According to Google Analytics’ official site, Visitors Flow is a graphical representation of the paths visitors took through your site, from the source, through the various pages, and where along their paths they exited your site.

This visualization lets you see:

• The relative volume of visits to your site by the dimension you choose (e,g., traffic sources, campaign, browser)
• The relative volume of pageviews per page or collection of pages
• Specific metrics for connection paths, the starting page and interaction pages, and exits that occurred at any step of the way. See this data when you hover over each section, see below.

To get to the Visitor’s Flow, click the Audience panel on the left side bar, then click Visitor’s Flow option.

Why this is Valuable

Besides being visually easier to understand web traffic flow on your site, Visitor’s flow allows for deeper insights to your traffics progression.  Some valuable tips when using the visitor’s flow report:

1. Selecting a segment.  This can allow for a bit more breakdown of the traffic flow, by looking at the correlation between a specific segment using a specific dimension.

   

2. Comparing time periods.  If you want to see how navigation through the site has changed through time, the Visitor’s flow report can show just that.  Use the time set drop down as you normally would in the top right corner of the report, then see how each portion of the visitor’s flow report now has an upward green triangle with a percentage (symbolizing traffic increase) or downward red arrow percentage (symbolizing traffic decrease).  Now when you hover over the source, starting page, or interaction, you will see the comparison of traffic between time periods.

   

   

3. Other cool tips with Visitor’s flow can include the Level of Detail (Adjusting the number of connections displayed in the graph), the zoom + next interaction buttons to see deeper engagement of visitors, and of course the Export to PDF feature, for sharing.

Visitor’s flow can give you a wonderful visual about how your traffic navigates through your site, but always remember to segment your traffic and use multiple dimensions to see the correlation between the two.  You might be surprised at just what kind of meaningful insights you can uncover with this data.  My next post will be on a similar subject, that is Goal Flow visualization (similar to Visitor’s Flow but in respects to steps taken toward Goal completions).  For any questions or comments, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

We also added another face Tyler Terrill as a part-time designer. Tyler has done some freelance work for InfoTrust in the past, and we loved it so much that we had to have him here in the office a day or two each week. Tyler is also a student, so we are happy to have him during his “spare” time.

We're excited to welcome Andy Bengel, left, and Tyler Terrill, right, to the team!

As I alluded to in the title, we have also been on some new adventures. We were honored to attend the Business Courier’s “Best Places to Work” luncheon a couple weeks ago. I love the InfoTrust culture and work dynamic so much that it was actually a highlight of my career to stand and represent our awesome culture at the awards ceremony. We were also first time attendees at Xavier’s “Meet the Firms” night where Jimmy and I met some outstanding future Marketing graduates. It was actually a full “Jimmy and Heather” day as we spent the morning gathering donations for the East coast victims of the Hurricane Sandy and taking them to our business neighbors Matthew 25 Ministries. We managed to sneak a little PF Chang’s in on our way back from Xavier where Jimmy got carded and Heather did not. Really tough way to end an otherwise rewarding day.

I also had an awesome visit to Northern Kentucky University on Monday which means that during the last two weeks, I have had the pleasure of being at three top Cincinnati area universities. InfoTrust is certainly keeping me busy searching for new talent to join our team. And, it’s an easy sell. Where else do you find a movie gift card on your desk when you can’t make the opening of the new James Bond movie with the rest of gang?

Amin showcasing how exciting free tickets can be!

It’s not all fun and hard work in the office either. Later on this month, we will have the privilege of serving a lunch at the Ronald McDonald House. Stay tuned for pictures and probably even more new faces to welcome!

If you are interested in joining this team, please check out our openings: InfoTrust Openings and email your resume to me at heather@infotrustllc.com.  And don’t forget to follow us on twitter with the hashtag: #WorkAtInfoTrust!

Subject

First and foremost, make sure your email subject identifies a specific goal. Is it to read a monthly newsletter? Make sure ‘newsletter’ is in the subject. Is it an invitation to a webinar? Make sure that objective is clearly stated. It sounds simple, but a vague subject line will end up in the trash folder quicker than an email from a Nigerian prince. Also be sure to make your subject compelling whenever possible. Here’s an email from the “TechLife Cincinnati” MeetUp which clearly states its objective:

Content

Your content section is the bulk of the email. Here’s a list of best practices with a brief description:

• Be brief. Nobody expects to read fluff in an email unless your reading an email from your grandmother. Be concise whenever possible, your reader’s time is valuable.
• Actionable. Following up on the importance of a specific goal in the subject line, emails typically should have a call-to-action that is easy to identify. Large buttons like “View Deal” or “Register” are great ways to accomplish this task.
• Align Subject with Content. Put simply, what your email subject line promises, the email message should deliver. Along these lines, be sure your call-to-action and your landing page are similar in both style and content.
• Personalize. An email always has a friendlier tone when the reader is addressed by their first name. But email marketing has advanced beyond that functionality a decade ago. Specific segmentation and targeting of emails increases open rates tremendously. Check out this graph from eMarketer. As an email marketer, the thought of open rates increasing 39% is astounding, and all from having a segmented & targeted list!

• Write in the second person. Writing in second person means you orient the copy towards the reader, not yourself. This helps keep the focus on the customer, not the brand, and is a subtle tactic to help you stay value-oriented. Talking about benefits more than features helps your brand seem less self-promoting. And finally…
• Test, test, test! You want to be sure your email meets a high standard of perfection. Little tasks like double checking for spelling and content errors, making sure your email doesn’t end up in a spam folder, and testing each and every link will go a long way to making your brand seem more professional while removing frustration from your subscriber’s lives.

If you have any questions about email marketing, I’d love to hear from you at jimmy@infotrustllc.com. Happy emailing!

