Presenter: Drusilla David Podcast: http://bit.ly/1fauCTH Drusilla is the communications officer at the Centre for the Study of Economies in Africa (CSEA) in Abuja, Nigeria, presents a case study on the Impact Log, a tool that CSEA uses to monitor its communications. Drusilla possesses communication and writing skills gained from her experience working as a correspondent on various sectors of the economy with a Nigerian daily newspaper.

1. Measuring the Impact and Success
of Communication

2. OUTLINE
Introduction
Measuring Communications Success
The Impact Log
Effectiveness of the Impact Log
Sustaining the Impact Log

3. Introduction
To achieve maximum impact, it is imperative that
organisations measure the outcomes of their work.
The importance of measuring communications Success
is to help organisations:
 Evaluate growth in communications
 Measure the effectiveness of their outreach
 Determine the strength/progress of their content
In summary, monitoring and evaluation provides an
overview of the progress of research communications
in an organisation.

4. Measuring Communication Success
Evaluation is a key part of communication process.
Developing a communication plan is an essential first step
but without an evaluation strategy, you have no way of
knowing if your plan is working or whether you need to
make adjustments.
Measuring communication success is important for longterm success of any organisation. For think tanks,
monitoring and evaluating the effectiveness of research
communication helps you know the impact your work has
made or is making .
.

5. Why Evaluate?
It improves the
effectiveness of
communication
and performance
It helps you
engage effectively
with your audience
It helps you
allocate resources
appropriately

6. How can we Evaluate?
Communications is integral and a continuous activity.
for any organisation which intends to improve on the
effectiveness of its work.
In order to achieve accurate data and information on this
process, CSEA employed the use of the Impact Log.
The Impact Log is used to measure the progress of the
centre’s work, strength or the weakness of its
communication activity.

7. The Impact Log
The impact log is a tool used to record and document
feedback of output and outcomes of activity(in this
case, research) of any organisation
Why the impact log?
 It is a precise and adequate way of keeping records.
 It keeps detailed records and monitors communication
activities whilst providing access to feedback
information easily.
 To assess if research output are efficiently
communicated, or if it reaches its intended audience

8. Description of the Impact Log
The Impact Log is a tool used to record and document feedback of output
and outcomes. It is a database which contains information about a
project, programme, event or any (ongoing) activity of an organisation.
CSEA developed an impact log for the purpose of monitoring its research
findings and communications activities.
The impact log is designed on an excel sheet which facilitates imputing of
records or information. It contains different sections where
information are gathered.
Currently, CSEA’s impact log has four sections:
• Meetings
• Events
• Press releases
• Biweekly seminars
An example of the Log is shown in the next slide.

10. Effectiveness of the Impact Log
Using an impact log facilitates the assessment of an
organization’s communications capacity; A well
detailed log helps an organization:
 Keep track of its activities
 Learn how the audience receives its messages
 Measure the success of its output and messages and
whether or not it has contributed to policymaking
 Measure the effectiveness of its overall communications
strategy and plan

11. Sustaining the Impact Log
Evaluation should be a continuous process; it helps form
a basis for future strategic planning.
 It enables an organization refine its evaluation
methods and communications strategy accordingly.
 It will also help you identify your evaluation priorities
and subsequently work on improving your evaluation
method to accommodate other sections for more
information or data.

12. Sustaining the Impact Log cont’d
CSEA has identified its evaluation priorities that are
most critical to the centres mission and objective
The centre also aims to improve on its impact log to
accommodate other relevant sections in order to
achieve a robust database.
These sections include:
 Research
 Publications
 Social Media
 Website Analytics

13. Thank You!