Big Data 201: Analyzing and Acting on Key Social Media and Digital Metrics

Big Data 201Analyzing and Acting on

Key Social Media and Digital Metrics

Tips on putting data to work for your business. How to utilize the right tools to help you make real-time decisions to optimize your strategies and understand your

success or failure.

Tweet Along:

@Rcoristin05

@MelamedRiley

Rachel VanArsdale Social Media Specialist

Overview April 10th

• Big Data 101 Recap

• 10 Data Tools– Focus on Google Analytics– Data Visualization

• Third Party Data Tools

Big Data: Simplified

“Any data that contains non-obvious information that businesses can discover and exploit to improve their outcomes is valuable data, even if it's not necessarily ‘big.’"

- Srinidhi Melkote, Director of Analytics for Wyndham Exchange and Rentals

Big Data: Un-Tamed

Steps To Tame Big Data1. Define Your Business Objectives

2. Set Goals To Achieve Objectives

3. Align Metrics With Goals

4. Set Quantifiable Targets

5. Define Meaningful Segments

“Applying analytics enables marketing to combine fact-based decision-making with creativity.”

- Marketing Profs

Application is Key

Big Data: Tamed

No Such Thing As A Silver Bullet

When It Comes To Measuring ROI

So what can you do NOW?

10 tools you can use to better understand your data and efforts

1. Do Your Prep Work

• Meet with key decision makers

• Define what success looks like

• Understand what you need to measure before collecting data

The Right Effort Beforehand

Will Yield Better Results In The End

In Google We Trust

Google Analytics 101: What and Where? Who is on my site now?• What are they looking at?• Where did they come from?

Who came to my site? • Where are they from?• Have they been here before?• How often do they come?

How did someone find my site?• Tweet, search engine (keyword, paid or

organic?), email, QR code, campaign, etc.

What did they look at? • What content/page?• Where did they enter and leave?• What did they search for?

Were they successful? • Did they complete a goal?• Did they convert?• If not, where did they drop out?

2. Start Tracking Owned Data

• Track Your “Owned” Marketing Initiatives:– What content is performing best?– What ad units are performing best?– What platform is driving the most traffic?

Understand where and what you should continue investing and in

Google URL Builder: UTM Codes

• Add UTM Parameters to make custom URLs with Google’s URL Builder tool

• UTM - Urchin Tracking Module

• UTM codes only work when the URL is linking back to one of your domains tied to a Google Analytics account.

Google URL Builder: http://bit.ly/10FvbiE

What does a UTM link look like:

Before:http://www.themrsite.com/blog/2013/04/dumped-by-google-reader-here-are-a-few-alternatives-to-help-you-move-on/

After:http://www.themrsite.com/blog/2013/04/dumped-by-google-reader-here-are-a-few-alternatives-to-help-you-move-on/?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Social&utm_campaign=MRBlog&utm_content=GR%20Alternatives

UTM Parameter Fields• Campaign Source: the site/platform your

content is being served on

• Campaign Medium: the marketing medium are you using

• Campaign Term: any paid keywords that will cause the ad to display

• Campaign Content: use this field to differentiate between your content

• Campaign Name: define the specific campaign various content will be attributed to

How to use UTM Parameters: http://bit.ly/11FQMds

Where do you find UTM data?

• Drill down on what content sources, mediums and/or campaigns are driving the most traffic for you

• Campaign data is dumped into a unique Traffic Source bucket when a visitor enters via a UTM link

Where can you use UTM links?

• Social Posts• Text Links• Press Releases• Banner Ads• eNewsletters• Email• QR code links used in Print or Direct Mail

3. Shorten URLs

• Fit into a 140 character world

• Track engagement

• Analyze your content

• Present clean URLs

• Stay organized

URL Shortener:

• Built-in URL Parameter Tools

• Scheduling functionality for increased efficiency

• Click reporting for shortened links

• Bundling:- Organization- Campaigns

• Advanced reporting

• QR code generation

• Easy social sharing

URL Shortener:

• Control your alias by providing a custom one• http://tinyurl.com/mrblog80

• URL preview feature

• Speculation it helps SEO

• Stay aware since you never know when Google will make it mandatory

Other Notable URL Shortening Tools

goo.gl

Where should I use shortened links?

