But a story is so much better when other people get to contribute, adding their unique take on things. We set out to do just that. We wanted to use data to tell a story, but make it both accessible and interactive. We’ve taken a data set of metrics gathered across every county in the U.S. that can in some way be correlated with diabetes rates. The metrics have different effects according to the region or state counties are found in, so possible ways of looking at the data are endless.

The data visualizations can be found here.

We figure enough people looking at something like this can start to create big changes. Feel free to explore, interact, analyze, and gain insights. What does the data tell you? Share your thoughts/insights below.

Finding ways to mash those together into meaningful new understanding is the key. Here’s an example of an analysis we performed for a client. They wanted to know how they could meet more of their current customers’ challenges. This would result in higher client satisfaction, increased revenue (from cross-sells), and could help them in future sales efforts with potential clients.

We took their entire list of current clients and added the following data:
• Industry
• Number of employees
• NAICS/SIC code
• Site locations with latitude/longitude coordinates
• Number of times they had been serviced (grouped by dates)
• Customer satisfaction survey data

This gave us a holistic view of challenges faced by specific industries. To obtain this, we used data from our client’s data warehouse as well as used LinkedIn, Yahoo Finance, Dun & Bradstreet databases, Client websites, and social media. Doing this definitely took work, but it highlighted thousands of dollars worth in future revenue and client retention. See a portion of the analysis below.

For example, we quickly saw that the challenges faced by the banking industry were different than those faced by the inorganic chemicals industry. But we also saw that the challenges within industries were relatively the same. All the chemical companies struggled with the same things.

Using insights like these, we were able to pinpoint those clients who were lagging behind their industry peers in dealing with a certain challenge. This created cross-sell opportunities for our client. They were able to take the data and highlight these problems to their customers and show how their solution was solving similar problems for other members in the industry. This not only improved revenue, but also will increase customer satisfaction scores, as well as create more focused sales opportunities in the future.

Similar insights and opportunities are lurking in your own data. You just need someone to unlock them for you.

What do you think? Using the same data, what other ways could it be analyzed to find insights? How have you found insights in your own corporate data? Share your story.

First, I apologize for the delay on getting this next post up. I’ve been sick for a week, which took me down for the count more than I wanted. But I’m back, so let’s do this.

We’ve been looking at various Twitter metrics to really try and turn your twitter usage into something measurable, trackable, and improvable. The idea is to improve marketing ROI.

In today’s post, I’m going share some recommendations regarding the best analytical tools available for Twitter right now, as well as see what type of insight can be gathered from them.

Klout.net
Klout measures personal influence. In Klout’s own words: “Klout allows you to track the impact of your opinions, links and recommendations across your social graph. We collect data about the content you create, how people interact with that content and the size and composition of your network. From there, we analyze the data to find indicators of influence and then provide you with innovative tools to interact with and interpret the data.”

This is the best tool I’ve yet seen, supplying the most data and the best visualizations, as well as opportunities to import into Excel (albeit through a copy and paste) for my own data manipulations. They measure some 25 metrics.

TwitterFriends
TwitterFriends operates on the assumption that there are a lot of people we follow on Twitter that don’t create a ton of value for us, but that buried within those contacts are real gems. TwitterFriends helps you identify who those people are (the relevant net). These are people that you talk with frequently or that consistently feed you great content.

19 twitter metrics are tracked, most of which are completely useless, but a few which have value, namely:
• Numbers of relevant/valuable contacts in your Twitter fanbase
• Conversation Quotient (CQ)
o States how many tweets are @replies
o Shows the extent you are using Twitter to have conversations with others
o Good metric for tracking relationship management
o Average CQ is 25.4% (this can be used as a benchmark)
• Link Quotient
o States how many tweets included links
o Good metric for tracking information management

TweetEffect (attempts to measure how individual tweets affect follower counts)
This is an interesting idea and one with some potential if combined with other metrics. It assumes that what you tweet will affect followers within five minutes. The service analyzes your last 200 tweets and examines whether you gained or lost two or more followers within 5 minutes of the tweet.
Tweet Stats (measures your Twitter activity)
This is an interesting program because it tracks activity for any user and presents it in an intuitive graphical format. It shows the following information:
• A month-by-month tweet log since you joined Twitter
• A daily breakdown of tweet volume
• An hourly breakdown of tweets by hour
• Hourly activity over a 7 day period
• @replies report
• Popular words in your tweets

What I don’t like here is the fact that I can’t get the data for myself. No data export, no CSV. I had to input this stuff manually.

