counts
It helps to consider: if this number changes, will that affect what we’re doing? If the answer is no, it may not be a metric worth monitoring closely. Numbers are useful when they inform a decision, but they’re just one part of evaluating whether our communication is doing its job. Many of the clearest indicators are not numerical at all.
For instance, some confusion is inevitable when information is new or complex. But repeated questions, or conversations that keep circling the same points, suggest that a message did not fully hit its mark. When it does, the message tends to move forward. When it doesn’t, people come back for clarification. That pattern is easy to overlook if you’re focused only on data.
Engagement can also tell us a great deal. It’s tempting to focus on volume — how many people opened an email, how many people liked a post — but those figures don’t tell us anything about how the message landed. Here, specific feedback is much more helpful. If someone references that month’s newsletter, for instance, or asks a follow-up question. These are signs your communication has been noticed and accepted.
Behavior tells its own story. Did more people complete the form after you clarified the instructions? Did ticket sales increase once you added a photo to the event description? Did the new website tab increase vendor registrations? These are concrete outcomes tied directly to communication. They do not require analytics, just good old-fashioned attentiveness.
Internal impact is also worth noting. Smooth in-house communication shows that messaging is working consistently. Effective outreach reduces friction within an organization, helping teams align over clear expectations and accurate information. Less time is wasted on last-minute corrections and staff misunderstandings.
Finally, personal feedback remains one of the surest signs your approach is clicking. A board member commenting that a report was easy to follow. A resident expressing appreciation for a straightforward explanation. A partner who is thrilled by their profile in the organization’s newsletter. These moments carry real weight and provide context that raw numbers alone cannot supply.
Together, these inputs provide a range of informed real-world feedback that’s more illuminating than any chart. Data certainly has its place. But the most meaningful signs of progress are often visible long before a report is generated.
👋 Thanks for reading—we’re glad you’re here. This blog is powered by East Falls Media, where we help small businesses, nonprofits, and local governments connect with clarity and purpose.
