Gamasutra interviews Nicole Hamlett, community manager of MMO developer Cryptic Studios. On measuring results:
I’d like to say that it’s all very standardized; it’s just not. Benefits are still, largely, intangible. I would like to see more concrete methods used to gauge success, actually. My team uses a variety of metrics to determine ours. Some are based on forum comments, contest entries, traffic, outside influencers. We are working on getting a better system in place.
Lots of other gems. These are the types of folks we can learn boatloads from, and really start figuring out how to qualitatively measure our sites, rather than simply relying on the quantitative metrics.
Great interview. She's right. It is really hard to measure. Soooo much of what you do is just getting to know folks and you don't always know right a way how that's going to benefit your cause or company.