So what’s left for part 3, you ask? Many digital marketers and web analysts, including ourselves at InfoTrust, like to incorporate all our analysis within Google Analytics. Google Analytics’ robust interface also provides more views of the data and allows for more customization than YouTube analytics.

Without further ado, I’ll briefly leave my marketing persona and turn developer mode on, because implementation is the first part of the battle.

Implementation

1) Place your usual Google Analytics tracking code in your header.

2) Create an empty div element within the body, with an id of “player.” This is where your YouTube video will be placed shortly.

3) Next make a script tag and insert the YouTube iframe player API code. Don’t close the script tag yet, however. There’s still more to do!

4) Now we need to create the iframe and player. Replace the ‘zLQFkztsozw’ with your video ID tag (in the URL), and feel free to customize your video height and width.

5) Last, use the ‘onPlayerStateChange’ method to look for events, such as the video starting, pausing, finishing, etc. At the end you can finally close that pesky script tag.

Analysis
Great! Time to put that marketing hat back on. Now that your YouTube videos are tracked in Google Analytics, how can you measure their effectiveness?

If you follow the path Content > Event > Top Events in Google Analytics, then change your Primary Dimension to Event Label and Secondary Dimension to Event Action, you’ll see something like the screen above. You can now learn how many views (aka events) your embedded video has, how many of them are unique, and how far into each video your viewers go. If you’re seeing a lot of viewers trail off in “Video 25%” or “Video 50%” it’s a good indication your videos are too long. If you see  lot of pauses, consider speaking slower or providing better descriptions so viewers are able to watch your video all the way through.

Now try changing the Secondary Dimension to Content > Page and you’ll see all the pages your YouTube video is being viewed on, and you’ll be able to see which pages are receiving the most events. Or try changing the Secondary Dimension to Visitors > Region to see where most of your views are coming from.

These are just a handful of insights, as you know Google Analytics introduces new features and new insights all the time. Keep exploring your primary and secondary dimensions to learn more!

InfoTrust is a Google Analytics Certified Partner and we love answering questions! If you have any questions, comments, or would like to contact us about our services, feel free to reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

1. Users no longer rely on one device to engage with the brand. Quite often, users rely on array of different tools to engage with the brand – computer, smartphone, tablet, game console, digital display are some of the tools that facilitate the relationship and engagement. The question is how do we track our audience across all these devices without losing any data? This concept is the basis for universal analytics.
2. More channels mean more data, and cross-channel measurement is more important than ever. It is imperative for companies to track and measure their relationship with customers between these channels. The new Measurement Protocol (API) within Google Analytics will allow companies to send their measurement data to Google Analytics. With Universal Analytics, you will be able to track data from your online and offline customer touch points.
3. Let’s discuss the technical aspect of this change as Google is planning to implement this. Currently, Google Analytics is relying on “cookies” and “sessions” to track visitors. Universal analytics moves away from tracking sessions and will instead track users using universal IDs. This will help you link all the data related to each user. This means – no matter what device the user is employing, you will be able to track them using one anonymous ID.
4. Let’s discuss this anonymous ID. Google clearly states “Don’t use personally identifiable data in your Google Analytics account”. However, this is where integration with the CRM is imperative. An Anonymous ID used in Google Analytics will be associated with the contact in the CRM. This way, you will be able to track all different types of data:  online activity, call center data, retail purchases, etc. 
5. Let’s consider an example. Maroon 5 is in town. I go to the concert website and purchase a ticket. The ticket is printed with a unique ID. I go to the concert and, the staff scans my ticket. During the concert, I visit a shop to buy a Maroon 5 t-shirt. As I make the purchase my ticket is being scanned as well. After the concert, there is an announcement that if I purchase a ticket to Maroon 5′s next concert withing 3 days, I will get 10% off. Being a Maroon 5 addict, I decide to complete the purchase immediately using my smartphone. In order to get my 10% off, I am asked to enter my ticket ID. Let’s connect the dots – all my online and offline activity has now been tracked using one Anonymous ID. Everything now can be tracked in Google Analytics – from how I came to the site the first time, to how I completed my purchase, to how I behaved at the concert, to my purchasing behavior after the concert.  As the next step, concert organizers can put all this data in their CRM and have a complete picture of my behavior. Finally, they can decide to invite me to other Maroon 5 events or email me specials about Maroon 5 posters.
6. And one more thing… Now, you can also import cost data into Google Analytics. Currently, this is only available with AdWords. Soon, you will be able to import cost data associated with each campaign. This will help measure true marketing ROI.
7. Can I try? The short answer is not yet. This is still in Beta and rolling out slowly. However, you can request Measurement Protocol Closed Developer Review.

Summary

If you do not get selected to try this feature first, you will be able to experience it along with everyone else pretty soon. Take this time to think about this change and how it will affect your business. This can have a very positive effect on your marketing efforts, but first you need to map-out all your data points, ways you interact with customers right now and how you will be able to integrate this data together.

Last night the results were in! Nearly 800 guests attended the awards ceremony held at the Duke Energy Convention Center downtown. InfoTrust was named a best places to work finalist, which truly reflects how highly we value our culture. What kind of culture you ask? Perhaps Amin and Heather soaring through the city sky gives you an idea!

Heather and Amin represented the InfoTrust crew and got some great pictures (see below). If you’re interested in working at InfoTrust, check out some employee tweets following the hashtag #workatinfotrust and then check out our open positions page.

There are many tools that help provide insight into competitor’s online marketing, below are just a few free tools that you can immediately begin using.

Quantcast

This tool provides “free direct audience measurement for all website owners including traffic, demographics, business, lifestyle, interests and more.”  What I love most about this free tool is the amount of data it shows, in graphical form, without needing to sign up for an account.  See the screenshot example below for google.com.

