Peeking Under The Hood: Google Analytics and Facebook Insights Debra Askanase Founder & Digital Engagement Strategist
About Debra Askanase Digital Engagement Strategist, Trainer Former business consultant, executive director, program manager, and community organizer Instructor, Marlboro College Graduate School
Today’s Session 1.Framing metrics: Metrics that Matter 2.A tour of critical analytics: Google Analytics Facebook Insights 3. Your analytics practice 4. Creating your own metrics tracking dashboard
Who’s In the Room? Your social media measurement practice
Framing the Conversation Choosing Metrics That Matter
Data you can find Relevant data Data You need
Data Data Data Everywhere It’s important to identify and find what you need It’s important to identify and find what you need
Data-checking Ourselves Data for decisions Does it inform decisions? SMART goal progress Does it check our progress? Matterness data Does it show if we Matter?
Data-informed Decision-making Will this help me make a decision about, or change..? The way I work The way the organization does its work Current initiatives Planned initiatives Long-term direction
Beware the Vanity Metric!
Common Vanity Metrics Size of online community Impressions / Views Social ad reach Influential followers/fans Your own Klout Number of social and blog posts Mentions A Vanity Metric does not inform your work, help you make decisions, or help you Matter* * Sometimes the boss wants these anyway. We call this “ego-checking.
Focus On SMART Goals for Smart Data Collection Applications New families Mailing list Alumni donors / /
Matterness-informed Decision-Making Will this information help our organization to recognize, value, and hear our stakeholders? Will this help us recognize stakeholders who can co-create, contribute, and become part of the organization? Will this data connect us to those who care and will take action?
Matterness + SMART Goals =
Share Pair: How do I do this?
Demystifying the Back End
Finding Metrics That Matter Google Analytics
Measuring Matterness in GA
Google Analytics Key Metrics
Live Tour of Google Analytics What content matters (top pages viewed, keywords) What’s sending viewers to your site (referring sites, social sources) How engaged are they (time on site/pages per visit) Actions taken (sales, leads, form completions)
What’s Referring To You?
What Content Matters Most?
For Each Metric, You Can… Find source What content was viewed Path behavior (exit page, next page, entrance page) Source Social network Time visited/day visited User demographics
Create Your Own GA Dashboard
Benchmarking Report (Is this a vanity metric?)
Benchmarking Enable under GA admin > account settings > select “Benchmarking” Find report under Audience > Benchmarking Reports compare channels, location, and devices against industry
Google Analytics Resources guide-to-google-analytics/ guide-to-google-analytics/ need-to-watch/ need-to-watch/ benchmarking-is-back-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/ benchmarking-is-back-here-s-what-you-need-to-know/
What appears in the newsfeed is influenced by… Number of comments, likes, and shares Recency of post Trending topic reference Views and viewing duration of video (and possibly all video) Fully expanded links Your interaction with the page or its posts
Recent Facebook Changes Time spent viewing stories becomes a factor determining what appears at the top of the News Feed. Content posted by the friends you care about will appear higher in the News Feed. Reducing the appearance of overly promotional posts Bookmark this page! (Stay up to date with Facebook newsfeed changes)
Measuring Matterness in FB
Live Tour of Facebook Insights What matters most (posts, video content) Who (demographics) Engagement (likes, shares, comments) Actions (clicks, views, engagements)
Facebook Key Metrics
What Motivates
What Engages
Content That Matters
SMART Data Collection Creating Your Own Metrics Dashboard
Goals: 1.) New s 2.) ID leaders 3.) $$
Have Two Metrics Dashboards What you need for your daily & weekly practice What’s resonating now Regular monitoring Channel size What you need to know that matters Comparisons over time Content that resonates Specific goal achievment Engagement growth Fans/superfans
Data Collectors: 3 rd Party Apps Solutions that collate your analytics, or highlight selected data points: Sprout Social (paid) Cyfe (free/premium) HootSuite (free/premium) BufferApp (free) Bitly (links metrics – free) Iconosquare/Union Metrics (for Instagram - free) ViralWoot (for Pinterest - free) Additional resource:
Review Determine your data you need to measure Check all three types of data: decision- making, goals progression, Matterness Know how to find the data your need Create a daily and quarterly measurement practice Share your data with the organization
Your turn What are the questions that you need social or website data to answer?
Try it, COME ON IN! THE WATER’S JUST RIGHT…
Website/blog: communityorganizer20.comcommunityorganizer20.com Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/debraaskanaselinkedin.com/in/debraaskanase Twitter: Other slides: slideshare.net/debaskslideshare.net/debask Telephone: (617) I’m happy to answer follow-up questions!