New Merit Reports

The Reports tab in Merit gives you visibility, insight, and analysis into your content creation, syndication, and performance, all in one simple-to-digest location. This page will provide additional details about information that appears on this tab.

Achievement Data Map

Your Merit report begins with a summary of your activity across the US by year. The map will default to the last fully completed calendar year. Use the top bar to view previous years.

Hover over any state to see the number of unique students recognized there. Click any state to open up a pop up box that displays more information, including:

Unique Students Recognized - The total number of unique students (105) from that state.
Zip Codes Reached - The number of unique zip codes (69) throughout the state where your students are from.
Total Achievements - The total number of times (10) that your achievements targeted one or more students from the state.

All-Time Impact

A summary of your institution's all-time performance with Merit follows. This section provides a snapshot of the various things you've achieved through Merit. It's broken down into three sections: Achievements, Media Monitoring and Newsroom.

Please Note: If you institution doesn't use one of these features, you won't see any stats there.

The Achievements section offers some insight into the following stats:

Total Achievements - The total number of times (1,205) you've published a Merit achievement about one or more students. This is a summary of the number of times you've advanced through the workflow and published a story.
Total Students Recognized - The total number of unique students (19.8k) who have earned one or more achievements from you. Students who have earned multiple achievements are only counted once.
Total Student Pages Created - The total number of unique students (30.7k) who have Merit pages. Some of the students counted here may have not yet earned an achievement.
Total Opt Outs - The total number of existing students (36) who have chosen not to participate in Merit. These are students who received a notification and then chose to opt out of Merit.

The Media Monitoring section offers some insight into the following stats:

Total Mentions - The total number of online articles (3,946) Merit has discovered about your institution.
Total Social Shares - The total number of times your above mentions were shared on Facebook, X and LinkedIn (1,664).
Total Unique Student Mentions - The total number of unique students (2,769) who were discovered in your online Mentions.

The Newsroom section offers some insight into the following stats:

Total Releases Published - The total number of times (1,972) your institution used Newsroom to publish press releases.
Total Releases Mentioning Students - The total number of published Newsroom press releases (1,451) in which one or more students or faculty members was tagged.
Total Emails - The total number of Newsroom press release emails (66.8k) you've sent to media and personal contacts.

Date Range

After your all-time stats, you have the ability to learn more about your Merit results over a specific time period. Your report will default to showing stats from the previous 365 days, but you can change this to select a time frame that better suits your needs.

Use the two calendar boxes to determine a start and end date for the report, or select one of the pre-defined time frames.

Merit's new reports offer you the chance to compare one date range to another. To take advantage if this feature, use the Compare to Previous Period toggle. This will open up a second date range box where you can choose a date range to compare your data against:

Once you've chosen your date range(s), click the Search button to gather your results.

Achievements

This section summarizes the performance of your achievements over your chosen date range. The bar chart shows a snapshot of your activity, offering insight into:

Achievements - The number of times (63) your institution has used Merit to publish an achievement about one or more students.
Students Recognized - The number of unique students (6,078) who earned one or more achievements recognized in these achievements.
Achievement emails Sent - The total number of times (7,652) your students have received achievement emails from you. Some students were likely recognized multiple times.

Achievement Categories

The Achievement Categories pie chart provides a snapshot of the types of stories you're publishing. It displays your most commonly used categories for the defined date range. Your top five categories will appear here. All categories beyond the top five are grouped into the Other category.

You can hover over any part of the graph to see the total number of student emails you've sent for each category.

Page Views

The total number of online page views (114,741) for your achievement on Merit. Each time a student, parent/, or other visitor views a student story, they will do so on Merit. This stat represents the total number of times your achievements were viewed online.

Estimated Reach

Merit uses a formula to estimate the total number of people who had an opportunity to view your achievements through email, news outlets and social media (46.6M).

Reach and Engagement

The Reach and Engagement section offers insight into your achievements' online performance. It focuses on your students and their parents, and your achievement's performance online.

