How to set better targets using lead measures

It’s a criticism we hear all too often.

‘We spent all that time, effort and money on producing a strategy, only for it to end up gathering dust on a shelf somewhere.’

Which then becomes a reason for not investing in future strategy work. And it’s true, strategies can languish for many different reasons if you aren’t careful. 

Here are just a few:

1. Lack of an implementation plan

2. Ineffective communication

3. Resistance to change

4. Inadequate resources

5. Lack of support from leadership

6. Vague or unrealistic goals

For content and social media strategies, all of these are valid, but getting the goals right is particularly important.

If we focus on lag measures, as we often do, we can end up chasing our tails trying to work out what we need to do to increase things like impressions, comments, and clicks, when our focus might be better placed elsewhere.

Which is not to say lag measures aren’t important, they are, especially when assessing ongoing performance. But when it comes to executing a strategy, lead measures eat lag measures for breakfast. 

So what are lead and lag measures? What are the key differences? And why do they matter?

Lag measures

Lag measures are metrics which often indicate the success or failure of past actions. They are called lag measures or lagging indicators because - obviously - they follow the action.

In social media, common examples include impressions, engagement, and follower growth, and they are useful for assessing the overall impact of a particular initiative or project.

The problem is, because they rely on a completed action, lag measures are (literally) impossible to influence. Once we become aware of them (e.g. in our monthly reporting), they are fixed. We can only hope next month’s numbers turn out better (but again won’t know until the month is over).

Of course, if halfway through the month we see that impressions and likes are on the low side, we can do something about it. But what exactly? 

Another problem with lag measures is that they don’t naturally suggest a corrective action. If you’re not getting as many likes as planned (or hoped), how do you get more? Post better content? If you knew how to do that, you’d have done it already.

What’s more, lag measures in social media have another thing working against them - the algorithm. While the quality of our content plays a role in influencing reach and engagement, so too does the algorithm, and we all know how frustrating that can be.

Lead measures

While lag measures are reactive, lead measures are proactive. 

Lead measures are also predictive, providing insights into the actions that contribute to desired outcomes, as well as telling you whether you are likely to achieve your goals. 

The best part is they are 100% influenceable, and that's why they are so powerful.

Moving beyond the 'reach/engagement/followers/page views' space and strategically considering our objectives allows us to create goals that encourage more of the actions that lead to great results.

For instance, we may decide that strategically we should be focusing on improving efficiency or consistency, or building video capability. 

If consistency is the goal, key lead measures might include:

• Number of articles written per week

• Post frequency/timing

• Monthly reports produced on time

• Number of review sessions held

If you’re a small team, doing more with less might be top of your goals list. Lead measures to track could include:

• Number of repurposed posts/articles published

• Number of evergreen articles/social assets created

• Number of planning sessions held

• Processes reviewed/created

If you want to build video capacity, lead measures might include:

• Number of videos produced

• Number of training sessions held

• Number of tech/software trials conducted

If our strategy is to increase awareness of our brand/service/facility/product by creating and sharing a specific type of content, a good lead measure might be that we publish one such post per week for the next 6 months.

By nailing this lead measure, we know (or at least have strong reasons to predict) that our reach/engagement lag measures will also react accordingly. 

The key difference

Ultimately, lead measures are best used to change the way our team operates. By setting and tracking lead measures around specific tasks or behaviours, we are making it crystal clear that those tasks or behaviours are crucial to us.

So instead of the team being accountable for producing the result, they are accountable for performing the behaviour.

Prioritise the right tasks and behaviours, and you’ll get the right results.

If you are developing a new strategy, it can be super helpful to prioritise lead measures for this very reason - if we get our team consistently executing the strategy at a task or behaviour level, we are likely to get good results.

And the strategy itself is less likely to end up gathering dust on shelf somewhere.

Any questions? Email me at seamus@seamus.nz