Tweetmeme (measures trends by link retweets)
Tweetmeme is a link aggregator service, collecting all the tweeted links in the Twitterverse and classifying them for searchability. It makes sense of a bunch of 140-character nonsense. Tweetmeme enables you to track your industry and competitors, as well as trends in general, and see what topics are of the most interest to people, as measured by the number of times they get retweeted. They also have some plugins and widgets which I find useful.

Twitalyzer (attempts to measure the strength of your Twitter efforts)
This service was created by the guy who wrote Web Analytics: Demystified. He’s created a tool that measures 5 metrics:
• Influence (how much do you impact the conversation)
o As measured by numbers of followers, number of times you are retweeted, number of times you retweet others, number of conversations you have with others, and number of tweets in general in a given period
• Signal-to-Noise (the amount of valuable content you share)
o As measured by references to others you make (@conversations), imbedded URL links, hastags (#topic), and number of times you retweet someone else. These elements are summed and then divided by the number of total tweets in a period.
• Generosity (the amount you retweet others)
• Velocity (the frequency that you update on Twitter)
• Clout (number of times you are cited in other people’s tweets)

The service is free and easy, but I don’t like how it aggregates information into pre-determined metrics. I have no ability to analyze the data or manipulate it for insights. Of any of the tools, I find this one to be the least useful.

Visualizing Twitter Analytics
I used Hubspot as a case study. They’re famous for their grader tools as well as their search optimization software. I culled all the useful data I could from the above programs and threw it into a spreadsheet to visualize it. This is the best I could create. I’d really like to see more of a Google Analytics interface created with these Twitter analytics apps; it would make the analysis much easier. As it is, this is a decent at-a-glance dashboard. Let me know your thoughts. How would you change it? What would you add or take away?

Last post discussed some potential Twitter metrics. This post seeks to tie your twitter ratios into blog success. Answer the following questions with the following metrics:

How often do I post on Twitter? (substitute blogs for tweets for blogging)
o Measures whether or not you are worth following, subscribing to, or listening to
o # Tweets / # Months (or weeks) Tweeting (Thanks Avinash!)

How strong are my calls-to-action in my Tweets?
o # of @ Replies / Total Tweets (or total tweets with a call to action)

How much of the information I share is being absorbed?
o This metric is a little tricky. The average human reads about 200 words a minute, studies show. Assuming it is a link to your own site, compute the following ratios:
Absorption Ratio (minutes to read) = # Words in blog post (or whatever) / 250
Use the clickthrough ratio in conjunction with this metric as well as your analytics stats to see what the average time spent on your site is. This will help you understand how much information you share is actually being absorbed.

Is my audience growing?
o Trended stats of Twitter followers, blog readership, blog subscribers.

What brings people to my site?
o Use the traffic report to analyze keywords bringing in traffic from Twitter in Google Analytics

How can I tie my information into trendy topics?
o Use Google Trends
o Since a lot of people search for trendy topics, like Paris Hilton, you have the opportunity to potentially grab more followers by tying into a trendy topic that gets a lot of searches

That wraps this subset up of our overall series on Twitter and Marketing Analytics. In the next post, we will discuss which tools can be used and combined to track the above Twitter metrics. What metrics would you add or change? Let us know. We want this to be a discussion.

*Note: I’m travelling on business this week, so it’s a little harder to pull together the graphics, so bear with me. I’ll have Part 3 up of this series later this week.

