Clients often ask us what metrics they should be tracking.  The answer to this question is simple.  Review and track the metrics that are most important to your business.  If you have an E commerce website, you should be measuring harder conversions such as sales, revenue, profit, etc.  You should also be tracking softer conversion path metrics such as how many people drop out of the cart during a transaction.  This will help you learn to make improvements to the checkout process (the more people that make it through the process, the more conversions you acquire).

If you do not sell an item or service through your website you will probably care more about softer conversion points such as lead acquisitions, contact forms, page views, and in-store traffic driven from the website via location finder pages and such.  You should also pay close attention to the overall engagements throughout the various pages of your website.

While GA provides great metrics throughout their analytics, there are two important ones you should be calculating and tracking as well.

ROI (Return on Investment) =  ((Revenue x Profit Margin%) – Cost)/ Cost

Profit = ROI * Cost

Greetings from the 2011 Beacon Holiday Party.

So you or your company is now enjoying a few or many social media networks. Now what? Analyze it guys! Use the data to learn from the users that interact on your profiles. Don’t guess; get the facts and stats to keep improving your conversions and levels of engagement. Listed below are a few options that can help.

For the Larger Companies:

• Radian6 is a salesforce.com company that continues to grow and gain viability.  Their packages start at $600 a month.
• Sprout Social has packages that range from $9 to $49 a month.
• Buddy Media works with customers like Ford, Sony, and Bose.  Their pricing is based on the separate products they have.

For the Smaller Companies:

• HootSuite starts with a free package for the beginners.
• Argyle Social has packages that range from $199 to $899.
• Postling has a special running right now $1 for the first 30 days- no strings attached.

And remember, we are always here to help. Just fill out our contact form or #AskBT us on Twitter.

Founded in 2006, Topsy is a real-time search feature for the social web, and if you aren’t using it already to see what is going on with your business or areas of interest, we strongly recommend that you do.  The company’s format is clean and has a very ‘Google’ feel to it.  They use their own algorithm to sort thru all of the social noise to find the most relevant social links from the top social ranking influencers in the social realm.  Topsy is able to determine/rank influences by how much their information is shared or reviewed.  The more people that pay attention to you, the higher you will rank with Topsy.

School may be out for the summer, but it is back to the basics this week for our Beacon blog!  Since many of our customers are unfamiliar with all of the tracking capabilities Google Analytics provides, I thought it would be a good idea to differentiate the tracking custom variable options.

Custom variables are small tags you can put into your GA tracking codes that help you identify and define additional segments within your current website visitors you already review with GA.  This will allow you to get a closer look how certain, more specific groups of visitors are migrating through your website.    There are three custom variables you can define.  A page variable lets you set it at an event or page view.  A Session variable lasts each time the visitors is on your website.  And lastly, a visitor variable lets you watch that particular computer or phone over time. When creating your custom scripts to track your custom variables, you need to define the four key parameters of index, name, value, and opt_scope like this _setCustomVar (index, name, value, opt_scope).  Below is the explanation that Google provides for these specifics:

• index—The slot for the custom variable. Required. This is a number whose value can range from 1 – 5, inclusive. A custom variable should be placed in one slot only and not be re-used across different slots.
• name—The name for the custom variable. Required. This is a string that identifies the custom variable and appears in the top-level Custom Variables report of the Analytics reports.
• value—The value for the custom variable. Required. This is a string that is paired with a name. You can pair a number of values with a custom variable name. The value appears in the table list of the UI for a selected variable name. Typically, you will have two or more values for a given name. For example, you might define a custom variable name gender and supply male and female as two possible values.
• opt_scope—The scope for the custom variable. Optional. As described above, the scope defines the level of user engagement with your site. It is a number whose possible values are 1 (visitor-level), 2 (session-level), or 3 (page-level). When left undefined, the custom variable scope defaults to page-level interaction.

These variables allow you to see more in depth, but they also limit your scope of visitor engagement.  Let’s say you have a shoelace website, and you have been noticing that a lot of your customers are adding items to their cart, but the actual revenue numbers after the sales have been complete do not match the amount in the initial cart baskets.  We can use logic to figure out that people are removing items from their cart before checking out.  By placing a session level custom variable in the tracking code, you can then have the ability to know (not guess!) the number of sessions where your website visitors removed an item from their carts and learn from their session trends how they are making their decisions.

