Last week Erin Caldwell from Edelman skype'd in as our social media spotlite for a phone call to talk about how students can prepare themselves for the work force by working on their social media skills.
The audio from this call is now available here.
Monday, October 29, 2007
Saturday, October 27, 2007
measuring your blog
Everyone wants to know who is reading their site. Here are some resources for understanding some of the metrics.
In addition the other sites I'll list, Google has some great videos on YouTube about how to understand & use Google Analytics. Tip: before you start diving into your analytics report, take a few moments to watch the flash product demo/tour first.
Conversation analysis
There are several ways to do a conversation analysis. Some people look at the comment-to-post ratio (are your readers interacting as much as much/more than you are posting). Other look at in-bound links under the logic that if someone is linking to your post/content then it is continuing the conversation on another site. A great site for checking out who is linking to your site is Technorati.
Bounce rate
When people come to your site - do they immediately leave? Bounce rate tells you that: it is the percentage of people who come to our site & immediately leave without getting any deeper. You want a low number for bounce rate - in general, a 40% rate is pretty good. Watch the video to learn more.
Understanding visitors
Who cares about averages -- we should care about distribution. Who are your loyal visitors and what are they doing on your site? Learn about those people who repeatedly visit your site, when the last time the visitor came, how long that person stayed on the site. Go a step further - segment the data (twitter, for example): of those who came via twitter, how long do they stay and how many times have they visited? This will give a better indication as to how "successful" that particular referrer was (& for companies using ads it will help determine where you should keep buying ads & what you should drop). Watch the video to learn more.
Track feed subscriptions
Google Analytics doesn't track how many people are subscribed to your RSS feed. But you still want to know how many read the site through feeds - especially because many times the RSS reader might not ever click through to the site. Google suggests using feedburner to get this information. It will tell you: how many readers, what are feed tools are they using & all sorts of podcast metrics. Tip: set up your feedburner feed before you start marketing your site because if you do it midstream on a blogspot blog then you'll have to change your feed URL (& readers might not take the time to update their subscription to your feed). Watch the video (jump to 11:32, end 15:38) to learn more.
Optimizing your content
Now this one is just really cool: After you've looked over your analytics & you have a good baseline of how your site is doing you might be ready to test ways to improve your site. What if I put a picture of a person with my product on the page? What if I use certain words? Heck, which layout for your site works the best? The Google Web Site Optimizer will let you set up experiments where people randomly get your page with one thing different on it each time - the data (very nicely laid out in a Google'y way btw) tells you what works the best on that page. This is the killer app made simple for usability design, if you ask me. You would use this when you're trying to improve your visitors experience & reach whatever goal you set (like get to a certain page). Watch the video to learn more.
Thinking about search
There are some things that Google Analytics doesn't do ... check out the Google Webmaster Tools. Find out what mobile devices are accessing to your site, the last time Google crawled your site & a little about Google SEO. Watch the video (jump to 7:50, end 11:32) to learn more.
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There are more videos, but they are more geared toward making money so I won't go into them but you can view them all in the Conversion University section of the Google YouTube channel.
The key is that reporting is not analyzing -- don't just report numbers, interpret that data & tell people what it means about how people are using the site. Don't just look at one number, understand as much as possible about what is going on in your site. A single metric will not give you what you need to make quality decisions from your analytics reports.
In addition the other sites I'll list, Google has some great videos on YouTube about how to understand & use Google Analytics. Tip: before you start diving into your analytics report, take a few moments to watch the flash product demo/tour first.Conversation analysis
There are several ways to do a conversation analysis. Some people look at the comment-to-post ratio (are your readers interacting as much as much/more than you are posting). Other look at in-bound links under the logic that if someone is linking to your post/content then it is continuing the conversation on another site. A great site for checking out who is linking to your site is Technorati.
Bounce rate
When people come to your site - do they immediately leave? Bounce rate tells you that: it is the percentage of people who come to our site & immediately leave without getting any deeper. You want a low number for bounce rate - in general, a 40% rate is pretty good. Watch the video to learn more.
Understanding visitors
Who cares about averages -- we should care about distribution. Who are your loyal visitors and what are they doing on your site? Learn about those people who repeatedly visit your site, when the last time the visitor came, how long that person stayed on the site. Go a step further - segment the data (twitter, for example): of those who came via twitter, how long do they stay and how many times have they visited? This will give a better indication as to how "successful" that particular referrer was (& for companies using ads it will help determine where you should keep buying ads & what you should drop). Watch the video to learn more.
Track feed subscriptions
Google Analytics doesn't track how many people are subscribed to your RSS feed. But you still want to know how many read the site through feeds - especially because many times the RSS reader might not ever click through to the site. Google suggests using feedburner to get this information. It will tell you: how many readers, what are feed tools are they using & all sorts of podcast metrics. Tip: set up your feedburner feed before you start marketing your site because if you do it midstream on a blogspot blog then you'll have to change your feed URL (& readers might not take the time to update their subscription to your feed). Watch the video (jump to 11:32, end 15:38) to learn more.
