What gets measured gets managed.

In the real-time, uber-competitive online space, the success of a site (and likely YOU as a web analyst/online marketer) is dependent on the team’s ability to successfully do a few things quickly and effectively: optimize for search engine rank, generate online leads, boost traffic via high-performing advertising campaigns, and build social media engagement (i.e. a large number of Facebook fans). While analytics (i.e. the measurement) is seen as beneficial  in driving EFFECTIVE, QUALITY results or recommendations, it often comes as a secondary “nice-to-have” support to these primary, results-driven actions.

This is understandable – small businesses ESPECIALLY do not have time to sit around and analyze numbers  all day without just getting out there and getting the job done! The analyst’s approach to this?

The DON’T: “I can analyze the data to give you valuable recommendations for site changes.”

This just adds to the team’s “to-do” list, and really they don’t have time for you to analyze – they need you to get 100 Facebook fans by 5 o’clock!

The DO: “I can quickly and effectively reach your goal in every action I take [or recommend], as everything I do is driven and supported by the analytics at hand.”

In other words, not only do I know what your goal is (based on historical site performance data), but I know which specific actions will work (based on site performance data and testing), how to target the actions appropriately (based on behavioral site data) and how long before such actions pay off (based on site performance against set goals).

Show me the measurements, I’ll show you the results. Together we can take the online path of least resistance to reach your business goals.

Here are some of the initial questions I had and my take on an “answer” (whatever that means after only a day of rollout)!

THE BASICS

What is it?
‘Promoted Tweets’ are keyword ads that appear as a single tweet at the top of a relevant search, as seen below.

Source:  Twitpic and Mashable “Twitter Promoted Tweets are Live”

How does it work?
Initially, promoted tweets will be rolled out on a cost-per-thousand (CPM) pricing model, until Twitter is able to track performance via not only click-through rates (CTR) but a new metric called “resonance” – a measure based on how many times the ad is either retweeted, marked as a favorite, or replied to. Once it is determined how effective promoted tweets are in boosting resonance over standard tweets, a performance-based model may emerge.

What is the timeline?
Current rollout for use consists of a beta test by brands like Starbucks, Bravo, and Virgin America. Promoted tweets will appear initially only in search results on Twitter.com. From there, Twitter will test and monitor consumer feedback and resonance scores before making possible 4^th quarter decisions to advertise in user feeds or on third-party clients like TweetDeck or Tweetie.

QUESTIONS FOR THOUGHT, INVESTIGATION, AND TESTING

Will the Twitter search model be as effective as the search model used by the search engines?
First, search advertising has proven a consistent and targeted revenue stream for Google and others. There was certainly never a question of “if” as much as “when” Twitter would look for another monetization stream. After data indexing partnerships with major search engines like Google, Yahoo, and Bing, promoted tweets is only the second revenue stream for the platform, with a possible “professional account” fee stream to follow per AdAge.

That said, critics have questioned if Twitter users conduct enough commercial searches on the platform to warrant critical mass. When compared to the quantity of Google commercial searches, Twitter may seem miniature, but my argument would be to look less at the quantity of searches and more at:

1. the high growth that Twitter has seen in usage and content, both of which have affected the rank of user feeds in traditional search engine results;
2. and the quality of Twitter users.  In my opinion, those users that are loyal enough (or simply technologically savvy enough) to interact with their favorite brands via the Twitter medium are likely more attentive, engaged, and hopefully more influential in becoming unpaid consumer advocates, serving to boost both awareness and qualified, convertible web traffic via their followers or friends.

Will consumers be turned off by advertising that permeates yet another social network?
Mashable has already reported a Twitter Sentiment score of 71% negative sentiment on the hashtag #promotedtweets, suggesting at least an initial consumer backlash. This should be taken with a grain of salt, however, as fear of the unknown (i.e. will the ads be hidden in my user feed) and the known (i.e. please, no more obtrusive banner ads) can certainly drive such sentiment.

