Making Better Decisions with Web Analytics

Rick Allen — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 00:26:47 +0000

Align business goals and key metrics to make effective decisions

At the Canadian Post-Secondary Education Web Conference (PSEWEB) last week I talked about Making Better Decisions with Web Analytics and thinking strategically about web analytics. As a follow-up, I want to offer some recommended web analytics resources, including ones specific to questions raised during the Q&A session.

The following guide contains examples from my presentation, ones that pair key metrics with meaningful questions and responses regarding web analytics insights.

Making Better Decisions with Web Analytics Guide (PDF)

Analytics Books & Blogs

Web Analytics Demystified
This is one of the most useful books I’ve read on web analytics. Although the book is no longer in print, you can download it for free online along with The Big Book of Key Performance Indicators and other great content. All highly recommended.
Occam’s Razor
A blog by Avinash Kaushik, one of the most respected authorities on web analytics and author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day and Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity.
Analytics Talk
A blog by Justin Cutroni that I added to my blogroll after attending Justin’s web analytics Advanced Analysis and Measurement seminar. Justin offers great practical tips on current analytics topics. The blogroll on his site is a good place to start for additional analytics resources.
.eduGuru
A higher education marketing and web development blog with contributors from higher education writing on very relevant topics, including web analytics. Great resource for higher education focused topics.

Analytics Q&A Resources

There were a lot of great questions asked at the end of my PSEWEB talk. For some, I had short answers at the ready, others required more detail than time allowed—and some were answered by smart attendees. Here are analytics resources with details related to questions that were raised.

What else?

What useful analytics resources do you use? Or, to what questions do you have a hard time finding answers?

Think More Like a Publisher and Less Like a Marketer (and Other Lessons From eduWeb 2009)

Rick Allen — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 19:53:50 +0000

Last week I attended the eduWeb Conference in Chicago. It was a great opportunity to meet other higher-ed web professionals and discuss common challenges and creative solutions. Some popular topics included social media, online marketing, user-generated content, web design best practices, content strategy, and search engine optimization. There is a great deal of information to digest and the post-conference challenge is to relate this information to my own work. To streamline my process I created three categories: Listen and Learn, Engage In Conversation, and Be Authentic, Be Real, Be Different. Not everything fit neatly into these categories, but they help define themes I find important. I also describe eduWeb in bite-size chunks for even easier digestion.

Listen and Learn

Listening to what is going on around you is important for learning and using social media and other web communication tools is no different. It is increasingly easy to communicate and share ideas, but if you’re not paying attention you’re going to miss what is being said.

Two great “listening” tools are Twitter Search and Google Alerts. With these tools you can save searches and track the keywords. For example, if you search for #eduweb on Twitter, you will find over 1500 tweets by dozens of people affiliated with the eduWeb Conference this past week. Or, if you’re a fan of design, you could search for that, or writing or photography or peanut brittle. Whatever your interest, you can see “live” what people are tweeting about on those topics. You can use Google Alerts in the same way to search websites and blogs and other news sources found online. If you set a Google Alert for your institution’s name and it’s mentioned in someone’s blog post, you’ll be informed. This is a great method for brand management and gathering feedback about your institution, and then you can choose how you want to respond.

Actions you can take at your school:

Use Twitter Search and Google Alerts to track topics relevant to your school.
Read what your students are talking about on Facebook and other social media. Understand the frequently asked questions and modify your web and print content to address them. If your FAQ’s page hasn’t been updated recently, it may not list FAQ’s anymore.
Keep your eyes open to what your students and members of your community are doing and publishing. You may be able to use or reference photos, videos or reviews.
Ask for feedback. Don’t hide from questions you don’t want to answer. People will ask questions whether you solicit them or not, and you don’t want someone misinformed answering them.
Pay attention to how people are finding your website. Use Google Analytics or other tools to track what people are searching for at your school. Track keywords on Google and also on your website’s local search. Update your web copy to cater to these searches. If people search for “dorms” but you insist on using “residence hall” you may sound more professional, but what’s the point if people can’t find your page? (See Kyle James’ related presentation slides and other SEO for higher education topics at .eduGuru.)