Though there is a metric to measure almost anything, the goal is to avoid analysis paralysis. As marketers, we want to focus on what is critical to our success and measure only those things. By tracking those metrics over time, we can see if we have moved the needle closer to our goal or not.

There are various programs out there claiming to have robust Twitter metrics, like the ones featured below. However, we fail to see how these apply to anything. They don’t tie into anything specific.

Tied Back to Goals
Critical success factors can generally be classified under three questions:
• Does it build revenue?
• Does it improve efficiency/reduce costs?
• Does it build brand loyalty?

Ask yourself why you tweet. Because all of your metrics need to tie back somehow to one of those overarching goals above. Otherwise, you will end up like these guys… Looking forward to Flutter Eyes, for sure.

Twitter Analytics
For the rest of us that are trying to get real value out of Twitter, it’s time to incorporate Twitter analytics. Twitter analytics takes the existing tools and uses them to track metrics that are tied back to your marketing goals.

Last time I listed several ways businesses are using Twitter. This post is going to create measurable metrics for those as much as possible.

Drive targeted website traffic
o Tweet Conversion Ratio = # Site Visits from Twitter / # of Twitter Followers (or new Twitter followers)

Build brand loyalty and buzz
o Twitter Friends = # of Twitter Followers over time (watch for upward trends)
o Retweet Ratio = # of Retweets / Total Tweets in a given period of time

Obtain opinion data from a diverse group, perform simple market research
o Reply Ratio = # Replies / Total Tweets in a given period of time

Direct people’s attention to good information or valuable content
o Clickthrough Ratio = (# Clickthroughs per link) / Total Tweets with Links

Track memes and trends
o # of Tweets in given period vs. Google Trends graph of specific subject/topic

Gather competitive intelligence
o Competitive Intelligence Ratio = # of Tweets about Competitors / Total Tweets about Industry
e.g. The number of mentions Avinash gets vs. Omniture vs. web analytics in general

Manage customer service, create a brand index
o (Positive Tweets – Negative Tweets) / Total Tweets

Create a tribe
o # of New Followers per Tweet

Each of these ratios will give you a percentage. The higher the percentage, the better. If percentages are low, it’s time to experiment and try something new. Perhaps posting more frequently, or maybe less frequently, or adjusting the content you share, or the way you present information, will help you improve your ratios.

Try some of these and let us know what you think. Do they work for you? Would you like to see other metrics developed? Do you have other metrics to contribute? We want your thoughts.

We’ll have more on these metrics tomorrow and more on the tools to track and visualize twitter analytics later this week.

This is the first post in a series of 7 focused on applying marketing analytics to Twitter. Using Twitter analytics can help businesses track brand advocates and detractors, follow conversation topics and trends, measure visitors to your site from Twitter, and improve ROI.

Much has been said about the business benefits of using Twitter. Some of the benefits include:
• Track memes and trends
• Perform simple market research (heck, we got started because we saw a need for marketing analytics while using Twitter)
• Obtain opinion data from a diverse group
• Find breaking news
• Direct people’s attention to good information or valuable content
• Bring people together
• Build brand awareness and buzz
• Manage customer service
• Use negative feedback to improve offerings without total brand destruction
• Create business opportunities or generate referrals
• Gather competitive intelligence
• Drive targeted website traffic
• Create a tribe (watch Seth’s podcast)

See Chris Brogan’s comprehensive list of Twitter uses and how-tos.

Despite the obvious benefits of using Twitter, without a way to track, measure and improve, Twitter can quickly become Fritter, the frivolous and unwise waste of one’s time. By incorporating twitter analytics into your strategy, you can maximize your time spent and marketing ROI. This is the kickoff post of another 7 part series of posts on our marketing analytics blog.

The next several posts will cover the following topics:
• Why Twitter Analytics? (this post)
• What Twitter Metrics Should I Use?
• How Do I Measure These Metrics?
• How Do I Measure and Improve my Twitter Marketing ROI with Analytics?
• How Do I Summarize All Information into an Actionable Dashboard?
• How Do I Create & Execute a Specific Action Plan for Improvement?