Despite the fast paced world of SEO, many decision makers and analysts have a hard time dealing with change.  It is my goal to help you feeling more comfortable with the updated version of GA (still in Beta mode), because whether you like it or not- the older version will be going away.

The newer version allows for users to create up to 20 custom dashboards, each with up to 12 widget sections to be used.  The four types of widget options are metric, timeline, pie chart, and table.

• Metric: Shows the value of a metric and an information graphic of that metric over the selected time period
• Timeline: A graph of any metric over time. You can also compare two metrics in the same graph.
• Pie Chart: Best suited for displaying breakdowns of a metric by a certain dimension. E.g., Visits by Browser Type.
• Table: Think of this as a mini-custom report. You can show one dimension with two metrics and up to 10 rows of data in a table.

The option to have 20 customizable dashboards each with their own ‘quick stats’ widget sections is extremely beneficial for agencies and organizations with multiple people looking at a multitude of metrics.  It will provide faster results when filtering and has a clean looking user interface.

Another cool feature getting a lot of positive press is their new interactivity goal tracking within the reporting feature.  This allows you to have GA track file downloads to improve your products. Charts of your statistics can be analyzed over time on graphs, and a simple toggle between multiple profiles cuts down on confusion when going through the site.

Embrace change, especially when the benefits are great my analytics friends!  You can currently switch back and forth from the current version to the new version of GA by clicking on the option displayed in the top right ‘quick clicks section.’

Get ready everyone because having a +1 is no longer just for party RSVP’s.  Recently, Google launched their new +1 button on Google search to allow users who are fans of your business to click to recommend your paid ads for all of their friends and contacts to see.  This feature, which to me is their attempt to one-up Facebook’s like button, has already started popping up, and will continue to increase in visibility over the next few weeks.  In order to see the +1’s attached to the organic listings and paid ads, you must be signed-in to Google and not using IE7 or any earlier version of IE.

This popularity feature is the next step that Google is taking to help their searchers see more relevant results, while helping businesses continue to gain better qualified traffic.  And, it doesn’t end with paid ads because soon you will have the option to include these +1 buttons to your website’s pages to make it even easier for people to approve and validate your content.  This personal annotation of “+1’ing” something is the next step since Google opening admitted to using data from social services, such as Twitter and Flickr, as signals in organic search rankings.

So far, Google says that quality score and ad rankings will not be impacted by the +1’s.  Hopefully the buttons will contribute to better click-through rate for paid ads since the personal annotations will increase user confidence to click on the ads if their friends, family, and colleagues already approve.  You will also be able to track the number of +1’s your campaigns are getting within the Adwords interface.

To sign up for email updates with more information about this button go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/+1button.

If you have been confidently and accurately tracking goals within Google Analytics consider this post review.  However, due to the large number of questions our firm receives from companies in the area, I thought it would be a good idea to have this in our company blog.

Back to Basics

There are three different match types to help Google Analytics track goals within their interface.  They are regular expression match, head match, or exact match.  Below is a brief description along with an example.

1)      Regular Expression Match:  This type of match allows you to capture the special characters constant within a URL such as the stem and/or trailing parameters that might be coming from different domains or sub-domains.

You would use this match type if you needed to track the URL string: cart-checkout.cgi/?id=3 in both http://www.nicole.is-awesome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?id=3&fm=2 as well as http://www.michael.is-awesome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?id=3&language=fr&fm=4 .

2)      Head Match:  This type of match allows you capture identical character strings from the beginning to the end of your string that may include extra parameters at the end of the URL such as user id’s, session tracking, or other added cookie codes.

You would use this match type if you needed to track the URL string: http://www.nicole.isaweome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?page=3 in both http://www.nicole.is-awesome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?page=3&id=3245783475634 as well as http://www.nicole.is-awesome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?page=3&id=46834643, or  even http://www.nicole.is-awesome.com/cart-checkout.cgi/?page=3.

3)      Exact Match:  This is the most specific type of match because you have to match every exact character in the URL you provide without exception from the beginning to the end.  You would only use this on sites that do not have any dynamic information in the URL for an id, session, or other potential query parameters.