Students

The Students subsection includes the following stats:

Students Recognized - The total number of unique students (6,078) who earned one or more achievements. Students who have a Merit page but have not yet earned an achievements, will not be part of this value.
Student Merit Page Actions/Updates - The number of students (360) who have made changes to their Merit page during the chosen period. This includes changing their saved information, uploading photos, or adding activities, work experience or links to their page.
Student Open Rate - The percentage of students (87%) who opened their achievement email.
Student Click-To-Open Rate - The percentage of the students who opened their achievement email and also clicked on a link to view their personalized achievement. Hover over the Open Rate graphic to see this value.

Parents

The Parents subsection includes the following stats:

Parent Emails Sent - The total number of student emails (5,229) sent to parents and other stakeholders.
Parents Reached - The total number of unique parents (3,278) who received at least one achievement email about their student.
Parent Open Rate - The percentage of parents (84%) who received and opened an achievement email about their student.
Parent Click-To-Open Rate - The percentage of the parents who opened an achievement email and also clicked on a link to view their student's personalized achievement. Hover over the Open Rate graphic to see this stat.

Social Channels

The Social Channels section offers insight into the way your students, parents and others are sharing your achievements online. This section includes the following stats:

Social Impressions - The estimated number of people (12.9M) who viewed your achievements on Facebook, X and LinkedIn. Merit uses a custom algorithm to calculate these results.
Social Actions - The total number of recorded shares, reactions and comments (44,871) across Facebook, X and LinkedIn.
Social Actions by Site - The total number of recorded shares, reactions and comments recorded on each individual platform.
Top Referring Sites - The most popular ways your viewers are discovering your online achievements. The top five sources are listed here with all other sites grouped under the Other category. Direct means that the person viewed the story directly from either the email they received or a forwarded link.

Distribution and Geotargeting

The Distribution and Geotargeting section offers insight into the additional audiences your achievements are reaching. It features information about the media, government representatives and high schools you shared stories with.

Media

If you shared achievements with the media you'll see the following stats:

Achievements Sent to Local Media - The number of times (62) your achievements were sent to local media outlets. This is a count of the total number of times that you advanced through Merit's workflow and and chose Local Media as an audience in Step 5.
Media Outlets Reached - The number of unique media outlets (1,638) that received your achievement emails. If a media outlet received more than one press release email from you over this period, they are only counted once.
Emails Sent to Local Media - The total number of emails (5,858) sent to local media contacts. If a media outlet received more than one press release email from you over this period, each press release they received is counted here.
Postal Codes Reached - The total number of unique US postal codes (26,278) your students' press releases were sent to. If multiple students are from one postal code, it is only counted once.

Government Reps

If you shared achievements with the government representatives you'll see the following stats:

Achievements Sent to Government Reps - The number of times (64) your achievements were sent to government representatives. This is a count of the total number of times that you advanced through Merit's workflow and and chose Government Representatives as an audience in Step 5.
Government Reps Reached - The number of unique government representatives (2,426) who received your achievement emails. If a government rep received more than one email from you over this period, they are only counted once.
Emails Sent to Government Reps - The total number of emails (6,509) sent to government representatives. If a government rep received more than one email from you over this period, each individual email is counted here.
Comments by Government Reps - The total number of congratulatory comments (459) that government reps have shared with your students.

High Schools

If you shared achievements with the high schools you'll see the following stats:

Achievements Sent to High Schools - The number of times (64) your achievements were sent to high school principals and guidance counselors. This is a count of the total number of times that you advanced through Merit's workflow and and chose High Schools as an audience in Step 5.
High Schools Reached - The number of unique high school principals and guidance counselors (778) who received your achievement emails. If a high school recipient received more than one email from you over this period, they are only counted once.
Emails Sent to High Schools - The total number of emails (7,775) sent to principals and guidance counselors. If a high school recipient received more than one email from you over this period, each individual email is counted here.
Comments by High Schools - The total number of congratulatory comments (19) that high school recipients have shared with your students.

Demographics

This new section gives you insight into the areas your students are from. The statistics most import to colleges and universities will appear here. Use the tabs at the top of the section to navigate between multiple tabs and learn more about the areas you're reaching. Here you'll see the following stats:

Total Population - The total number of residents (85.3M) living in the zips codes in which your students are from.
Gender - The percentage of males and females within the area you're reaching.
Ethnicity - A percentage-based breakdown of each ethnic group from your targeted area.
Household Income - A breakdown of the average income of households within your targeted area.
Prospective Students - The total number of potential college age applicants in these zip codes.
Education - The highest level of education attained by individuals in your targeted area.