Hubspot’s Marketing Grader

This free tool allows you to not only “grade” your full online marketing funnel, but it also allows you to see competitor’s comparatively.  Also, without signing up for an account, it measures:

1. Traffic by asking the questions: “Are you doing enough to bring visitors to your website and fill the top of your sales and marketing funnel? How are your content creation, optimization and website promotion skills?”
2. Leads by asking: “How do you do when it comes to converting traffic into leads and leads into customers? Do your landing pages, conversion forms, email marketing and social media efforts compare?”
3. Analytics by asking “Do you know what marketing activities are working (or aren’t working)? Do you measure your successes and failures?”

What I love about Hubspot’s Marketing Grader is how simple they present the data, along with supplementary educational collateral pieces on how to improve an area you may be struggling in, such as social media with free social media whitepapers available for download.

Google AdPlanner

Though you need a Google account to access this free tool, it can prove to be very useful.  What I love about this tool is the “Audience Interest” section. This tool shows what the visitors to the website you submit have as their interests based off where they have been before or how they navigate through that site.

Compete

Compete is very similar to Quantcast and Hubspot’s Marketing Grader in the sense it does not need you to sign up for an account to use the free tool.  However, it’s free tool only shows basic information compared to it’s very robust paid version, Compete PRO.  For anyone serious about competitive intelligence, this investment is definitely worth considering. From their site, “Compete’s data comes from a statistically representative cross-section of 2 million consumers across the United States who have given permission to have their internet clickstream behaviors and opt-in survey responses analyzed anonymously as a new source of marketing research.”  Though the data is not 100% accurate, the trends and insights that can be pulled are very valuable.

Ghostery and TagInspector.com

For those that don’t know, Ghostery is a free tool used to see what website marketing tags are running on the current web page you are on.  TagInspector is a free tool InfoTrust developed to show what tags are running across an entire website and where. Now you might be wondering how these fit in to competitive intelligence.  Understanding what tags and dynamic marketing elements competitor’s have on their websites can give a really in depth insight into their marketing goals and campaign initiatives.  For example, if you search your competitor’s site and see that AdWords is running, this gives you a solid indication they are involved with PPC campaigns.  Or, if you see they have multiple analytics tools running (such as Web Trends, Omniture, and Google Analytics), this could indicate they are really trying to gather the most solid web analytics data as possible and could alter how much you care about your analytics.  There are millions of marketing tags that  can be used to improve website performance.  Soon we will have a list of the top 100 marketing tags used by Fortune 500 companies, so stay tuned.

To wrap up this not-so-short post, knowing what type of marketing activities competitors are doing can prove very beneficial as you begin building your marketing campaigns.  With the explosion of new online media and tools available for marketers to take advantage of, you definitely do not want to fall behind the curve.  For more information or any questions/comments, feel free to reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

 Why knowing the time most web traffic occurs is useful

The primary reason why knowing the month, day, and hour when most traffic comes your site is for optimal content publishing.  Here’s a real world example.  A local community college checks their analytics and notices the majority of their visitors came to their site during spring months and started leveling out during summer months, then dropping off in fall months.  When cross-referencing this data with referrals or keywords searched in the same time period, they realized that the content they were publishing throughout the year wasn’t really valuable until the spring months when students were looking for where to go to school the upcoming year.  Before this, the school administration thought the best time to actively publish content and recruit was during the early summer.

A quick tip is to change the view of any standard report to see the traffic report by month, but make sure to have a long enough time period set in the date drop down.

Now, using the Most Traffic by Month Custom Report (download link below), you can see the breakdown of most visits by month.

Here’s another example.  A local coffee shop (EST time zone) looks at their web analytics to see what day they should publish their weekly newsletter on their website.  They realize that between 6-8PM during the week, traffic is at its highest for viewing the newsletter, even though they published it during normal business hours.  How does this happen?  Well, from this insight, the local company decides to also check the location of most visitors during that time frame and realize that many of their readers and visitors are coming from California, perhaps from another coffee-enthusiast community.  This can be useful because knowing who your audience is and when is the best time to publish content to them can really drive engagement and following.  It can also let you know that your target audience is not seeing your content, in this case, the local EST time zone coffee-enthusiasts.

Using the Most Traffic By Hour Custom Report (download link below), you can see the breakdown of when visitors are coming to your page. 

Then cross referencing that with the Audience, Demographic, Location Standard Report, you can see the correlation. 

So there it is, more ways to analyze your web traffic.  Below are the links to the custom reports mentioned in this post so you can use them on your own Google Analytics, all you have to do is click the links and specify which profile you want the report to be used on.

InfoTrust Custom Report: Months Most Visited

InfoTrust Custom Report: Days Most Visited

InfoTrust Custom Report: Hours Most Visited

There are so many tips and tricks with Google Analytics that anyone can use to get a better grasp of what their data is saying, in order to make even better marketing decisions.  If you have any questions or for more information, don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

1. If your profile has certain filters that exclude traffic, Real-Time will not show that traffic. This is yet another reason to always maintain one unfiltered profile, and then create other profiles to filter data as needed.
2. Before this change, only account Administrators were able to use Real-Time. Now, profile Users as well as Administrators will be able to leverage Real-Time.

Prior to this roll-out, there was no way to test filters in Real-Time. You had to wait 24 hours to get data and see if the filter was working properly. According to Google’s Blog Post, you can test newly created filters in Real-Time within a few hours after setting them up. Today, when I tested this and created a new exclusion filter, Real-Time picked it up immediately. This is a great time saver.

This is not restricted to web-pages, but also supports App profiles. For example, if you are releasing a new version of the app, you can test in Real-Time if everything is being tracked properly.