Personally, I do not mind being served contextually relevant or behaviorally targeted ads. These are more likely to speak to what I am looking for, and if I choose to click at all, these would certainly solicit a higher click potential from me than standard banner ads.  Further, if marketers are smart, they will capitalize on the typical use of Twitter to boost brand awareness and engagement and use such ads to invite users to “join the conversation” or check out their site versus sell them on an immediate purchase.

Who should use Twitter advertising?
Let us first leave out the cost factor, as costs could be as minimal/manageable as other social networks or they could be prohibitive as major brands compete on popular search topics. Cost aside, both large and small brands have multiple tools by which to measure and dictate their use of Twitter already, whether it be: Twitter influence (Twitalyzer), brand feelings or sentiment (Twitter Sentiment), historically trending or popular topics (Analytic.ly), or click-throughs via tweets (URL shorteners), etc.

Promoted tweets, like most search advertising methods, simply add another layer of support. A major brand with an already large Twitter following and likely automatic, bot-driven updates, can benefit from an engaging ad tagline to both freshen its image and attract new followers. A small brand who excels at the engagement factor, participating one-on-one with its followers or local store visitors, can benefit from a larger awareness and thus traffic boost outside what would organically come to it.

Sources and Additional References:

Twitter has a business model: ‘Promoted Tweets’ (AdAge)
Why you should advertise on Twitter (AdAge)
Promoted Tweets not resonating well on twitter (Mashable)
Promoted Tweets 5 things to know (blog)
Promoted Tweets: Initial Impressions (Omniture blog)

“How to be a millionaire from your blog” was the title of a recent webinar by Brazen Careerist founder Penelope Trunk. Catchy — like one of those “do nothing, work from home” scams offers. Ironically, this is exactly what most bloggers think they can do by simply putting ads on their site and waiting for clicks.  Penelope HAS made money from her blog however – not from putting up ads that make cents on the dollar via a limited number of clicks, but rather through “self-discipline” and knowing where to “work for free,” making trades for valuable services through her online community.

As Penelope suggests, the drive for monetizing an ever-growing number of content-driven sites that range from blogs to media sites to social networks requires, above all else, creativity – the ability to go beyond the traditional advertising model to get real value from your site.

The traditional advertising model for the online world says that eyeballs = dollars, i.e. just drive traffic to your site and the money will follow. This may ultimately be the case, but startup sites need a little more insight to move from hobby to revenue stream. Take a freelance project of mine, a Spanish language social network with a growing 7,000+ member base and a continuous stream of user-generated and shared content. The founder is GREAT at generating ideas, but until the site makes money, they are using their personal funds, time, and energy without seeing a return.

The task? For every idea generated, figure out some creative way to “make” (or save) money.

Example – Currently, the founder is reaching out to various Latin artists and authors from which to get written interviews and thus boost user interest in site content.

Non-monetary goals are seemingly simple – boost the number of user sign-ups, average number of page views, and ultimate user engagement via highly targeted content that is most apt to be shared.

We asked ourselves two questions, however, to get to the true bottom-line implications.

• What do we have to offer?
  Not only are we giving free publicity to the featured artist but are typically putting a direct link to their site or product on our site – ultimately providing a traffic increase to their site.
• What can they (in this case, the artists) offer us?
  The stereotype of the “struggling artist” means that, while we could exchange a feature article for a piece of art, we may or may not get money from them to advertise now or in the future. We could likely get other artist referrals, but sorry ‘art’…sometimes cash is king.

How do we use this information?

