Deep Dive: Establishing a Network Lens to Assess the Impact of Outreach

“Networks can ‘produce benefits beyond what individual partners could achieve.’ By bringing together unique combinations of individuals and organizations to pool and align resources, networks have been able to shape public perceptions and policies, innovate delivery solutions, build political will, and unlock funding.” 

- Shekufeh Zonji, A network for early childhood development, 

Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, May 23, 2018

Introduction 

Have you considered how building a network or networks is critical to achieving your organization’s goal? As Shekufeh Zonji writes, networks amplify our efforts, foster innovation, and expand our reach in ways that individual efforts cannot. After all, large networks can help us meet the critical mass needed to tip the scales toward action, or a strategically built network can help us connect to that one person who has the answers we’ve been seeking.

 This article seeks to:

• inspire your focus on the value of identifying and tracking the networks connected to your organization and the value/s they bring to your work.

• measure the effectiveness of your work in building and strengthening networks.

The Network Lens: A Framework for Assessment

Strategic communicators must be hyper-aware of how their budgets are funded—whether from clients, customers, taxpayers, student tuition, donors, grants, etc.—requiring extraordinary stewardship. Every expenditure needs to be tied to a strategic purpose.

Recognizing the value of network building is crucial in strategic communications. Networks amplify the reach and impact of outreach efforts, fostering collective progress through shared understanding.

To better recognize and measure network effectiveness, we introduce The Network Lens: A Framework for Assessment. This structured approach assesses the value of networks, ensuring that communications work connects people, builds meaningful relationships, and drives effective action. This method helps organizations evaluate how their network-building efforts contribute to broader goals, enhancing the overall impact of their strategic communications. 

Products such as reports, events, media stories, social media posts, etc., serve as vehicles to disseminate ideas and information, fostering understanding and stimulating dialogue and action. The challenge lies in assessing the true impact of these efforts.

That is where The Network Lens: A Framework for Assessment comes in as a tool. The Network Lens measurement criteria include:

Creation of new network/s: Connect data to the creation of new networks that have been developed to address various aspects of the organization’s mission or strategic plan. 

Diversity of network/s: This refers both to diversity across networks in terms of
the size, location, audience, and role of various networks, as well as the diversity of individuals participating in various networks. 

Effectiveness of network/s: Consider indicators that communications efforts support networks fulfilling roles as “pathways” of information exchange and “trusted connectors.” (“A Network Approach to Capacity Building,” Jennifer Chandler and Kristen Scott Kennedy) Indicators can include citation of work, collaboration, funding, recognition, and trust.

Engagement with network/s: This includes a variety of indicators associated with how people interact with networks. Types of interactions can include amplification of information, events, information collection, information sharing/dissemination, interpersonal professional, or project management. 

Growth of network/s: This is a measurement of the number of members involved in existing networks. This includes an increased collection of contacts within and across communications networks.

Internal achievement: Cultivate collaborative relationships with communications colleagues in other organizations within the field. Consider indicators of how work has helped to build and strengthen a network of communicators to achieve a common goal. (Nunez & Wilson-Grau)

Level of Network/s: Data regarding the extent of participation in networks at the following levels: local, state, regional, national, or global. 

Closing

In practice, the criteria help guide you through a process that establishes the value of your organization's networks. By measuring these networks, you'll gain useful data that highlights the return on investment in your strategic communications team. This data can reveal how the team's efforts are not only creating but also strengthening networks crucial to achieving your organizational goals. The Network Lens can uncover the impact of networks that might otherwise go unnoticed.

This lens does not eliminate measurement tools that may already be in use by an organization – it’s simply a way to take hard data and give it an additional layer of meaning and value. 

Curious to see how this works? We plan to bring this concept to life in future editions. Stay tuned!