Lastly, this change is impacting how you might use Real-Time to track the viral effect of your marketing campaigns. If you are running a marketing campaign and are tracking how the message spreads in Real-Time, this new feature can help you track the viral effect across different channels. For example, in Real-Time you will be able to see not just where the visitors are coming from, but using a filter track, what social networks are the most effective at bringing traffic to your site right now. This adds a level of granularity to your data that can help make marketing decisions faster.

This new feature is very beneficial, and I look forward to putting it to work.

Users familiar with Google Analytics will quickly realize why YouTube renamed their old Insights page to Analytics: YouTube Analytics is visually very similar.

The User Interfaces for YouTube Analytics & Google Analytics

And now let’s get into some of the nitty gritty. The Summary report in YouTube Analytics shows a high-level summary of the main reports in YouTube Analytics, such as which videos are driving the most views, the geographic distribution, and the gender of your viewers. Clicking on the title of each widget will take you to that specific report where you can view additional information.

An Example of a Summary Report in YouTube Analytics

All reports are unified with a Data Filter, which is a key tool displayed at the top of each report. The Data Filter allows you to filter by Content, Geography, and Date.

• The Content search bar helps search for specific videos
• The Geography search bar searches for particular regions, or you can choose from one of the suggested locations in the dropdown
• The Date Range dropdown allows you to choose from one of several suggested ranges, or you can enter a custom date range

And last, a very helpful change in YouTube Analytics is the ability to download only the currently displayed report, rather than automatically downloading all the channel’s data like with Insights.

Google and YouTube are always looking for ways to improve analysis tools. Personally I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves next!

For more information about YouTube Analytics, check out this infographic from pcmag.com.

And for more information about InfoTrust’s analytics services, feel free to reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

Feel free to provide any feedback or for any direct questions, email us at ga-support@infotrustllc.com.

Before I get into the benefits, let’s look at some relevant reports on video marketing:

• According to YouTube’s Press Statistics, over 800 million unique users visit YouTube and watch over 4 billion hours of video each month
• According to socialtimes.com, in the third quarter of 2011, online video ad growth surpassed online video view growth and online revenues were set to triple by the end of 2011
• More video was uploaded to YouTube in the past month than the three big TV networks produced in the past 60 years

Oh yeah, and don’t forget YouTube is the web’s second largest search engine. The first? Well Google, obviously. And Google loves video. More and more searches are producing video results on page one, which is where you want your site to be.  Now that Google counts video as part of its “relevance” metrics, in addition to driving traffic to a website, video has become an important element of SEO.

What was once seen as an expensive “nice to have” is fast becoming a key element in any marketing campaign. Videos can be about events, like InfoTrust’s Washington Park Ribbon Cutting event, about a new product, such as our video below for taginspector.com, or anything in between.

Last but not least, creating a video shouldn’t require a 10-man production team and Quentin Tarantino in the director’s seat. Most smart phones have HD filming capabilities, and there are a lot of great free tools out there for video editing, such as Windows Movie Maker and iMovie for Mac. If you’d like something similar to the Tag Inspector video above, try Screencast-O-Matic, a free software tool that allows you to record videos of your computer screen, perfect for showing off a website or a new tool.

So to recap, if people love videos, Google loves videos, and they aren’t all that difficult or expensive to create, why wouldn’t video be at the top of your marketing list in 2012?

1. Data Rules – data can and should drive your business strategy

Every speaker and keynote presenter focused on one common theme – data drives results. Although this seems self-explanatory, it is quite difficult to build an organization that leverages data to its fullest potential. Most of the organizations know that data is valuable but fail to accurately put it to work. Jim Sterne, Founder of the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit said that “while all e-business managers clearly recognize the tremendous value of e-customer analytics, most lack the staff, technical resources, and expertise to harness and put to effective use the flood of raw data produced by their Web systems” (EMetrics:  Business metrics for the new economy.) Most of the presentations talked about addressing these challenges. Here is my summary and a very consolidated way for how to do it in your organization:

1. Create a cross-departmental team to define marketing goals, objectives and KPIs.
2. Commit resources.
3. Define all areas where data is being collected.
4. Create a process for accurate data gathering.
5. Select the right tools to help you gather this data.
6. Analyze your data and turn it into insights.
7. Adjust and improve.

2. Return on Customer Satisfaction

On Monday morning Eric Feinberg took the stage. Eric is a Senior Director of Mobile, Media & Entertainment at ForeSee. Eric’s presentation focused on leveraging data to drive consumer satisfaction. Once of the items to keep in mind is the number of online places where your brand can touch a customer – store, call center, internet, mobile, social media, website, email, etc. It is not just web analytics, it is customer analytics, and we should work on harnessing this data to improve customer experience. Here is a great slide from his presentation.

Here are also a couple of metrics to keep in mind. The stats are taken from the ForeSee E-Retail Satisfaction Index:

1. 68% of satsifed shoppers are more likely to buy from the same retailer online in the future.
2. 67% of satisfied shoppers are more likely to recommend your brand.
3. 48% of satisfied shoppers are more likely to buy offline.

It is very important to think about overall satisfaction of your customer across all channels and platforms. Satisfaction determines what consumers do next and therefore can have a direct financial impact on your business.

3. Mobile – if you ignore it, you are already behind. 

I was lucky to attend a great break out session by Rachel Pasqua, VP Mobile at iCorssing. Here is one slide from her presentation that clearly summarizes why mobile is important.

It is important to note that 44% of searches for last minute gifts and store locator terms were mobile. According to Google Study in 2011, 19% of users would have a negative overall perception of a company if they were dissatisfied with the performance of its website on a mobile device. If you would like to learn more about mobile marketing, attend our next free class 10 Strategies to Drive Mobile Marketing and Analytics.