• Up-sell advertising or content:  Track relevant conversions (whether they be click-throughs or purchases) that flow to the featured artist. Use this information to sell advertising to the featured artist or, at minimum, persuade future artists to take part in a paid or non-paid feature piece.
• Solicit reciprocal publicity and INBOUND LINKS: You already have an inbound link to their site and are featuring their name. If the artist does not want to put a permanent link to your site on one of their pages, they can at minimum blog about how they were featured on your site, mentioning your name and likely, putting a direct link to the featured article that sends their own visitors back to you.
• Pick your artists well: Obviously, the more famous the artists/authors, the more likely you are to get visits to your site, either via your own visitors, the artist’s followers, or simple organic traffic. Plus, the more followers or the better the artist’s PageRank, the more it can benefit your site, with or without an actual monetary exchange (but certainly saving you the expense of paid traffic).

Note: Offline media publishers have probably long dealt with featured content, both paid and unpaid. Whether you have experienced this in the online or offline world, what creative “trades” or “up-sells” have you made? Have you used the above suggestions before, and if so, with what result?

For social media to “work” as it’s meant to, it must not only reach possible listeners (similar to traditional media “impressions”), but engage such listeners with impactful content that turns them into active participants and/or influential consumer brand evangelists. The online tactics by which you solicit reach and create content are up to you, but some simple metrics can help you gauge performance and make decisions as you go along.

Reach
Reach, at its simplest level, can be tracked via the number of followers you obtain over time and the number of lists by which your site is lumped into comparable, searchable categories. These metrics are useful in making sure your Tweets are heard, but do not ultimately matter if you are not getting effective engagement and follow-through to desired activities.

Engage
In a recent post at his website AnilBatra.com, consultant Anil Batra sets forth three basic KPIs by which Twitter can be measured [here is the original post]:

1. Number of Retweets
   The number of “endorsements” for your post that others send out to their followers, either via the direct Twitter link next to the post or use of RT @[your Twitter username]. From your Home page, these can be tracked in the Twitter sidebar, under the Retweets ”Your Tweets, Retweeted” selection tab.
   

   Your Tweets, Retweeted

2. Number of @[username] Replies
   The number of replies you receive in response to your content, indicating that someone else is reading what you write, and has chosen to respond! [Note: The @[username] ability can be both given and received…using it in reply to your consumers can allow you to engage in a two-way conversation]. The tone of the response can further be used to gauge positive or negative sentiment surrounding your brand or content.
   

   @OCAnalytics reply in Twitter

3. Visit Rate (i.e. number of visits that come from a link in your Tweets)
   The visit rate measures the number of visits to your site that come by way of whatever link you might post in your Tweets. In other words, this is web traffic driven by Twitter, measured as % Visit Rate = (Visits/Followers)*100.

According to a secondary Twitter measurement post by Anil, there are two common yet WRONG ways by which analysts (including myself) have typically measured the “visit” portion that comes from Twitter.

• Using the Referring Site/Domain report of your analytics tool – Anil says there are two problems with this:

“1.  Twitter.com is not the only way to access Twitter. A lot of people use 3rd  party tools like Tweetdeck…A click on a link from such a tool won’t show up in the “Referring Sites/Domains” reports…it will be listed as “Direct Traffic” or “No referrer”.
2.  You can’t see the how each individual link (tweet) performed. Without this information, how do you know what works and what does not? How do you know what words trigger your followers interest?”

• Using the click count in your URL shortener (i.e. Bit.ly) – In this case, clicks do not necessarily mean visits, as some clicks could be non-human, i.e. bots or spiders. Additionally, click counts limit the information available as to post-user behavior on your site.

So what is the RIGHT or more accurate way? Anil recommends treating “every link posted on Twitter as a new campaign”, tagged with proper campaign variables that can be tracked as such in your web analytics tool.

Tools

Twitalyzer – Comprehensive engagement metrics
Think of this as the Google Analytics for Twitter – dashboards and reports of 20+ unique-to-Twitter metrics, a recommendation system of tactics to improve said metrics, and the ability to “Twitalyze” any Twitter user (perhaps a key competitor) to see how they stack up.
-    Takeaway? Multiple metrics at the touch of a button. That said, metrics for metrics sake can easily overwhelm…as with any analytics tool, focus on those metrics pertinent to your site’s goals/life stage and use Twitalyzer to learn basic tips and tricks by which to improve them.

