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

2010 is shaping up to have a number of tight political races.  The Wisconsin Governor’s race will likely be one of them.  A very important component of any political campaign these days is how well the web is utilized.

In this post, I take a look at the websites of each of the three candidates, Scott Walker, Mark Neumann, and Tom Barrett, and evaluate them based on their homepage performance, promoting email signups, usage of video, and available supporter tools and resources.

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Expert Review, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media Competitive Analysis, Internet Marketing, Mark Neumann, Political Website, Scott Walker, Social Media, Tom Barrett, User Interface Design, Wisconsin Governor's Race

By now, you’ve probably seen all the top-rated ads either during the game itself or afterward online and picked your favorites.  Most of the ads had some sort of mention of their web address, but not all of those sites greeted you with anything special upon arrival.  Here are four that went the extra mile to create experiences to make the most out of their massive Super Bowl ad expenditure.

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Expert Review, Flash, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics Flash, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Super Bowl, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Graphic Design

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.

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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

By now, most companies are aware that there is a discussion about their brand going on. They also know that they can track and monitor this discussion via a wide variety of tools such as Radian6, Techrigy’s SM2, Twitter Search, Twitalyzer, Social Mention, and many more. The question now is, “What should I pay attention to? Which metrics will actually tell me something about my business?”

Certainly not easy questions, but some trends have evolved that help indicate whether you’re effectively promoting your business online and if you’re being showcased in a positive light. Here are some metrics to watch regularly. Read more…

Social Media, Web Analytics Blogging, Ecommerce, Internet Marketing, Social Media, Web Analytics

Podcasts remain one of the best ways to keep up with the latest trends and to learn new methods and approaches.  Whether listening while getting ready in the morning, during commutes or business travel, or even while working, there are more options than ever before as the medium has truly matured.  Even better, the vast majority are free.  Make the most of your downtime (in this economy, there may be more than usual), and never stop learning.

Below are some of the best podcasts that we “keep an ear” on: Read more…

Information Architecture, Interactive Industry News & Events, Internet Marketing, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Analytics, Web Development, Web Graphic Design, Web Project Management, Web Strategy Consulting Information Architecture, Internet Marketing, Podcasting, Social Media

Microsoft just can’t seem to win these days.  Their huge roll out for 2009 complete with expensive television ads is an effort (Bing) designed to compete with Google’s oldest product.  Shortly thereafter, Google responds with a tool that may revolutionize business e-communication as we know it. Read more…

Interactive Industry News & Events, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Project Management Google Wave, Social Media, User Interface Design, Web Project Management

With Twitter’s popularity exploding as of late, it’s no surprise that many start-ups are popping up to expand upon the service and introduce ways of measuring its performance.

One such tool is Twitalyzer.  Nearly 20,000 unique Twitter users have tried the service which summarizes your usage and provides a number of interesting measures of success (influence, generosity, velocity, clout, and the signal-to-noise ratio.)

Some are already calling it “Google Analytics for Twitter” and indeed, the tool even offers integration with the hugely popular Google tool.

A breakdown of the major features:

• Measure of Influence: A combination of number of followers, number of “retweets”, generosity (number of times you “retweet” others), number of references, velocity (number of updates per week)
• Signal to noise ratio: A measure of the tendency for people to pass information, as opposed to anecdote.  This basically means that you tend to pass on useful information rather than just promote yourself.
• Separate measurements for generosity, velocity and clout (the number of references to you divided by the total number of possible references (as governed by the Twitter Search APIs).
• View the Twitter top 100 most influential as well as the 100 Most Signal-Rich, 100 Most Generous, 100 Most Prolific, 100 Most Referenced, 100 Most Recent Analyses
• Compare your Twitter performance with others via benchmark reports
• Twitalyzer Search demonstrates how applying measures of influence to a standard Twitter search can offer more meaningful results.

Keep an eye on this tool as it appears to be the most robust out there and is actively updated.  Plans are in the works for an expanded Twitter Professional service tier as well.

Social Media, Web Analytics Internet Marketing, Social Media, Twitter