4. Winning great prizes at the conferences is always fun. 

Here is Alex, who just won a helicopter.

5. Introducing Google Tag Manager

On Monday, Laura Holmes from Google made a very important announcement introducing Google Tag Manager – a smarter way to tag your site. Google Tag Manager allows you add, delete and update your website tags, easily and for free at any time without troubling the IT department. In Fact, as Platinum Sponsors, Google had a booth at the conference where they explained Google Tag Manager to everyone who was interested.

Google also gave out colorful notebooks to all the attendees.

Google packed Google Tag Manager with lots of great tools to take the pain out of tagging. Here are a few of my favorite tools:

1. Version history
2. Debug console
3. Preview mode
4. Smart caching

If you would like to learn more about Google Tag Manager, and how it can help your business, please send me an email. We are one of the Google Tag Manager Specialists and are listed on the GTM site.

I can’t say that this is a complete surprise for us. As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we have known about this development from Google. As the matter of fact, we are one of the few companies who are GTM Specialists. Within a few days, we will add another blog post with a detailed overview of how GTM functions.

As the news starts to spread and companies become eager to organize all of their tags using GTM, they will have to be able to easily and quickly locate all the existing tags on their site. To expedite this process, we are launching a new tool – Tag Inspector. Our tool will save you countless hours of searching your website for tags buried in the code! Our Tag Inspector will generate a report listing exact tag locations of tags on your site so you can easily move tags into GTM or any other tag management system. Fast. Easy. Painless. Delivered in Excel format straight to your inbox, InfoTrust Tag Inspector makes it easy for marketers to find what they need. The product is currently in Beta, and we are working hard on adding support for more marketing tags and improving Tag Inspector’s performance. Give it a try, and let us know what you think.

We are very excited about Google’s announcement, and can’t wait to start using Google Tag Manager with our clients. If you are trying to understand how Google Tag Manager might help your organization, drop us a line at info@infotrustllc.com, we would love to help.

As online marketers, we spend so much time digging through our website code to make a change to our tags.  Hence the creation of a tag management system. In Michael’s previous post, tag management systems can be very useful for marketers to organize and manage their website tags. Unfortunately, it can be an enormous hassle initially finding tags through your website’s code. Constantly bugging IT or your development staff to find this tag, remove it, put it back, etc. It can get really frustrating to track down the tags you want to consolidate.

Introducing InfoTrust’s Tag Inspector! Our tool crawls through your entire website and finds specific tags. It then generates an easy to understand and easy to share report showing all tag locations, which can even be exported to an excel document.

Benefits of Tag Inspector

Saves time- Tag Inspector saves countless hours of searching your website for tags buried in the code, and you don’t even need to be a programmer! Our report lists exact tag locations so you can easily move tags into any tag management system you are using. Fast. Easy. Painless.

Delivers results- Delivered in Excel format straight to your inbox, InfoTrust’s Tag Inspector makes it easy for marketers to find what they need.

And of course, more and more tags are being added to the site everyday!

With Google’s recent announcement for it’s new Google Tag Manager system, our tool comes at the right time to help marketers find those tags on their website and easily transition to Google Tag Manager.  Not to mention along with being a Google Analytics Certified Partner, we are also officially Google Tag Manager specialists.   So let us know if you need any help transferring your website to GTM or if you have any questions.   Contact me at Amin@infotrustllc.com.

We’re excited to announce InfoTrust is now an official Google Analytics Premium Authorized Reseller!

Google Analytics Premium is Google Analytics amplified for enterprise-level data tracking and analysis.  According to Google, “It’s all the power and ease you expect from Google Analytics, plus extras that help you optimize and get the most from its robust capabilities.”

InfoTrust has met the strictest criteria, over and above Google’s certified partner requirements, to become a Google Certified Reseller, trusted by Google with day-to-day support of their highest level users.

We want to again thank our clients for giving us the opportunity to really push the limits of Google Analytics to global enterprise level service.

More about Google Analytics Premium from the Downloadable Fact Sheet below.

Google Analytics Premium Fact Sheet

Tag Management – Overview

Different marketing and web analytics services like Google Analytics or Google AdWords use page tagging to collect data about website visitors and website usage. Quite often a website will have 5, 10, 15 and even more tags collecting various marketing information. The average enterprise website may have up to 150 third-party tags on a site at any given time. Managing these tags individually can be very time consuming and inefficient activity that can lead to errors.

Tag management systems address these common challenges and allow users to effectively add, edit or remove tags from the website. Tag mangement saves money as markerters can make changes to the tags without help from the IT department. So how does this technology work?

1. Tag management tool adds a tag container to your page that you can populate with different tags.
2. This container is managed through an interface that makes it easy to assign tags, collect performance statistics and share information.

Tag Management Efficiency

The number one advantage is the reduction in time and increase in efficiency. Below is a chart that was published in the Q2 2012 Global Tag Management User Online Survey by Forrester Research, Inc. As the majority of companies who participated in the survey made some kind of changes to their tags at least once a month, the difference in how much time the implantation took place pre and post-TMS is drastic. On average, the time for implementing a new tag dropped from weeks to less than an hour.

