Social Impact Metrics

• The metrics that can be used to measure the social impact and engagement of an organization within a particular community include:
•  Volunteer hours - this metric looks at the number of volunteer hours logged into a company as a way of looking at the performance of the company's corporate social responsibility efforts. The more the volunteer hours the higher the social impact and engagement of the company.
•  Business metrics - here, the traditional business metrics such as an increase in sales and improvement of business relationships are used to gauge the social impact of a company because people want to work with companies that are socially responsible.
•  Net Promoter Score - NPS is used to look at the number of loyal customers a company has. In addition, NPS is one of the leading metrics that is used to measure "the quality of perception people have about a brand."
•  Social media chatter - activity on social media is another good way that a company can use to measure its social impact and engagement by measuring how fruitful social campaigns turned out to be. On social media, companies can ask their customers questions and use hashtags to gather information on consumer perceptions.
• Reduction in employee turnover - employees love to work for organizations that are socially responsible and that make social contributions. Consequently, for companies that have low employee turnover, their employees are thought to "feel proud to be associated" with the respective companies.
•  Gathering feedback - this is a direct way of collecting the feedback of company employees and customers on how they feel about the company's CSR efforts. The responses received here are a direct reflection of the effectiveness and overall impact of the company's social campaigns.
•  Increase in overall sales - socially responsible business entities gain financial benefits from their CSR efforts. Consequently, companies can observe the social impact and engagement of social campaigns in the increases in overall sales, the bottom-line, and customer retention.
•  Donations - companies boost their philanthropic profiles by crowdsourcing for donations to support a charitable cause. A good "inflow of donations is a good indicator that a company is making a strong positive social impact."