Retention vs. Viral Impact: Safety Education
Reach Them, But Keep Them
I just read an article on Mashable that discusses the importance of having retention in your social media marketing. The basic premise is that many companies and campaigns measure viral impact. This is, of course, important, but we all know that viral impact may be short-lived. It is great to reach thousands or hundreds of thousands of people with a message. That may last a day or two, though, and then crash. The hot topic of today become's yesterday's news -- then fades to obscurity.
In the article, Jeremy Richardson says,
Just because something becomes viral does not mean it will stay viral for long. Even if a situation arose where all the stars of virality are aligned — all of the users are inviting all of their friends, and all of their friends accept -– if there is no real retention, this phase will not last. The number of users will reach a saturation point, and then start to decline. If retention isn’t being tracked, then we have no idea why this is happening.
Big Numbers Don't Mean Big Results
It has always bothered me that one of the primary tracking methods used by public safety education programs is to count the number of people "reached." In a nutshell, it seems common practice to do a simple head count of the people that are present during a safety lesson, safety demonstration, or fire house tour. This number is then added to the mix and reported each year in the agency annual report. For instance, each year for the past 19 years I have taught approximately 8,500 children from preschool age through high school. If I do simple math, I can say that 161,500 children total have heard me present a lesson on safety.
Make An Impact, Bring Them Back
In my opinion, evaluation of the results of the safety lesson is the true factor in determining the effect. The number of people reached means nothing. Seriously. If I reach 8,500 kids with a message, but none of the kids retain that message -- therefore no behavior change results -- has the safety message made an impact? Wouldn't it be more important to show numbers where the lesson has made an impact? For example, isn't it better to show that X number of children stayed safe by exhibiting safe behaviors? That, however, is the bane of the safety educator. How does one document the fire that didn't happen or the fall that didn't cause an injury? You can't report intangibles.
So the key, then is retention. In order for us to affect change in behavior, environment or even basic safety knowledge, we must continue to deliver the message time and time again. We, the safety educators, hope to reach as many people as possible, of course. We also hope that they will remember what is said and carry the message forth. We earnestly hope that they will be interested enough to want to receive our messages. Their personal motivation and interest will bring them into a safety lesson with a desire to hear and see the potential to protect their own lives and property. It will help them remember the key information that will then be carried home to their families or back to their workplace. And, when we return again next month or next year, they will be willing to absorb the message.
Honestly, if a person is in my class, but asleep in their chair... I've presented the content, but have I really reached them? I can count this person as a warm body in the class, but there will be zero retention of a message they didn't hear.