Benefits of Tag Management

1. The ability to manage tags without the help of the IT department.
2. Shortened time to manage tags by the staff.
3. Easily enabled privacy tools.
4. Ability to see all the tags on your site and ensure that they adhere to technical best practices.
5. Improved page load time by consolidating the variabales used in your tags.
6. Enforces tag standardization

Tag Management Tools

There are a number of tag management tools available on the market. In 2007, TagMan was the first company to launch the first holistic management system that could work with any tag. According to TagMan, today there are over 15 tag management systems and 800+ vendors. In fact, here is a great Infographic about the history of tags. Here is a brief list of companies that provide tag managment systems:

• TagMan
• Tealium
• Satellite
• OpenTag
• Super Tag
• Bright Tag
• Ensighten
• Adobe TagManager

Additional Research

If you are interested in learning more about Tag Management, there are two excellent reports that can help:

1. Econsultance Tag Management Buyer’s Guide
2. Forrester Understanding Tag Management Tools and Technologies

If you would like to learn more about implementing tag management in your organization, send us a message.

Campaign Tags

Google states, “Campaign tags are additional information that you apply to links. Once a link is clicked, the tag information is passed to Google Analytics. Tagged links allow you to evaluate the performance of individual links within your emails.”  Google Analytics can read 4 parameters from a tagged link.  These are Campaign name, source, medium, and content which is optional (with term being a 5th but we will not get into that one in this post).  When users click on a tagged link, say within an email, with those 4 criteria identified, then Google Analytics will place that traffic under campaigns.

Let’s take a quick example.  I want recipients of my email newsletter to click a link and go to InfoTrustllc.com/contact to learn more about our services.  The way I would tag my link would be:

• Campaign name: ServicesMarketingPush
• Source: Newsletter
• Medium: Email
• Content: (blank since it’s optional)

Now in Google Analytics, all traffic that clicked that link in my email newsletter will be under the campaigns tab, and with those parameters shown.

How to tag links

The Google Analytics URL Builder is a great tool for generating tagged links to use within your email and social media campaigns.  For more information about how this works, check out Google Analytic’s website.  The downside with utilizing this tool is your links and campaigns will not be saved.  That is why we created an excel document that will create a tagged link after all parameters are filled, and be able to save and grow the list of URLs.  So as promised, click the link below and start tracking your campaigns!

Download the Analytics URL Tagger Excel Doc.

Tagging links to track email campaigns in a nutshell!  If you have any questions, comments or feedback send them my way at amin@infotrustllc.com.

According to the announcement, “Best Places to Work is based on the results of anonymous employee surveys, measuring work-force engagement and finding out how employees feel about management effectiveness, trust and other workplace issues. More than 160 firms were nominated to participate in the competition, which is now in its 10th year.”

Amidst all this excitement InfoTrust is currently hiring a user experience designer, web developer, Google Analytics implementation specialist, and a technical project manager. If you think you have what it takes to join this fun and rapidly growing organization check out our open positions.

Need more convincing? We take our culture (and ping pong) very seriously:

If ping pong is in fact your game, I await your challenge.

Jimmy Love holding his 2012 InfoTrust Ping Pong Champion trophy.

InfoTrust, a Cincinnati-based web analytics and digital marketing company, announced today it is entering into a strategic agreement with Google to become a Google Analytics™ Certified Partner (GACP).  As a GACP, InfoTrust offers a variety of services to help clients make the most out of Google Analytics, including web measurement planning, advanced feature implementations, media analysis and consulting, website optimization, and more.

Our experts can help with everything from basic introductory tasks, such as how to install, setup, and troubleshoot Google Analytics to highly technical implementations that require coding customization, analysis, and website optimization.  Michael Loban, CMO and co-founder, conducts dozens of training sessions and seminars each year on the topic of digital marketing and web analytics.  Check out InfoTrust’s events page at www.infotrustllc.com/events for more information.

“We are extremely excited about becoming a Google Analytics Certified Partner, and we couldn’t be more grateful to our clients for providing us with the opportunity to work on sites and brands that have some of the highest traffic in the world,” said Alex Yastrebenetsky, President and co-founder.  “We can’t wait to take advantage of the GACP program benefits to help our clients get even more out of Google Analytics.”

Google Analytics is the free, enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness.  With features that are powerful, flexible and easy-to-use, companies large and small can analyze their traffic data in order to create more effective marketing initiatives and optimized websites.  For more information, visit www.google.com/analytics.

The Google Analytics Certified Partner Program is a highly qualified global network of companies specializing in Google Analytics, a free, enterprise-class online measurement tool.  Businesses of all sizes can work with a Certified Partner to receive professional help with training, implementation, customizations, and consulting services to make their websites and marketing campaigns more effective.  GACPs are carefully vetted by Google and meet rigorous qualification standards.  For more information about the program, visit: www.google.com/analytics/partners/partners-criteria.html.

About InfoTrust

InfoTrust focuses on closed loop marketing which includes web analytics, conversion optimization, web development and integration with customer relationship management systems. InfoTrust is both a Google Analytics Certified Partner and SalesForce™ Registered Consulting Partner. InfoTrust is working with a number of companies in consumer packaged goods, education and manufacturing industries.

Please visit www.infotrustllc.com for more information.

Contact

Alex Yastrebenetsky, President
InfoTrust LLC
513-314-2731
alex@infotrustllc.com

There are 2 types of roles in Google Analytics: Administrator and User.

1. Administrators can create and manage profiles, filters, goals, and add or modify other account users.
2. Users have read-only access to reports and can be restricted to viewing only specific profiles.

Important note: Users must have a Google Account in order to be added to a Google Analytics Account.

So now the good stuff: adding users to your Google Analytics account.

In order for full Google Analytics reporting and compliance, we highly recommend our clients give us full administrative rights.  So we have a special account for this purpose, allowing our team flexibility in working with our clients accounts.  Our account, GA-Support@InfoTrustLLC.com, is always highly recommended to be created with an Administrator role.  Here’s how:

1. Log into your Google Analytics Account and click the “Admin” Tab
   
   
2. Click the “Users Tab” to see a list of users. Make sure the profile field is set to the web property you want to add a user to.