Certificates

This section offers insight into Merit's optional Certificates feature. If you've taken advantage of the feature and created personalized certificates for your students, you'll see the following stats:

Achievements Using Certificates - The number of times (9) you published achievements that also created personalized certificates. This is a count of the total number of times that you advanced through Merit's workflow and and chose a Certificate in Step 1.
Unique Students Awarded Certificates - The number of unique students (2,055) who received at least one personalized certificate from you. If a student received more than certificate from you over this period, they are only counted once.
Certificates Issued - The total number of certificates (2,934) awarded to your students. If a student received more than one certificate from you over this period, each certificate they earned is counted here.

Categories - A summary of your most popular certificate categories. Your top five categories will appear here. Any categories beyond the top five, will be grouped together into an Other category.
Engagement - A breakdown of the total number of times your students/parents have viewed, shared, emailed and printed your certificates on Merit. You'll see a total of these actions at the bottom of the list (1,250).

Student Imports

This section offers insight into Merit's Student Import feature. If you've used the Student Import feature to create pages for your students or welcome them to Merit, you'll see the following stats:

Imports - The number of times (1) you performed a Student import in Merit.
Students Imported - The number of unique students (2,186) included in your student import spreadsheets
Student Records Updated - The total number of unique students (52) whose Merit pages through your student imports. If a student's name, major, minor or class year changes through your import, it is counted here.
Welcome Emails Sent - The number of students (2,124) who received their introductory Merit welcome email during this time period. Students who received their welcome emails in previous semesters will not be counted here.
New Students Added - The number of unique students (2,124) who had Merit pages created for them through your student imports. Students who had Merit pages prior to your chosen date range will not be counted here.
Received Welcome Emails - The total number of unique students (2,124) who have received their Merit welcome emails. If you chose to suppress these welcome emails while sending your student import, this number will be smaller than the total number of new students added.
Welcome Email Open Rate - The percentage of students (85%) who opened the introductory Merit welcome email they received through your imports.

Media Monitoring

This section offers insight into Merit's Media Monitoring feature. If you've signed up for the Mentions feature, you'll see the following stats:

News Mentions by Date - A breakdown of the number of times each of your chosen keywords appeared in Merit's media monitoring results.
Keywords - Your organization's chosen keywords.

News Mentions - The total number of times (2,688) your chosen keywords located online news articles about your institution.
News Sources - The total number of unique websites (676) that posted news about your institution.
Unique Student Mentions (Merit AI) - The total number of unique students (2,102) who were discovered through your online news mentions.
Sentiment - The overall sentiment of your online news discoveries. AI attempts to analyze these discoveries and determine if the articles depict your institution in a positive, negative, neutral, or mixed light.

Potential Reach - An estimate of the total number of people (45.6M) who viewed your online mentions discovered through Merit.
Ad Equivalency - The estimated value of media coverage ($127.8k) compared to the cost that it would take to advertise on those websites or platforms. Web Ad Equivalency Value (AEV) is calculated using your Web CPM value and and each website's daily page views. Learn how to customize your institution's CPM.
Social Shares - Estimated number of Facebook shares (13.7k) for the articles detected with mention of your keywords.

Newsroom

This section offers insight into Merit's Newsroom feature. If you've signed up to use Merit for standard press release delivery, you'll see the following stats:

Press Releases - The number of times (190) you've used Merit's Newsroom feature to publish press releases.
Newsroom Emails - The total number of press release emails (9,765) delivered to media outlets (and contacts) through Newsroom
People Pages Tagged - The number of students (0) tagged in your Newsroom press releases
Newsroom Emails by Date - A breakdown of your Newsroom press release activity by month (or day depending on your chosen period)
Newsroom Emails Open Rate - The percentage of recipients (42.6%) who opened your Newsroom press release emails.

Personal Contacts - The total number of unique personal contacts (70) uploaded to your Merit Newsroom account. This number does not factor in how many times you've reached each individual contact.
Newsroom Emails - The total number of distribution lists (27) that have been created inside your Merit Newsroom account. This number does not factor in how many times you've used each individual list.
Top Stories - Your institution's top three performing stories.