sept 20 2012 ona show me the numbers
TRANSCRIPT
Show me the numbers: Grow your business with metrics
Susan Mernit Oakland Local/House of Local.org
September 2012 ONA#2012
What we’re discussing
• How can I look at core metrics and use them to grow what I do?
• What are the basic tools and ?ps to work with?
• How do I make decisions based on metrics data? • What are best prac?ces to follow working with metrics in an ongoing way?
• What are some good ?me management prac?ces around metrics repor?ng
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QuesIons Answered
How can I look at core metrics and use them to grow what I
do?
What are the basic tools and ?ps to work with?
How do I make decisions based on
metrics data?
What are best prac?ces to follow
working with metrics in an ongoing way?
What are some good Ime management pracIces around metrics reporIng?
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Metrics: A must-‐have • Metrics are core for site operators, media entrepreneurs & everyone who makes decisions about 9me/money and return on effort
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Metrics data: reality check on the impact of what you and your team are doing over 9me—and right now
Some core measurement tools
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Google Analytics
Facebook & Facebook Insights
Twitter & Tweetreach
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• Star9ng point-‐-‐Google Analy9cs dashboard measures site data including • Traffic • Audience • Content • Geography
Essen9al GA metrics to evaluate
– Time spent
– Pages viewed – Returning vs. new visitors – Referral source – LocaIon – Unique visitors – Page views – PlaRorms/access
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But it’s a matrix: Metrics are most meaningful in rela9onship to one another
Being strategic about data helps to drive site growth
• Google AnalyIcs –puVng two numbers together – Referral traffic: Where are the most engaged users coming from? (referral traffic/Ime spent metrics)
– Content behaviors: What is average 9me spent per story? How do content stats per story (NOT averages) relate?
– Content: What keywords drive traffic for my site?
– What are top entrance pages (correlate with search engine traffic)
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Decisions you can make based on Google AnalyIcs data
• Type of content (topics, trending issues, cost) • Geographic focus (review of locaIon & mission)
• Social media markeIng outreach: Focus on top social media referral sources based on – Top referrers – Best Ime spent metrics from specific referrers – Campaign reviews (newslebers)
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LocaIon: Checking for geographic focus
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The LocaIon tab (under Audience Demographics) shows where your audience is from—essen9al for sales/funders
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Oakland Local City data
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Date shows both city focus & regional reach
Understanding Mobile
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Under Audience, Google Analy9cs will tell you what percentage of your audience Is via mobile—and which plaKorms—cri9cal for development plans
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Considering tablets, apps, responsive themes
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Understanding current user base mobile access is part of research for potenIal development—and a great jusIficaIon for everyone moving into responsive themes
GA: Checking content & interest vs. referrals & landing pages
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IMPACT: Improve understanding of top content and referral sources
Example: Top story with drive by traffic
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Let’s imagine: You run a story on a local issues—say foreclosure—that is one of yr top trafficked stories for the week. Story gets 12,000 page views (good traffic for a smaller site) Average time spent reading this story is 1.11 minutes Average time spent reading most of your stories is 2.45 minutes
What gives? Check out that data That week, Google.com sent 35,000 visitors according to yr referral data Average time on site for Google refers: .52 seconds This story was one of your top 3 landing pages Assumption: lower time spent reading due to Google refers
Benefit: Data can not only set baseline norms for performance but can explain impact of broad and deep reach for specific stories, different audiences
Other core metrics tools
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Measures Facebook page data
Measures tweet impact
Facebook Insights
Facebook Insights Likes Comments
Twitter Followers Retweets Tweet reach
Facebook provides INSTANT feedback
Content & Audience
• What’s popular (views)
• What’s being referred (viral) • Who is your audience
(followers & demographics)
Ads & social marke9ng
• Tracking response on social markeIng/promoIon posts
• Tracking likes & reposts
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Apply Facebook data to recruit new adverIsers, fine tune your content, define audiences, drive traffic to website
Facebook Insights-‐Admins can access
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Insights is the equivalent Of Google Analy9cs for Business—not personal-‐Facebook pages—need 30+ followers Data is exportable—correlate with Google Analy9cs in your analyses
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Use the FB demographics data!