   

3. Click “+New User” to add another user to the Google Analytics account.

   

4. Enter  the email address of the entity you want to add to your account (for example “GA-Support@InfoTrustLLC.com”) into the “Email Address” field, make sure to mark the “Administrator” Option, and check the “Notify this user by email” box.  Then click “Create User”.

   

5. Have a coke and go on with your day, you’re all set! So there it is, another quick tid bit on how to clean up your analytics and reporting for more data clarity!  Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, or if you’re interested in getting the most actionable data from your anayltics, at amin@infotrustllc.com.

InfoTrust in the Business Section of Sunday's Enquirer

You can also read the article in its entirety on Cincinnati.com. The article features InfoTrust co-founders Michael Loban and Alex Yastrebenetsky, as well as digital marketing strategist Amin Shawki, all of whom had a major part in the designing, programming and marketing for the Walk of Fame mobile app.

The article also highlights InfoTrust’s recent Google Analytics partnership. InfoTrust is one of just four Google Analytics Certified Partners (GACP) in Ohio, and the only GACP based in Cincinnati.

InfoTrust is expecting to add 3-4 new jobs this year. We’re currently hiring a User Experience Designer, Web Developer, Google Analytics Implementation Specialist, and Technical Projects Manager. If you’re interested check out infotrustllc.com/open-positions.

For more information about our Google Analytics services contact info@infotrustllc.com or visit our Google Analytics services page.

Front Page of the Business Courier

We’re very excited to be featured on the front page of the weekly Business Courier (August 24th edition) as well as a half page article on page 10.  Alex Yastrebenetsky and Michael Loban met with Lucy May, Senior Staff Reporter at the Business Courier, to discuss a number of InfoTrust’s recent achievements.  Most notably, InfoTrust developed the mobile application implemented in Washington Park which allows visitors to play music that synchronizes with the park’s fountain. InfoTrust also became the first Google Analytics Certified Partner in Cincinnati.

It’s an exciting time for the company and another huge milestone among a number of recent successes.  Hopefully this is the first of many front page mentions!

You can search individual site for a keyword by using “site:” in front of the URL:

“site:infotrustllc.com michael loban” searches infotrustllc.com for all pages that reference michael loban

You can use “filetype:” to look for a specific type of file, for example a ppt

“site:infotrustllc.com filetype:pdf training” searches infotrustllc.com for all files of type PDF that contain keyword “training”

you can get a lot of fascinating insight from doing a “related:site url” search

“related:infotrustllc.com”

To find out how many pages are linking to your page type “link:URL”

“link: facebook.com/infotrust” shows number of links to InfoTrust Facebook page

Here at InfoTrust we always get a bit excited when one of our customers is in the news. It means that they’re doing well and we were somehow a part of their ongoing success. SoMoLend‘s Candace Klein was named by Forbes.com as one of the Top 10 Most Influential People in Business Crowdfunding. Klein founded SoMoLend in 2011 and it launched just earlier this year. Here’s Cincinnati.com’s article about SoMoLend and the practice of crowdfunding.

We implemented SalesForce for SoMoLend and are a SalesForce registered partner . We offer SalesForce implementation, customization, and optimization services to help organizations achieve greater efficiency and data clarity.

Feel free to contact info@infotrustllc.com for more information about SalesForce or any of our other services.

So far we are actively interning from UC, XU, Cincinnati State, and now NKU. If you are an IT or marketing-related major and are interested in an internship with InfoTrust please contact us at hr@infotrustllc.com.

Alex Yastrebenetsky, Chris Walker, and the OINK-PUG members

InfoTrust was excited for the opportunity to sponsor the August meeting of OINK-PUG - The Ohio Indiana Northern Kentucky PHP User’s Group.  Chris Walker, a Mobile Applications Developer for the Center for Applied Informatics at Northern Kentucky University’s College of Informatics, delivered a great talk about PHP on mobile.

For even more pictures of the event check out OINK-PUG’s monthly meeting Facebook page.

There are 2 essential parts to this method of templating. First you create the html markup that you wish to repeat. That is placed inside a script tag and will look something like this:

This html markup can now be used to dynamically populate a <ul> tag with a little javascript/jquery.

First off we need to place our html template into a variable and initialize a variable called body that we will use to append to the <ul> tag later.

Next we create the array that we are going to use to fill out our list items. This usually is created via an ajax call to the database but for this tutorial we will do it in the function.

Now we are coming to the workhorse of the templating: the $.each() function in jquery. This allows me to loop through my array and use the items inside each row to replace the placeholder data with information from the array.

Now we are ready to take our body variable and append it to <ul> tag with an ID of ‘Tutorial’.

That’s it! Now this is a very simplified version but this format can easily be tweaked to fit all sorts of situations. Below is the code at work as well as the source code:

When to schedule an email?

We’ve all seen the “Email” button on the top navigation of our Google Analytics accounts (see below), but hopefully this post will serve as a quick reminder to use that tool in order to have a less stressful time analyzing your site!  Similar to alerts, you can send an email anytime you see something worth sharing to your team.  Say your traffic explodes over a week due to a marketing campaign (frequently here at InfoTrust, just saying), or on the flip side, your traffic drops massively in a week after a change is made on your website (knock on wood, hasn’t happened).  Situations like these would be best to share with your organization/team/department, whether it’s to praise or have some damage control.  Although, you also may not need to have a change in your analytics to send weekly or monthly updates.  Frequently for our clients we set up custom reports depicting a very unique view of the traffic from a particular segment and monitor this activity through scheduling weekly emails.  This is an automated way to keep our clients informed of their performance on the site as we continue working with them to optimize their digital marketing efforts.  The email will send an attachment that is basically just a snapshot of whatever report you are viewing, graph, table and all with a customized message you write.