Optimizing your content
Now this one is just really cool: After you've looked over your analytics & you have a good baseline of how your site is doing you might be ready to test ways to improve your site. What if I put a picture of a person with my product on the page? What if I use certain words? Heck, which layout for your site works the best? The Google Web Site Optimizer will let you set up experiments where people randomly get your page with one thing different on it each time - the data (very nicely laid out in a Google'y way btw) tells you what works the best on that page. This is the killer app made simple for usability design, if you ask me. You would use this when you're trying to improve your visitors experience & reach whatever goal you set (like get to a certain page). Watch the video to learn more.
Thinking about search
There are some things that Google Analytics doesn't do ... check out the Google Webmaster Tools. Find out what mobile devices are accessing to your site, the last time Google crawled your site & a little about Google SEO. Watch the video (jump to 7:50, end 11:32) to learn more.
---
There are more videos, but they are more geared toward making money so I won't go into them but you can view them all in the Conversion University section of the Google YouTube channel.
The key is that reporting is not analyzing -- don't just report numbers, interpret that data & tell people what it means about how people are using the site. Don't just look at one number, understand as much as possible about what is going on in your site. A single metric will not give you what you need to make quality decisions from your analytics reports.
Friday, October 26, 2007
social media spotlite #3: Jeremy Pepper
On Tuesday in class, we will get a skype visit from San Fransisco-based PR social media thought leader Jeremy Pepper.His official bio says all kinds of important things like that he is the Director of Communications at The Point; prior to that he was at Weber Shandwick working with clients like Cisco, BEA Systems, General Motors, MasterCard International, Verizon Wireless and VeriSign on social media; he founded POP! Public Relations in Scottsdale, AZ; worked in-house as Public Relations Manager at Ofoto, and at Shandwick International on the Eastman Kodak and Compaq teams; & he has a IPRA Golden Award + 2 PRSA Silver Anvil Awards of Excellence. But here is his the bio from his blog - it's more fun:
Work in PR/Comm/Marcom. Work at a start-up called The Point. Used to work at a large agency and prior had my own PR firm in Arizona, POP! Public Relations. Have lived and worked in Detroit, Scottsdale/Phoenix, Tucson, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and San Francisco Bay Area. Have a dog. He's great.Check out what his new company, The Point, is doing by creating a single place for activists to pool their petition resources to make the world better.
Updated 10/31: posted the video for Jeremy's skype call.
Thursday, October 25, 2007
California Social Media Podcast
I know Dr. Sweetser has gone over this a little bit, but I found an article I wanted to talk about.
Social media and crisis podcast
Social media and crisis podcast
Update on PRofessional CONNECTION coverage
Thanks to everyone who has already signed-up to cover a session of PRofessional CONNECTION on Nov. 13. If you hadn't had a chance, take a look at the details.
Dr. Sweetser has been nice enough to set up a Flickr group for us, and the tag for any PRSSA-related photos will be "UGAprssa."
Also, we are officially part of Twitter! I don't think any other chapter of PRSSA is this cool! :) Please "follow" us on Twitter! Once again, we are "UGAprssa."
Kelly will post an update on the blog situation shortly.
Get excited! I am!
Dr. Sweetser has been nice enough to set up a Flickr group for us, and the tag for any PRSSA-related photos will be "UGAprssa."
Also, we are officially part of Twitter! I don't think any other chapter of PRSSA is this cool! :) Please "follow" us on Twitter! Once again, we are "UGAprssa."
Kelly will post an update on the blog situation shortly.
Get excited! I am!
FB pitching gone bad
Hurt as it might, Todd Defren points out what not to do in a pitch by looking at one from his own company - this is a good, quick learning guide for pitching in general (not just within Facebook).Many posit if you can't say it in 5 seconds, you can't sell it. Keep that in mind when constructing pitches - for any medium.
Here are some other great resources for pitch construction:
- Blogger relations 101 lists 5 tips for engagement
- PR lessons of a clueless pitch explains the why & how
- Kevin Dugan gives pitch advice and a quiz, but questions whether you should even do it!
- Another list with a focus on ethics
- Steve Rubel goes through his own "what not to do"
Image by Claire Laurence from Wildcat online article.
crisis readings for 11/1
Sadly, we have another real case study to examine as we look at how social media can be used in a crisis as the California wildfires rage on in SoCal.
Please read the following to prepare for class on 11/1:
Please read the following to prepare for class on 11/1:
- Red Cross case study: Building trust during a media maelstrom
- Great links to examples of social media sites tracking the fires from Voce Nation
- Step-by-step plan: Facebook crisis communications
- Social media, technology and tragedy: On YouTube, Facebook, MySpace today we are all Hokies (read entire page)
- Communicating during crisis: Use of blogs as a relationship management tool
- Slogging, and blogging, through Katrina
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