URL builder – Proper link tagging
As mentioned above, Anil recommends treating links as tracked campaigns, and this can be done with use of the campaign tracking capability in your analytics tool. Anil and Google Analytics both have a URL builder by which you can generate a URL containing the source (i.e. twitter), medium (i.e. tweet), and name (i.e. whatever identifier you want to give to your Tweet) by which visits can be properly attributed to the source (Twitter) and direct tweet by which they come to your site. Anil goes through this process in more detail in his post.
-       Google Analytics URL builder tool
-      Anil Batra URL builder tool

“Simple,” the analyst says, “you hired me [if the owner was indeed smart enough to hire you!]. And surely you paid more for me than for your tool, correct [if, again, this is an insightful owner]?”

Sure the owner’s heart may skip a beat upon hearing this, but how often have you seen their eyes glaze over when you spout off a variety of fancy metrics or acronyms (i.e. “KPI”) that you’ve so carefully gathered?  How often does he ask for an update without even looking at that well-designed dashboard?

And therein lies the opportunity…moving from an endless supply of clickstream (i.e. traffic) data to determining and answering questions that ultimately matter to the owner, sales staff, and marketing team as they serve their customers via a website or expanded web presence. And of course, this is done by finding key ACTIONABLE insights that bring useful results, and at the most basic level, answer such questions as:

• Is our social media campaign working?
• How is our new product selling?
• Did people watch our video or download our white paper?
• Where should we allocate our online dollars?
• And perhaps NOT so basic but clearly a driver — How is this benefitting the company’s bottom-line?

Of course there is the technical route to get to these answers, of which I am continually learning as I go along, but likely (a) the owners don’t care HOW you get the answers, and (b) these questions can’t always be answered with just a simple, automatically generated response as might be found in your web analytics tool. Rather, they require a deeper quantitative and qualitative analysis of the customer’s interaction with your web presence, focusing on the underlying customer needs and behaviors that ultimately drive any website changes.

This sounds like a daunting task when taking “aggregately”…but as with any iterative process, small wins can lead to bigger wins. When working with a client, this doesn’t mean “winning” by telling them what they want to hear or solving their greatest business problem right off the bat, but it DOES mean, at minimum, earning their trust with proven results, however small. As the trust builds, so can the scope of your efforts and the deeper-level recommendations you can provide.

I think of my tweets as more of a reference for myself, as I work to stay on top of the ever-changing Internet game and follow those gurus, vendors, content providers, or analytics professionals that seem to know what they are talking about! If this helps any stream of followers, so be it…

How has Twitter helped you or your business?? What kind of info ‘IV drip’ – source or topic – do you rely on for continuous business-related learning?
Bonus question: If you use Twitter to generate site traffic or build follower engagement, have you effectively been able to #measure such efforts? More to come in future posts (or tweets… www.twitter.com/ocanalytics)

So now, a year or so into my web analyst studies and in the midst of report development for a local marketing software firm,  I thought I would simply outline a couple of things that I’ve found to be important in just this short time. This list is neither comprehensive nor an expert source, obviously, but hey, I still have time!

1.   Requirements Gathering
As I was looking for tutorials on how to write a functional spec (the document that details every aspect of a site for the developer, to the point that they have NO questions), I found the phrase that the spec (as well as the analyst, in my opinion) involves the “marrying of business strategy, technical requirements, and usability,” with emphasis on customer/client usability above all else. While you may think first of the business needs, i.e. what you need to gain or provide with your site, those needs are meaningless if customer cannot navigate, read, or use the site effectively.