You would use this match type if you needed to track the number of times this URL is visited: http://www.nicole.isawesome.com/cart-checkout/thankyou.html.  Because it is going to be the same URL every time, you need to make sure to exclude the leading elements of the URL and only put “/cart-checkout/thankyou.html” for the exact match to make sure you don’t invalidate the goal.

We are always here to help if you need us, so just fill out our contact form and we will be in touch!

Cheers!

Long live Social Media and all that it can provide a company when it comes to brand awareness, customer service, link building, and website referral traffic.  The strength of social media and social bookmarking sites grows every day.  Just as your company needs a solid website, so does it also need a presence in the social media world for users that are searching here as opposed to the more traditional search engines.

While each business must determine what networks are best for their company to actively participate, LinkedIn should never be one to cast aside.  LinkedIn’s organization has grown to over thirty-three million members in the United States, and over 60 million world-wide in less than ten years. Recently the company announced its 60 millionth member via a Tweet.

Create / Claim Your Company Profile

Like any other networking site, you want to establish your presence by first creating an account, and then by spreading the word that you are there to get the attention you need.  Once your company profile is created or claimed, you now have the advantage of being indexed by search engines and be able to be presented in the organic search results for your brand.

Any employee if granted access can edit their company page if they are a current employee with their position listed and linked to the company profile page and has a confirmed email address at the company registered to the account, so if you are using a personal email address to access your personal linked account profile, update it to be your company issued email address. If your email address connected to LinkedIn is already your company email address try the below steps:

1.      Click “Companies” at the top of your home page and search for your company name.

2.      Click “Edit” in upper right of the Company “Overview” tab.

3.      Modify information as needed.

4.      Click “Publish”.

If the “Edit” link is not visible, take the following steps to make sure the position on your Profile is properly linked to the company name:

1.      Click on “Profile” towards the top of your home page.

2.      Click “Edit” next to the position in the “Experience” section of your Profile.

3.      Click “Change Company” and begin to type in your company name. A drop-down list will appear.

4.      Click on the correct company name. This step is very important.

5.      Click “Update”.

6.      Follow steps listed above to edit your Company Page information.

If you are still unable to edit information on your Company Page, contact LinkedIn at https://help.linkedin.com/app/ask.

Want to know how to ruin your level of awesomeness on Facebook?  Here are the top horrible tips to mess up your dreams of total Facebook business and brand awareness domination.

1)      Automate everything.  I love Hootsuite, Networked Blogs, and Twitterfeed just as much as the next person, but if the only thing landing on your page is automated posts you are never going to succeed.  People connect on Facebook for the conversation.  They want a real person or brand identity, not a machine.

2)      Only post statements with no response needed. People hang out on Facebook because they want to engage.  Don’t just post links. Instead, ask questions, implement polls and start a conversation.

3)      Tag an image that isn’t a person. Want your followers or friends to check out the picture of your new storefront?  Don’t tag everyone to see the picture, post a link.  I for one don’t want to be tagged as the front door.

4)      Quantity is quality. Every time we engage with the community on Facebook we have the goal of brand awareness in mind, but posting frequently throughout the day just because you want to stay visible on their home feed is a good way for people to deny their associations with you on this social network.

5)      Keep your personal profile open to the public. Trying to start a private wealth management firm?  If people can associate your name to a business or brand, they will check out your personal Facebook page.  The same goes if you are applying for a job with a company.  I wouldn’t hire you to manage my money if I see that you play Mafia Wars and Farmville everyday between the hours of 9:30am to 4:30pm.

6)      Set it and forget it. Just having a profile or page out there isn’t enough to engage in conversations being had.  If someone posts a negative comment or question on your page and you don’t check it to respond you are showing everyone that your customer service is less than par.

7)      Create fake events. If you have a real event or limited time engagement, promote it, but do not create a bogus event about the financing offer your company has provided since 2006.  This should be a message, or a call out on the side or within the checkout process.

8)      Invite everyone to everything. My favorite dress designer is Calvin Klein.  Less is more and the tailoring is divine, so I am fan of the company page.  The company doesn’t need to invite me to its Fashion Week runway show though-especially since I live in North Carolina.  That just makes me extremely jealous. Plus, you aren’t offering me a ticket, so how can I even get in the tent?