Jour 504 pr research 11 8-10

Web Analytics Basicsfor

Public Relations

JOUR 504 – Public Relations Research & EvaluationLaura Min Jackson

Nov. 9, 2010

Dana Chinn

• Media that can be measured

• Site metrics

• Social media metrics

Slides: www.slideshare.net/danachinnTwitter: @danachinn

3

Evaluating a public relations plan starts with setting goals, objectives

Start here

not here

4

Measure these…

Newspapers

MagazinesRadio TVDirect mail Yellow

PagesOutdoor

Publishers with display advertising

5

…and these…

*

*A “starting point” – doesn’t include search, lead generation, international, others. Ted Kawaja in paidContent.org, 9/28/10

Company site

E-mail

Video

Paid & earned media on social media, too!

6

…and don’t forget about…

Apps for each smartphone, carrier

Apps for tablets

WAP, or mobile web sites Geolocation

Quick Response codes

7

Return On Objective:What can you measure, optimize?

The actions people take

Company site

Are the targeted audiences aware?Did they come? From where? How many? Why?What did they do?Did they come back? Were they “engaged?”

And whether those actions were due to external events or your actions

E-mail

Video

8

What needs to be measured: All ways a person can engage with you*

* not “all the places you put content and hope everyone will come”

SITES

SOCIAL MEDIA

Computer

HomeWork

Public

Mobile devices

WAP/mobile web

Apps

Tablet

1

24

3 5 - 7

SEARCH

9

Audiences, actions, metrics differ by channel

SITES SOCIAL MEDIA

1. Who? How many? In target audience?

3. What did they see? Did they get want

they wanted?

4. Did they interact? What did they do?

How much?

2. No. of visits? How often?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

? ? ? ? ? ? ?

Totals*

* Different metrics, methodologies for each channel!

Counts only indicate a person was there at least once (and maybe only once)

10

Our site has 5,000 monthly unique visitors.

Last Tuesday that story got 20,000 page views.

The average time spent on our site last week was 24 minutes.

We have 5,000 Twitter followers.

Our iPhone app was downloaded 10,000 times.

We have 2,000 fans on our Facebook page.

11

Success is defined by the type, number of desired actions taken

Content actions

E-commerce actions

Saadkamal.com

e.g., rate, e-mail, comment

12

What people say they did

what they thinkand

why

as captured by surveys, focus groups, social media, usability studies

Site metrics

1. Behavioral research

What people did when they came to your site,as captured by

an action taken on a keyboard or mouse

2. Attitudinal research

13

Not only are the technologies new, but the metrics are as well. -Online Media and Marketing Association Metrics and Measurement program, June 2009

Social media metrics

1. Influencers

2. Content, context, sentiment

3. Calls to action answered

14

• Panel dataActivity from a sample of self-selected people. Only total site data for a limited number of sites.

• External dataUsed by agencies to compare sites

• comScoreNielsenCompeteetc.

• Interactive Advertising Bureau

Internal decision-making External marketing

Sources for site metrics

• Census data100% of all visitors, visits, page views for all sections

• Internal dataConfidential

• OmnitureGoogle AnalyticsWebTrendsetc.

• Web Analytics Association

15

Key Performance Indicator #1: Visits

A visit is counted

-- Unique visitors

-- Page views

every time someone comes to a site

An increase in visits? Always good.A decrease in visits? Always bad.

These metrics are usefulwhen put in ratios with visits, other metrics

16

A unique visitor is really a unique computer. Unique visitors are either over-counted…

17

…or under-counted.You don’t know when or by how much.*

* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than the number of people who came to your site.

library

?

18

An increase in page views can be good - or bad.*

* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than the number of pages people went to when they came to your site.

Bad design, navigation, site architecture? Lots of page views, annoyed users

A redesign improved usability? Fewer page views, happier users

Content that should be there but isn’t? Lots of page views, annoyed users

Dynamic content? Fewer page views, happier users (probably)

?

19

An increase in average time spent on site can be good - or bad.*

* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did people do what you wanted?) than how much time people spent on your site.

Bad design, navigation, site architecture? Lots of time spent, annoyed users

A redesign improved usability? Less time spent, happier users?

20

Systems only measure the time spent in between pages on a site, so…

The time spent of a user who goes only to one page is NOT included in the time spent calculation. ?

The time spent on the last pageof a site isn’t counted at all.

1 minute

10 minutes

Site X

Time spent = 1 minute

21

How often are they visiting?What, how much are they seeing?

Page views per visit

Visits per unique visitorKey Performance Indicator #2

Key Performance Indicator #3

22

Are you attracting new audiences?