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Who’s talking shows demographics—key for adverIsers—and for targeIng content
Making inferences: How does Facebook data compare?
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Looking at Facebook locaIon data for Oakland Local compared to Google analyIcs data shows strong consistency for audience locaIons; • Does that suggest the demographic data— • age, gender—might be accurate as well? • How does FB demographic data correlate with • self-‐selected user survey data?
How does audience/locaIon data correlate with site editorial/business goals?
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Twitter: Some metrics tools, but not that many
Twiber can show you menIons, retweets, interacIons—but data Is limited. Third-‐party tools offer more analysis, ReporIng: • Tweetreach • Tweetmeme • Twibergrader—a few of MANY
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Tweetreach is a criIcal Twiber metrics tool
• Shows most retweeted
• Shows top retweeters
• Shows top tweets and how far each reach
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Tweetreach report First screen
How many people are you reaching via TwiVer—and who are they? Tweetreach gives you data
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Tweetreach data dive—who’s contribu9ng to your stream?
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Workflow and process best pracIces
Source: http://fobango.com
Create a reporIng dashboard to track stats over Ime-‐ Excel
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Spreadsheet tracking key metrics month by month, quarter by quarter.
Build or download a template to collect data
Check data weekly All rights reserved. Houseoflocal.org
Your dashboard should track
• Google Analy9cs • Unique visitors • First Ime vs. repeat visitors • Time on site • Pages per visit • Bounce rate • Top 10 Content (by page views or by unique visitors) • Number of comments (conversion goal) • Number of member blog posts (conversion goal) • New members (conversion goal) • Top referring sources
Let’s discuss: how does this work as a weekly/daily report?
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Your dashboard should track
• Facebook Insights • Followers • Demographics • LocaIon
• Likes/virality • Tweetreach
• Top Tweets • Top Tweeters • Most retweeted
Let’s discuss: how does this work as a weekly/daily report?
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When do you check stats?
• Daily or weekly – 30 minutes or less
– Look at basic weekly stats • Top content • Top referrers • Time spent/bounce metrics
• Monthly – 90 minutes
– Review all stat sources – Build a monthly report – Compare 6 month trend data
• Google AnalyIcs • Facebook Insights • Tweetreach
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Want to learn more about GA?
Videos on the Official Google AnalyIcs YouTube Channel
are a quality resource.
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Putting knowledge To work—
Source: http://blog.podio.com All rights reserved. Houseoflocal.org
Things to Ask & Try
Workflow: Monthly reporIng?
• What does a monthly report about your site look like? – Construct a monthly report across all data sources highlighIng metrics you consider meaningful/important
– Make some inferences/asserIons and test them
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Pu\ng info to work-‐-‐Start with basic analysis
Planning
• What is your site’s greatest strength according to Google AnalyIcs?
• Example: High number of returning visits, high Ime spent on pages metrics
• Use stats to portray your strengths-‐Create a 1 pager • What is a problem you see in your site that Google
AnalyIcs shows you?
– Example: High bounce rate, poor referrals from social media despite puVng investment there
– Use stats to portray-‐-‐Create a 1 pager 34 All rights reserved. Houseoflocal.org
Followup
• Should we have a peer learning circle? – If yes, contact [email protected]
– More on metrics (including the basics): hbp://slideshare.com/susanmernit
– 1:1 discussions—contact [email protected]
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Contact info
• Susan Mernit [email protected], [email protected]
@susanmernit, @oaklandlocal hbp://oaklandlocal.com hbp://houseoflocal.org
hbp://susanmernit.com
hbp://susanmernit.tumblr.com
Susanmernit, instagram, pinterest
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