Blogs

Web analytics programs provide a LOT of data, which can be an overwhelming experience.  It’s good to know which metrics are relevant to your site and what they mean so that you can act on the information you get.  One of the most frequently useful metrics for marketing analytics is the bounce rate.  The idea behind this is that a “bounce” visitor is one who comes to your site and leaves right away without really taking anything in.

Last week Facebook announced a new application designed to let all your friends know exactly where you are by using GPS in smart phones.  The blogosphere is already full of articles lambasting Facebook for privacy issues, debating whether Foursquare and Gowalla will stand a chance, and some even praising Facebook for considering privacy issues before the release of a potentially prickly service.

Already, the Internet is full of contradicting information on how the program will actually work.  This Associated Press article on Yahoo gives kudos to Facebook for anticipating privacy issues and states, “If you're out and about with friends, you'll be able to "tag" them using the (at) symbol, much the same way you can already tag them in your status updates. Your friend will then be notified that you have tagged them and can choose to check in too, or reject it.”  To me, this implies that I will get a new notification every time someone tries to check me in, which I can either approve or deny.

As a board member of the Triad division of the American Advertising Federation (AAF), I have the opportunity to attend some truly fantastic conferences and networking events.  For those not familiar with the AAF, it is the oldest national advertising trade association bringing together professionals from traditional and online marketing agencies; corporations; media companies; non-profits and more.  

Yet another issue with Facebook user data privacy has come out this last week with the recent post of over 171 million user’s data to Pirate Bay.  Facebook is actually not responsible for this one though.  (Who knew?)  This data was published by someone who created a script to pull data from all publicly searchable profiles.  Scraping data from Facebook is actually against its terms of use, and anyone could have compiled this data.

Facebook announced this week that it reached 500 million active users. If there were any doubt who is king of the social media world, this should erase it. With more users than the population of the United States (I find myself asking, “Is everyone on Facebook now?”), Facebook has certainly surpassed its humble beginnings. Let’s note that the milestone is active users. The figure is not including people who have signed up for an account and used it for only a few weeks; it’s counting the number of people who repeatedly use Facebook as a part of their everyday lives.

To mark this incredible achievement, the CEO Mark Zuckerberg has announced a new application called Facebook Stories. This new app will feature stories about how Facebook has directly changed people’s lives. You can share a story about how Facebook helped a cause you care about through grassroots movement, or how you found your long lost love.

One useful aspect of Google Analytics that I often forget about is the “compare to site average” feature.  It’s all well and good to look at how individual metrics change over time, but it can be very helpful to know how one particular page, traffic source, or other variable is performing in comparison to the rest of your site.  This feature can be used when looking at almost any metric, as there will be a site average listed underneath most.  

We have been working on our new website for months now, and it’s finally ready to launch.  I’m so excited!  Sometimes working on your own internal branding and marketing can get pushed to the end of your “To Do” list during the work week, but it’s so important to keep your company’s brand fresh, update your website and maintain a presence in the business community.  Not only did we completely revamp our brand identity, but we added some really unique features to our site that makes it very interactive and user friendly.