• Social Media: Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn• YouTube description: call to actions• Emails• Presentations• QR codes

Anything traceable and clickable!

4. Bonus Tool: Best Time to Tweet

• Understand when your audience is active

• Optimize your sharing for increased engagement

• Track seasonal trends

• Real-time data

MR Tweet Doc: Introduction Tab

MR Tweet Doc: Tweet List Tab

Data to enter:• Tweet date – month, year and day will auto fill• Tweet copy• Tweet link• Schedule time• Number of clicks• Segment/Category

MR Tweet Doc: Summary Tab

MR Tweet Doc: Data Source

MR Tweet Doc: Custom Tables

Download it here: http://bit.ly/16OZ029

5. Set Goals to Measure Value

• Without clearly defined goals it’s difficult to measure value

• Goals help you determine the success or failure rate of your visitor’s actions

• Start with defining the actions you want users to take on your site

Goals You Can TrackLeads:

– “Contact us” form completions – Content downloads – Newsletter signups – Trial/demo requests – Webinar signups

Site Engagement: – Time on site – Number of pages viewed– Product video views– Specific text link call to actions– Specific content viewed on site

Where do I set up goals?

• Go to the “Admin” section of Google Analytics (Top Right)

• Select your profile name (normally your website name)

• Select the “Goals” section to create and edit them

Goal Set Up Fields

Give Goals Descriptive Names

Select Goal Type (4)

Start and Stop Tracking Data

More Info on Goal Types: http://bit.ly/YEvdcB

Goal Type: URL Destination • Track when a user enters a specific page on your website

Match Type Info: http://bit.ly/XxqZF2More Info on URL Goals: http://bit.ly/12xNVC3

Enter unique strand in goal URL

Select URL match type

Check this box only in the situation where you want to match only one of two identical URLs which differ only by case

Goal Type: Visit Duration• Record activity every time someone spends a certain amount of time

on your site

- What content do visitors consume who stay for more than X minutes?

- What makes these converted visitors unique?

Enter duration you want people to stay to be considered “converted”

Goal Type: Pages/Visit • Track a goal for a set number of pages that you want visitors to view

during a visit

- How engaged are visitors with your site?

- Is your content keeping them digging and moving along a funnel?

Enter the number of pages you want people to visit to be considered “converted”

Goal Type: Event

More Info on Event Goals: http://bit.ly/10uwRNiDeveloper Info: http://bit.ly/Y6wxBo

• Track events by adding a snippet of code to your site

• Once GA is tracking the event, you can set it to track categories, actions, labels, values and implicit counts for things like:

- Content Tabs- Buttons - Text links- Video plays and more

Where do I find goal information?• Overview: See the conversion rates and

number of completions for each goal you have set up

• Goal URLs: See the number of completions and the cumulative value of those conversions distributed by each goal’s completion page

• Reverse Goal Path: See the unique navigation path that was used to reach the selected goal

• Funnel Visualization: See where visitors enter and abandon the funnel for the goal you have selected

• Goal Flow: Visualize traffic as it flows through your funnel toward goal completion or conversionSetting up Google Goals and Funnels: http://bit.ly/16Fi4Qq

Analyze Goal Traffic• Segment your data by the goal you want to

analyze to view those converted visits as a unique segment: – Understand what makes those visitors unique

enough to convert

• View goal Source/Medium:– Pinpoint how different social platforms are

contributing to goals • Publications• Ads and more

• View what efforts have (or have not) contributed to helping you achieve goal conversions:– You can view UTM’ed campaign data here

6. Utilize Profile Filters and SegmentsView your data through a special lens based on:

• Groups of People

• Sources

• Types of Visitors

• Site Behavior

• Campaigns

Understanding what separates your best customers and visitors from your worst.

Advanced Segments vs. Filters

Segment: You can examine historical data for an advanced segment, even if you just created the segment today

Segment: You can see and compare multiple advanced segments side by side in reports

Filter: A filtered profile will only contain data starting from the date you created it

Filter: You can only view data for one filtered profile at a time

When do I use a Filter vs. Segment? • A filtered profile is usually the best choice if you

want to always exclude a certain kind of traffic from your analysis:– For example, create a profile that excludes

internal traffic

– You can always apply other advanced segments to the filtered profile data

• If you want to limit some users' access to only a

subset of data, you should set up filtered profiles for this instead of using advanced segments

Where do I add profile filters?