2.   Presentation & Visualization
Sure, Google Analytics or SiteCatalyst may  have the fancy, built-in, interactive charts, but when I was tasked with coming up with our own system of reports for use by marketers and analysts, I had to think about every chart and graph in terms of clearly presenting the data in the way that makes it almost obvious what action to take or interpretation to make. I will not be there myself to explain the data or make educated recommendations, so I have to shape the reports so they can be read anywhere from the most to the least experienced analysts. Let the experienced analysts have the raw data!

Obviously, charts are great, but can definitely be subject to “data overload”…just as companies who do not know how to use the immense amount of data they are provided on a daily basis, it is best to keep it simple.  By focusing on data that drives ACTION versus every known fact, figure, or chart, users can stay focused on the goal at hand and selectively drilldown to areas that need further investigation.

3.   “Selling” the Data
After gathering all the business and technical requirements, then deciding how best to present the data, one crucial aspect will likely be selling your “work” to SOMEONE–whether it be getting your project manager to sign off, getting a client to use it, or justifying an action you took based on the data. Unfortunately, while there may be “industry-standard” terms, there is rarely a standard definition of what the term means, or at least how the data behind it is collected and measured.

The least you should do is come up with a consistent definition and stick to it. Then, at least those reading your report can understand where you are coming from…even if they don’t agree with your definition, they can at least trust that you results are nothing if not consistent! If they want to argue the merits of your calculation later, at least you have a leg of reasoning to stand on.

4.   Resources
Every day I have to look up something, so I guess every day I learn something, right? That said, here are just a couple resources that I have found to be worth a look:

Functional Spec Tutorial

How a Web Analyst Should Spend Their Day (& the Occam's Razor blog in general, by WA guru Avinash Kaushik)

Actionable Analytics blog

Web Analytics Demystified Blogs (by such WA gurus as Eric T. Peterson and Judah Phillips among others)

...and of course you can follow me on Twitter where I post about my searches and often "re-tweet" other great resources!

In a recent interview with Avinash Kaushik, Google Analytics guru and the author of Web Analytics: An Hour a Day (which is on my “to read list” btw), he refers back to one of his long-standing tenets of segmenting customers until you get something insightful that you can understand and act on! That said, according to Avinash, with so much analytics data, it is important to start by segmenting the key customer targets for your business.

Three segments Avinash recommends drilling down into to start are:

• The people who convert – understand how they got there & what is important to them once they arrive
• The areas where you spend money -find areas of both efficiency & improvement
• The primary purposes for visiting the site by task completion rate – for all the reasons people come to your site, which tasks are they unable to complete?

No matter what segments you start with, however, Avinash implies the goal to be actionable insight on “lots of different kinds of people from different sources with different intents consuming different content trying to solve different tasks.”

Obviously this key segment information can be worth its weight in gold, but what are some other benefits of raw segmentation data versus aggregated results? What segments do you feel warrant the most focus for your business?

I started with a quick Google search just to get my mind rolling beyond the traditional answer of “a huge fan base,” and I have a couple of avenues to consider. Before I post any more thoughts or delve into it further, however, I wondered if you might cast your vote as to what measure you personally feel might be most important in gauging social network success? Oh yeah, & check out our page at www.twitter.com/ocanalytics…maybe I can update THAT more frequently!

An article on AdAge last week commented on this “phenomenon” of agencies taking on a comprehensive set of services for its clients in a one-stop shop or “hub-and-spoke” type model.  One reason for this according to the article is due to the personal-communication revolution, meaning the way media is both consumed and created across fragmented media sources.  When you have consumers forming large but “unofficial” groups on social networks or tweet decks being formed around people who mentiona certain brand or product in passing, it becomes much harder for a company to control its brand message and reputation.

This is where ad agencies, accompanied with analytics, can come into play. First, these agencies can take on the burden of controlling the brand across multiple user-generated sites while planting positive subliminal seeds or messages of their own.  Second, agencies can use analytics to measure brand messaging and associated results through constant scanning and measurement techniques, following the mantra that “If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it.”

What are some “non-traditional” ways that you’ve promoted and/or controlled your company’s brand message across new media sources?