Engage In Conversation

Listening is only step one. You won’t appreciate the real value of social media or be able to take advantage of web communications until you start to share. Engaging in conversation promotes dialogue on topics that relate to you. The social web encourages this and people are very responsive, but you have to be involved and contribute. It’s an exchange in that you get what you put into it: “have a penny, leave a penny; need a penny, take a penny.” If people don’t contribute, there won’t be anything to take. Answer questions people are asking or refer them to people who can answer them.

Actions you can take at your school:

Communicate with your counterparts at other schools. Discuss your school’s challenges and offer solutions to others’ challenges.
Take the first step and follow your students on Twitter, answer the questions they are asking (not just the ones you think they’re asking).
Use Google Alerts to track your school name. Maybe students are asking questions that you don’t know about on their blog. Maybe someone has posted misinformation about your school. Maybe someone is giving your school praise. In any of these instances, you’ll benefit from responding. Leave a comment on someone’s blog, answering a question or directing him or her to relevant information. Call attention to a positive review of your school through your school’s communication channels.
Start a discussion on your Facebook page. Start simple, like “Orientation Fall, 2009: What do you want to know?” Once you understand what students are interested in learning about, start new discussions with refined topics.

Be Authentic, Be Real, Be Different

Think like a publisher and less like a marketer. Prospective students can easily spot a marketing sales pitch. Brian Niles from TargetX gave this example of a generic school review: “We’re such a friendly place! Even the teachers know my name and say hi to me!” You need to define your school with authenticity and illustrate how your school is unique. Credibility is most important. When a student asks if you think they would be a good fit for your school, don’t say “absolutely” without knowing their background.

Actions you can take at your school:

Make web content a priority, not an added feature. Take the time to develop original web content, including authentic stories, photos, videos and presentations.
Tell stories about the students and faculty at your school. What are they doing? How are they involved in the community? What is their impact? What have they learned?
Get people involved in the “story telling” with social media. Raise awareness about your student and faculty accomplishments and encourage people to share the news. Add a “Share This” link to your website news stories to encourage people to share by email, Facebook, Twitter, and other communication channels.
Hire student bloggers. Prospective students are more likely to trust and respond positively to current students than an admissions sales pitch. Establish guidelines for your student bloggers, including appropriate topics and language, but allow them to speak their minds.
Don’t use Facebook, Twitter and other social media just to post school alerts and events. Get involved in the conversations to help tell the story of your school. Every Tweet doesn’t need to stand on its own; think of it as an ongoing story about your school and the community.
Take advantage of your school’s uniqueness with search engine optimization (SEO). Don’t use the same keywords that every other school is using; highlight the keywords that differentiate your school.

The eduWeb Conference in Bite-size Chunks

Think more like a publisher (not a marketer).
- Nikki Chun, University of Miami; Adrienne Bartlett, TargetX
Answer the questions people are asking.
Influence the conversation, don’t control it (because you can’t).
Stories, not stats. People, not programs.
- Michael Sexton, Lewis & Clark College
You’ll realize the value of Twitter when you start using it to learn and share.
- Robin Bradford Smail, Penn State
You need a sense of urgency in your organization for change to happen.
- Brian Niles, TargetX
Credibility is more important than “quality”.
- Tom Williams, InnoGage
Social media won’t fix the yellow background on your website
Technology is not complete.
- Dimitri Glazkov, Google

More From the eduWeb Conference

eduWeb 2009 on Delicious – Links referenced by presenters and attendees

eduWeb 2009 on Flickr – Photos taken by attendees

eduWeb 2009 on SlideShare – Presentation slides

eduWeb 2009 on Twitter – Twitter Conference backchannel

eduWeb 2009 on YouTube – Videos of presenters and attendees

ePublish Media » Conferences

Making Better Decisions with Web Analytics

Analytics Books & Blogs

Analytics Q&A Resources

Google Analytics vs. Urchin

Google Analytics Goals

Asynchronous tracking

Web analytics and social media

Web analytics and content

Web analytics opt-out

What else?

Think More Like a Publisher and Less Like a Marketer (and Other Lessons From eduWeb 2009)

Listen and Learn

Actions you can take at your school:

Engage In Conversation

Actions you can take at your school:

Be Authentic, Be Real, Be Different

Actions you can take at your school:

The eduWeb Conference in Bite-size Chunks

More From the eduWeb Conference