In this post, I’ll be highlighting those aspects of a community, which if ignored, can have major ramifications on the overall user experience.

Building your community on top of a third-party platform solves a number of user experience concerns, but also presents challenges. Out of the box, you’ll have content and widget types, and a general look and feel to the font, headings, icons, and navigation. These styles may or may not work for your organization as-is. Be sure to evaluate the following prior to deploying your community. Read more…

Social Media, User Experience, User Interface Design, Web Strategy Consulting Online Collaboration, online communities, Social Media, User Interface Design

This post is the first in a series that will highlight key performance indicators (KPIs) to include in your measurement arsenal for keeping your organization focused on the metrics that matter.

There’s a lot of buzz these days about driving greater online engagement on your website or in your community from customers, prospects, employees, or any specific targeted audience. This is essentially accomplished by creating and delivering the quality content, features, or tools your audiences want or need. Read more…

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting digital strategy, Internet Marketing, KPIs, Web Analytics

Facebook’s announcement in April of their new Open Graph made waves across the web.  Its release has introduced a new level of social integration and personalization readily available to all website publishers.  If you are in charge of the strategy and/or user experience for your organization’s website, Facebook’s new social plugins are new tools for the toolbox you’ll want to become familiar with.  In this post, I’ll outline some strategic ways to bring your website and your Facebook audience together. Read more…

Interactive Industry News & Events, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Strategy Consulting Facebook, interaction design, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Development

In Part 1 we set the stage for a adopting an agile web analytics methodology and looked at goal setting, KPI definition, closing data gaps, and creating your “to review” list.

In this post we’ll discuss data automation (and why it’s not the end-all-be-all), reporting strategies, insight brainstorming sessions, and the relative importance of data accuracy. Read more…

Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Website Testing

Time is, of course, money.  If you really want to see an ROI from web analytics, you need to reduce the time to insight.  This may mean slaughtering some sacred cows and taking a fresh look at what you’re tracking and why.  In this series, I outline ways to abandon bureaucracy and obligatory reports, take action faster, and point out why more automation is not always the answer.  Read more…

Internet Marketing, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Email Marketing, Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Surveys, Web Analytics

Martha Coakley’s failed Senate run has led many to review the key differences in strategy between her campaign and Scott Brown’s.  It’s pretty clear that Brown took the web seriously and Coakley seemed to largely ignore many of the social media and web analytics strategies and tactics that swept Obama into office.

Ad Age and Social Media Today have taken a look at (and criticized) Coakley’s overall digital and social media’s approaches.  This post narrows in and serves as a reminder of web analytics best practices which can mean the difference between coming in first or a distant second.

The Obama campaign tracked digital metrics obsessively yet ingeniously with great success.  The techniques they used are just as applicable today as they were over a year ago.

Read more…

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Email Marketing, Google Analytics, Google Website Optimizer, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Website Testing

You may have used a screencast tool in the past, but if you haven’t tried Jing from TechSmith, you’re missing out on one of the easiest ways to share your screen activity quickly, easily, and for free.

Screencasting is essentially the process of recording and broadcasting the activity on your computer screen and in most cases, accompanying the video with a vocal narration.

Jing’s user experience is top notch, and the system allows you to immediately send your screencasts up to Screencast.com, save the file on your computer, or FTP it to your own server.

Read more…

Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Jing, Online Collaboration, Screencasting, Web Project Management

Continuing to tread on the territory of the major paid analytics vendors, Google Analytics just announced a number of new features that raise it to yet another level. These powerful, time-saving additions allow you to spend more time analyzing and interpreting your site’s performance, and less time foraging though the data.

Among the major additions are; automated and custom alerts based on significant changes in your data, advanced table filtering, expanded mobile reporting, the ability to share advanced segments, and more.

What do these new features mean for your business? Quite a bit. Read on for the details. Read more…

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Google Analytics, Internet Marketing, Web Analytics

Everybody knows that money talks. It’s no different in the world of web analytics. When dollar values are assigned to site behaviors and other key metrics, the value of user actions and traffic sources becomes immediately clear.

Monetization isn’t just for ecommerce sites. Even user actions that have no immediate financial value such as contact form submissions, file downloads, page views, and email newsletter signups are excellent candidates.

If it’s your job to convince stakeholders to take action, or if you’re an executive looking for more clarity in your KPIs, this post will offer you some ammunition and help get you started. Read more…

Web Analytics, Web Strategy Consulting Internet Marketing, KPIs, Monetization, Web Analytics

Website testing and optimization involves the utilization of software to compare the performance of two or more versions of a page or process to determine which version is the most effective in driving desired user behavior.  Tools such as Google Website Optimizer and more robust options geared toward the sophisticated enterprise such as SiteSpect, are available to automate (as much as possible) the process of conducting A/B or multivariate online tests.

Web analytics expert, Eric T. Peterson of Web Analytics Demystified and website optimization software creator, SiteSpect, recently teamed up to release a white paper entitled, “Successful Web Site Testing Practices.”  This must-read document provides a road map for setting up and leading a web testing team within an organization and leveraging it to yield definitive and dramatic results.  Below is our take on some of the highlights of their recommendations.  However, we strongly recommend you read the document in its entirety and take full advantage of case studies, testimonials, and direct examples including a sample test plan approval form (highly useful)! Read more…

Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Google Website Optimizer, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Project Management, Website Testing