Tune in over the next few days for the next posts. Let us know if this series is valuable or if you would like to see other topics included. Thanks for reading!

(Part 6 of 6 on the Marketing Analytics Method)

We’re back with our last post of this series on quantitative marketing analytics. The last two blogs we posted were special entries to answer questions from our followers on Twitter. This returns to and concludes the marketing analytics series we’ve been working on.

In part 1 of our series, we showed that most organizations work like this soccer team: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9QPsL5oqwiA

Over the past several blog posts, we’ve endeavored to show how your organization can perform like this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YWFpPST94wU

That’s incredible coordination. What separates clip 1 from clip 2 is their level of understanding. The first team has only a rudimentary understanding of what they are supposed to be doing and how to act in sync. The second team acts like a well-oiled machine, because they have a common vision that they understand how to translate into results.

We’ve used the vinyl wall art industry as a case study, highlighting specifically www.ellemenopea.com. Each post developed in some detail each of the following steps in the marketing analytics cycle (the text next to the boxes is from the case study):

We proved that by communicating the corporate vision to all employees, and then linking that vision to measurable goals, and then executing the strategy and monitoring progress – again communicating to the organization – that Ellemenopea would be much more able to achieve what they wanted. By linking the high-level vision into daily operations, bottom-line improvements can be made.

As you do the same things in your organization, you can achieve similar results. However, we understand that the difficulty of the above process comes not in setting the vision or goals, but in measuring those and adjusting the strategy accordingly. Our next posts will dive deeper into how to become a company driven by analytics.

Let us know how you compete on marketing analytics and turn them into strategic advantages or share with us your questions. We appreciate your feedback!

Installing the Tracking Code

The first thing you need to do is figure out how to access the HTML coding for your blog. Usually there’s a button you can click to show the HTML when you are editing the template. Copy and past the HTML code into a word document and save it (so you have a back-up of your blog in case you accidentally change something you didn’t mean to).

Next, get the tracking code for Google Analytics. This HTML code will be given to you as you are setting up your account. If you’ve already created an account and set up a profile for your blog, you can find the tracking code by following the steps listed in the next section.

Take the tracking code (the whole thing) and paste it just above the tag in your blog’s template HTML code. There should only be one tag. Use the search function (control F in most browsers) to find it. Make sure you save the template.

Finding the Tracking Code

If you have already set up an account with Google Analytics and added your site, you can find the existing tracking code. On your login page, you will see a list of all your accounts. Click on the name of the account you wish to find the tracking code for.

Google Analytics Account Overview

That will take you to the website profile. Click “Edit.”

Website Profile Screenshot

You will be taken to detailed information about the site profile. Click “Check Status.”

Check Status Screenshot

If the tracking code hasn’t yet been installed, you will see the HTML coding on this page. You just need to select it all (control A) and copy it (control C) so you can paste is above the tag as described above.

Confirming Code Installation

After you’ve pasted the code in the HTML for your blog, just follow the same steps as you would to find the tracking code (explained above). When you click “Check Status,” look at the “Tracking Status Information” table (the first table at the top of the page). If you correctly pasted the tracking code in the HTML template, you should see the words “Waiting for Data” next to the “Tracking Status.”

After 24 hours, your analytics will be collecting data and giving you insights. Let us know if this post was helpful to you or if you would like further information. We may do a post on how to effectively drive traffic to your blog based on analytics, if enough people are interested.

Thanks for reading!

*For further reading, check out this post: http://www.eblogtemplates.com/how-to-install-google-analytics-on-blogger/

A lot of our friends on Twitter have recently asked us several questions regarding Google Analytics problems. This post will walk you through the steps to solve the following common questions/problems with sharing or moving Google Analytics data/profiles:

• How do I install Google Analytics on my website?
• How do I share my site analytics with another user?
• I want to transfer my site profile to another account. How do I do that?
• When I try to transfer my Google Analytics profile to another account, the new account doesn’t have any of the historical data. Why?
• How do I install Google Analytics on my blog? (See our next post for this answer)

Step 1: Sign up for Google Analytics and Install Tracking Code

Sign up for GA:
• Go to the Google Analytics site: http://www.google.com/analytics
• Sign in with your Google account
• Follow the set-up instructions

Install tracking code:
• Google will give you the html text to paste before the body tag on your site
• If you are not the site administrator, email the code to the person who can update the site.

