Sunday, January 31, 2010

Data Dilemma

The data dilemma - clicks, funnels, conversions, visitors and all the rest. How do you communicate what is occurring to those who are not into data?


Speak to all the stakeholders. Understand what is important to them. You may find they have ideas of what they are looking for, but don’t know the appropriate metrics to use. You may also find that data is being miss-used or is not understood. In that instance, education my become a priority.


Identify the appropriate KPIs that are needed to measure progress. Metrics cannot be viewed as discrete. Combined they tell an accurate story - so, use all the necessary indicators to get an accurate view.


Calculated metrics can be very telling. A calculated metrics combines two existing metrics to form a third. The most common calculated metric I have found is the ratio, which includes the conversion rate and the click through rate (CTR).


Communicating findings possesses its own challenges. I have found graphs are very useful. For instance, a CTR graphed over time can be very powerful. Without cluttering the graph too much you might find including clicks or other appropriate measure of volume useful.


Remember, regardless of how insightful your analysis may be you are doing yourself and your organization an injustice if cannot communicate it successfully.


Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Blogging - Get to the Point!

By Scott Grall
Ah, the good old days of blogging - like five years ago. That's right, just five years ago blogs were an entirely different type of medium. People used blogs to pontificate on topics or ideas, going on and on like they were an author of a famous novel. Today, times and blogs have changed. Now, blogs (and social media in geneneral) are intended to be clear and concise, with authors being experts.

So if you are interested in blogging, great! Find a topic or area of expertise you know well, and post short, to-the-point blogs for people to read. That's the first step in creating a successful blog. You will then want to "promote" your blog posts, through several social media platforms and link sharing.

But that is another topic, coming soon to this very blog. For now, get to work on setting up your blog and planning what your blog topics will be. We will work on promoting soon!