• Go to the “Admin” section of Google Analytics (Top Right)

• Select your profile name (normally your website name)

• Select the “Filters” section to create and edit them

Filter: Internal Traffic

Don’t know it? http://whatismyipaddress.com/

Click “New Filter”

Name the Filter

Choose “Exclude” and “Traffic from IP Addresses”

Enter IP Address

Where do I find segments?You can apply, edit and create profile segments here:

Creating Advanced Segments

Add a custom segment by clicking here

Name your segment

Dimensions are in green and metrics are in blue

More Info on Creating Advanced Segments: http://bit.ly/ZHDCr8

You can add “or”/“and” statements to create more complex segments (see link)

Put Segments To Work• View data based on specific efforts:

– Campaigns– Marketing Medium– Sources

• View data based on regions:– Regional Reporting: Cities or States– Where do you have growth?– What region is

converting/consuming more?

• View data based on brand recognition:– Segment visits “Including” brand terms– Segment visits “Excluding” brand terms– Evaluate what makes them different

Some Handy Segments: Click to Add• Social Media Visit with 5+ Pages Viewed

• All Social Traffic

• Social Media Converting Traffic

• Mobile Visitors (By Operating System)

• 3 Keyword Visit

• Organic Converting Traffic

• Other Ready-To-Use Google Segments:

http://bit.ly/12vYMjG

Source: Koozai and Avinash

http://bit.ly/16Gg1xo

http://bit.ly/16Fh2E8

http://bit.ly/16Fhhz9

http://bit.ly/Z1JRKv

http://bit.ly/17l5SHV

http://bit.ly/ZHDOXC

7. Visitor Funnel

Add a segment to understand how different types of groups of people navigate your site.

Can Help You Identify:

• What content could be useful in a mobile app

• How to make your site more mobile friendly

EX: A Mobile Traffic Segment

8. Intelligence Events• Find out when and where something

unexpected happened:• A spike or dip in traffic• Increase in goal conversions

• Analyze metrics and dimension against forecasted values to call out variances:• Daily• Weekly• Monthly

• Automatic Alerts and Custom Alerts

How to create custom alerts: http://bit.ly/Z8ptHy

Monthly Event Example

Metric View

Monthly Event Example

Dimension View

View a single dimension/metric alerts report

9. Utilize Google’s Solutions Gallery

Find it here: http://bit.ly/ZHDYOJ

• Google has done the work for you

• Easy to download dashboards

• Choose the type of reporting tool you need

• Find the solution that meets your business’ specific goals

• Pinpoint the metrics that help you decipher which initiatives you are investing in are working

Social Media Dashboard

Click to add

Select Profile and Click “Create”

• Easy to read dashboards• New visitor acquisition from social• Social visits and quality from mobile• On-site social actions• Social traffic analysis• And more

Some metrics do need set-up to track accordingly

10. Data Visualization

• Do your prep work to make the process easier

• Take the time to do it regularly

• Understand how your key decision makers like to consume data

• Use the available native tools

Google’s Dashboards and Widgets• Take pre-defined metrics and add them to

your Google dashboard

• View saved dashboards and add new ones

• Create custom dashboards by adding widgets for your key metrics

Native Social Dashboards

• Facebook Insights

• YouTube Insights

• Pinterest Analytics

• Hootsuite Dashboard

• “Share This” Stats

One Size Does Not Fit All

When It Comes To Data Dashboards

Third Party Data Tools/Curators

• PageLever• Tableau• Social Bro• Hubspot• Facebook Data

Grabber• Visual.ly – Google Tool

• Excellent Analytics• Statigram• Pingraphy • Tweet Reach• Geckoboard• Topsy• Bring Share

Don’t get lost in the data

• Your audience is telling you what they want, and what you should be doing

Stop and Listen

rvanarsdale@mradvertising.com

Any Questions?

@Rcoristin05or

@MelamedRiley