Step 2: Adding or Transferring Profile Data

After you have installed the tracking code, you will see the following table on your Google Analytics page:

Google Analytics account overview

Click the name of the account you wish to share with other users. In the picture above, I would click on the blue “My Web Site.” You are taken to a page with detailed information about your site. At the bottom of the page, there are three columns. Click on “User Managers.”

Adding Viewers to Google Analytics

Click the “Add User” button.

Add User Page

Enter the Google email address of the user you want to share access with. Specify the access type (viewer or administrator). If you just want to share the analytics with someone, give them “View Reports Only.” If you are transferring the site profile to a different Google account or want to give someone access to analyze your site data, give the new user “Account Administrator” status.

The next part is often overlooked, causing problems. Make sure you select the profile you wish to share and click “Add.”

Giving Viewers Access to Site Analytics

When the new user logs in, they will see the website on their Account Overview page.

Step 3: Removing the Site Profile from an Old Account

You must have first added the site profile to a new Google Analytics account. Next, you follow the instructions in step 2 to get to the User Manager page for the site profile you are managing. You will see the following table:

Delete a User Account

Simply click “delete” next to the user you wish to remove.

Following the steps above takes care of the last question: When I try to transfer my Google Analytics profile to another account, the new account doesn’t have any of the historical data. Why?

That error occurs when the new user isn’t added properly. It happens when you create a new Google Analytics account with a separate tracking code. By following the outlined steps above, you will maintain your historical data.

This answers the most common questions we have received on Twitter. If you have other questions, feel free to contact us or send an @ message on Twitter. We appreciate your feedback!

(Part 5 of 6)

Continuing with our case study, we have tackled one hypothetical goal of Ellemenopea.com. We decided they wanted to focus on search optimization to drive targeted website traffic to their site and become the leader in wall art. They chose several key terms that would help them rank at the top of the search engines (though several other factors are also necessary to rank highly) and have launched their initiative.

The next step now is to track the data and visualize it for rapid insights and action and communicate progress to all employees. Remember the purpose of this series is linking organizational vision all the way to the bottom-line. By creating a strategy that everyone understands and buys into, and then tracking progress and posting the results, the owners and employees of Ellemenopea.com are able to see exactly how their efforts are impacting the bottom-line.

First, the owners build a tracking spreadsheet of their key terms.

Search Engine Rank Tracking

This allows them to track how long it takes to improve search engine rankings as well as track their progress towards their goal.

Then we being tracking our marketing KPIs. We decided on two:
• Improve overall traffic share by increasing visits per month from 500 to 10,000 in six months
• Improve conversion rate by increases purchases per month from 2% of site visitors to 10% within six months

To track them, Ellemenopea taps into their web marketing analytics data. They run Google Analytics on their site for free. They pull a spreadsheet of raw data and run it through a graphing program to instantly see trends, data anomalies, outliers, or strengths and weaknesses. Visualizing marketing analytics data drastically reduces data crunching and error rates, and increases the number of insights that can be acted upon.

Daily Website Traffic per Day

As we can see, the data correlates with their efforts. As they strive for search optimization and a social media footprint on blogs and forums, as well as talk to friends, leave fliers around town, and perform other offline initiatives, they can see that their site traffic is increasing, bringing them closer to achieving their goal. This not only creates unity of purpose for all employees but also creates enthusiasm and brand evangelism, exactly what Ellemenopea needs to reach the top.

Next post, we will show a much more detailed analysis on analyzing variables to improve site conversion rate (browsers into purchasers). Let us know if these posts are helpful to you or if you would like to see more insight into certain topics or areas of marketing analytics.

Thanks for reading!