Monitoring and reporting

This guidance provides best practice for UAS Communications teams looking to monitor and report on the effectiveness of their communications activities

The following guidance has been developed following discussions with the UAS Communications leads.

If you have any questions about the guidance, please contact your relevant Communications lead.

Expand All

Effective monitoring and reporting depend on having specific and measurable objectives and targets in place. Individual UAS Communications teams should have these targets in place for their work. These could take the form of: 

  • Business as usual 
    Individual teams should have objectives for their communications activities overall – whether that is increasing awareness or buy-in to service activities; or influencing behaviour change either within a service, or the wider University or community. 
     

  • Campaign and projects 
    Individual projects and communications campaigns may also have their own specific objectives, aligned to the aims of the specific activity. In the case of campaigns, it is recommended that teams make use of the OASIS framework. 

The following communication activities should be monitored and recorded on an ongoing basis 

Type of comms 

Events 

Social media 

 

Websites 

Emails and newsletters 

 

Measures 

Attendee figures 
  

Results of follow-up feedback polls 

 

Number of followers 
 

Number of posts 
 

Engagement rates 

Number of site visits 

 

Was this page useful stats* 
 

 

Audience size 

 

Open rates 

 

Click-through  
rates 

 

*Was this page useful stats should be used with caution, given the nature of the feedback received via this channel to date 

In addition to measuring metrics, effort should also be taken to gather the sentiments of target audiences, and qualitative insights in respect to activities being communicated. These can be gathered through the use of the following methods: 

  • Focus groups, 
  • ‘Test and check’ groups 
  • Surveys: 
    • Staff survey analysis 
    • Pulse surveys  
    • Post-event surveys 

UAS services should also consider carrying out reviews of specific activities where appropriate. This can be achieved either by conducting informal ‘wash-up’ meetings, or more formal ‘after action reviews’ (AARs). More information about AARs can be found on the Focus web pages. 

Collating metrics on a monthly or termly basis and producing a report. Reports should: 

  • Present insights in a visual format to make them easy to engage with 
  • Include recommendations for how the results should inform: 
    • Future communications activities 
    • Management team actions 

These reports should be shared with: 

  • Senior management teams: to highlight communications teams’ achievements and inform future management team actions 
  • Other UAS Communications leads: to share best practice and insights 

NB: it is recognised that the level of monitoring and reporting that it is possible to carry out will depend on the resourcing available to individual UAS services.  

 

 

Popular Links