The Hitchhiker’s Guide to Tracking Website Engagement

Engagement Graph

Guest post by Petri Darby, APR, the director of brand marketing & digital strategy for the Make-A-Wish Foundation of America. In Douglas Adams’ “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” a computer known as Deep Thought spent seven and a half million years contemplating the great Question of Life, the Universe and Everything. Seventy-five thousand generations

Mistake Math – Why We’re Valuing Facebook Fans All Wrong

facebook success metrics

Part 2 of a 3-Part Rant Brands are shouting from the rooftops about how many Facebook fans they have – and the number of “likes” does help you spread your message through the news feeds of your fans (more on that tomorrow). But let’s recognize it takes literally one click of one finger to “like”

Are You Suffering From Premature Calculation?

cheeto

Originally, he was called Machaca. Two problems arose. First, very few people (even here in Arizona) knew what Machaca meant, so we were constantly having to explain it. Second, he just didn’t “seem” like a Machaca. So, in a flash of four year-old inspiration, my son switched our dog’s name to “Cheeto”, and it fit

A Social Media Scoreboard That Works

Default campaign - SWIX

Clearly, there’s no shortage of data and possible social media success metrics. Advanced social media analytics and ROI calculations often require tying together disparate systems, and looking for causation (or at least correlation) between social media success and business outcome. At the most granular, day-to-day level, this necessitates visiting your various outposts and your social

5 Ways to Make Friends with Strangers on Your Blog

kip

Remember in high school, when someone would throw a party when their parents were out of town? At first, you knew everyone at the party. They were all friends of the host, nervously alternating between drinking Bartles & Jaymes wine coolers, and trying not to break anything. But then, it all changed. The party got

How to Match 10 Key Success Metrics to Your Blogging Strategy

blogging metrics

If you’re blogging for business, rather than blogging about your cat, baby, fashion addiction, or crush on Taylor Swift, you need to set some success metrics. Without a statistical measure of your blogging progress, adding content to your blog on a regular basis can be an incredibly lonely proposition. Is anyone out there? Does anyone

Does Your Corporate Blog Measure Up

blogging survey

There’s a fair amount of agreement on principles on an effective blog, and even widespread head nodding regarding what success metrics are important. However, there’s very little available with regard to blog metrics benchmarking, and how your blog compares to others. I’m hoping to change that. And you can help by taking this short survey.

Finally! A Blog Post Scoreboard

social media consulting 1

Knowing which of your blog posts are most successful, and in what way, is invaluable in the never-ending process of honing your blog’s content approach and community orientation. Bloggers have always been challenged by on one hand having both a surplus of potential success metrics, and a scarcity of data aggregation tools. The new PostRank

Are You Cherishing the Wrong Trophy?

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I have been the champion of my fantasy football league two of the past four years, and while I’ve had a rough start to this season, I’m still the defending champion. And while I appreciate the winner’s check, having the trophy on my desk for a year is much, much sweeter. Trophies are important. They

The Fuzzy Math of Ratings & Reviews

social-media-monsters

My wife and I took the kids to see Monsters vs. Aliens recently. Seth Rogen as Bob the Blob was funny, and Hugh Laurie was excellent as Dr. Cockroach. A handful of great one liners, but overall a middling effort in the kid movie genre. The next day – after an appropriate period of contemplation