Visits from new visitors

Visits from returning visitors

Key Performance Indicator #4

vs.

23

When audiences - new and returning - come, are they staying?

A bounce: a visit with only one page view

Bounce rate percentof the landing page where most visits start

Key Performance Indicator #5

“I came. I saw. I puked.”-- Avinash Kashik on bounce rate

24

WHY?

“What was the purpose of your visit today? Did you find what you wanted?”

…aren’t new audiences visiting?

…aren’t current audiences visiting and engaging with you more?

Usability studies

?

Get as much info as you can from every action taken on your site

An anonymous rating is the lowest level indicator of engagement

Consider site surveys, but treat them like focus groups

Old-fashioned but highly customized, focused surveys are the only way to get data for crucial strategic decisions

25

Overall site data consists of traffic from everyone

Northwest Cyberton

Southern Cyberton

Eastern Cyberton

Non-stakeholders

A name that stakeholders identify with

26

How much site traffic is from Cyberton?

NW Cyberton 50

E. Cyberton 25

S. Cyberton 25

Non-stakeholders 5

Success is defined by goals, priorities – not totals

27

NW Cyberton

E. Cyberton

S. Cyberton

Total Site

Universe

50

25 25

100

67%

200

50

325

Penetration

75

13%

50%

31%

Interactive Advertising Bureau illustration, 10/10

28

Social media: a constant stream of calls to action

Brands earn the trust and loyalty of their customers by listening and responding.

-- Interactive Advertising Bureau Social Media Ad Metrics Definitions, May 2009

...the true value of a networkis measured by the frequency of engagement of the participants.

--”The Maturation of Social Media ROI,” by Brian Solis, Mashable, Jan. 26, 2010

29

KPIs, outcomes will differ by type of social media channel

-- “Five essentials for social media marketing,” by Lisa Wehr, CEO/Oneupweb, iMedia Connection, July 17, 2009

Sharing

Networking

News

BookmarkingReviews

30

Social media metrics – focus on influencers

Do you know who they are? Are they following you? Are they interacting with you?

Usually not you

31

The Facebook ad application only gives you people on Facebook who filled out the form.

You don’t know how many: didn’t give detailsorupdated their statusortold the truthoraren’t in Facebookor...

Understand the limitations of your data sources

32

What info do you need from site registration, donation forms, offline events?

-- Name-- E-mail-- Zip code-- Stakeholder type as granular, specific as needed based on your priorities

Example: Not just “Parent” but also year-of-birth of children enrolled in Philadelphia public schools

33

Success in social media defined by…

Number of people in the network

The “right” people”

The amount of engagement, activity

34

Indicators of interactivity are essential for leading to desired outcomes

Facebook Insights – daily stats*

No. of active users

No. of likes

No. of relevant, positive comments

* Enter daily numbers in a spreadsheet for trending, rolling up into weekly/monthly totals

Nov. election

Higher education

Have different pages by topic to increase community, make analysis more insightful

Encourage lots of active users to avoid dominant commentators who might constrict interaction

KPIs:

35

Source: “Lifting of blogger’s story triggers online furor,” by Lance Whitney, CNET, 11/5/10

Before plagiarism, public relations crisis: 100 friends

After:

3,800 frenemies who “liked” Cooks Source on Facebook so they could attack it, link to negative stories

36

RT/via @handle + call to action/comment + link + #hashtag

“Perfect” tweets are less than 120 characters

Lost the link

Watch handle, hashtag sizes

100 characters 111 characters

37

Followers Look for influencers Review reach, churn, following/follower ratio

38

Measure influence

-- Lists-- Retweets-- Unique retweeters-- Unique mentioners-- Influenced by/influencer of

39

Track tweets, retweets, traffic about a specific page/topic

Advanced search by keyword, Twitter handle

KPI:No. of tweets, retweets by page

Who retweeted, influencers

Enter numbers in a spreadsheet for trending

40

Analyze content

Review hashtags, keywords, sentiment, problems, conversations that connect people

41

What should your public relations plan include?

Clearly defined goals/objectives, audiencesCompany Program or campaign Site Social media

Company site

Saadkmal.com

Metrics that measure actions

Baselines, goalsWhere did you start?Where do you want to go?E-mail

Video

42

Dana ChinnLecturerUSC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism

213-821-6259chinn@usc.edu

http://www.newsnumbers.comhttp://www.slideshare.net/danachinn

Spring 2011

Resources“Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Project”http://bit.ly/Knight-metrics-primer

Anything by Avinash Kashik, such as “Web Analytics 2.0”

“Social Media Metrics,” by Jim Sterne