How to schedule an email?

Scheduling an email is fairly simple and straightforward.  Referring back to the “Email” button above, you click this when you are on any report and view you want to share.  There you’ll find a field to choose recipients, and the subject line.  I suggest adjusting the subject line to have a bit more description of what the report or email will show (I didn’t do it in this example, but for future reference the more descriptive the better).  You can choose what type of attachment the recipient will receive to see the report and view you are sharing, along with frequency of the email.  The large blank field is where you add a personalized message.  This area needs to be filled with something or else an error will come up (see below), but if the report is self-explanatory I typically just add the subject again to the body.

The advanced options drop down can be convenient if you don’t want the email to continue sending after a certain period of time.  This is useful during campaigns that have a short life span (between 1 month and 12 months).

Futhermore, you can add an additional report/graph to an existing email as to show multiple views in one update or scheduled email.  To do this, click “Add to Existing Email” to see all your other created emails, and simply choose which one to add to.

NOTE: Be careful here because after you add another report to an existing email, you will not be able to modify what that email already contains. For example, if you add a Visitor’s Overview report to an email and then a Site Speed report to that same email, both reports will be permanantly sent in that email.  To change this, you’ll need to delete this scheduled email and create a new email.  To see all your scheduled emails, like if you’re trying to extend the duration or delete a specific message, you’ll have to go to your “Admin” tab, under “Assets”, “Scheduled Emails”.

So there it is, another quick tid bit on how to clean up your analytics and reporting for more data clarity!  Feel free to reach out to me with any questions or concerns, or if you’re interested in getting the most actionable data from your anayltics at amin@infotrustllc.com.

What are alerts?

Alerts in Google Analytics are ways to get notified about any changes in your analytics.  Google categorizes alerts under “Analytics Intelligence”, which is defined as “reports that automatically monitor your website’s traffic and highlight any significant changes, making you smarter and your work easier. Analytics Intelligence is an algorithmic engine that detects any significant changes in your traffic patterns.”  So basically, alerts are triggered when something special happens to your web traffic and you get an email or text message ping about this event.

From Google Analytics- there are two kinds of Intelligence alerts:

• Automatic alerts are generated whenever Google Analytics detects a significant change in the traffic patterns on your site. Automatic alerts are created for all data in your account, so you can use this report to review past anomalies.
• Custom alerts are triggered and generated when traffic reaches a specific threshold you specify in your account. For example, you can set a custom alert to appear when traffic from Paris decreased by more than 20%. You can opt in to receive email or text message notifications when you create a custom alert, so you’ll know when the event happens even if you’re not checking your reports.

So what?

Looking over standard and custom reports are definitely great ways to see what’s happening on your site.  There can be situations you might not have the time to dig through these reports or maybe you just want to get updated when there is some sort of spike.  Alerts are designed for these situations.  They can also be set so you are informed only if a specific activity happens.

You can find these alerts in the Intelligence Events menu under the Home tab. Alert reports are aggregated by day, week, and month. The Overview report displays both automatic and custom alerts for a given date range.

Notice that the first few listed alerts under Automatic Alerts are your custom set goals.  Below these alerts are the standard alerts made by Google Analytics.

If you click on the “Details” link for any alert, you also get more nifty information about that alert.

Both automatic and custom alerts appear in a widget in your default dashboard.

How to create custom alerts in Google Analytics

Now the fun part!  To create a custom alert, go to the admin tab and click “Custom Alerts”.

From here you can create custom alerts.  You will need to note a few items on this page before hitting save and releasing your alert.  By specifying the alert Period, you are telling Google Analytics how often to check your web traffic for the alert conditions and possibly notify you.  If the alert is triggered, then you can decide whether to receive an email or get a text message sent to your phone.  Of course you can’t forget the most important part, what your alert will be about!  Similar to the other reporting dimensions and metrics, you need to specify what you want to be notified about.

Here are some examples of commonly used alerts:

• “Thank you” page reached, after a possible newsletter sign up or purchase made.
• Average time on site exceeds 5 minutes, usually highlighting heavy user engagement on your site.
• Number of pageviews per visit exceeds 10, same as above with high engagement.
• A particular landing page total visits reaches a level of traffic that you consider strong or note worthy, particularly useful if during a campaign where you are trying to drive traffic to this page

Google Analytics Support

According to the article, “This growing need for workforce training has led to a big move at Xavier. For the first time, this fall, enrollment in training and certification programs at the XLC will be made public for companies in and around Cincinnati.”

For the full article, find it on the Cincy Magazine website and for more information, check out the Xavier Leadership Center website.  Congratulations again to the Xavier Leadership Center on your success!

We’re proud to be a part of XLC’s digital marketing and web analytics efforts.  For more information check out our Google Analytics Services page.

In Nike’s new “Find Your Greatness” campaign, Nike has successfully “ambushed” Olympic advertising by finding loopholes in the IOC’s policies.  In this commercial, Nike never uses the terms Olympics, Medal or Gold, and although it shows multiple images of London it’s never London, England, but rather numerous other cities named London across the globe.  Their sneaky ambush seems to have worked, as 37% of US consumers identified Nike as an Olympic sponsor, compared to 24% for real sponsor Adidas.

Olympic athletes are claiming that restrictions on advertising are ultimately affecting their performance by obstructing sponsor relationships, as they can’t appear in advertising during and shortly before the games, nor can they promote sponsors in their tweets during the games.  Athletes who are fortunate enough to be sponsored by official sponsors such as Procter & Gamble, Adidas, McDonald’s and Coca-Cola can promote them freely through social media.

To follow your favorite olympic athletes and official Olympic social media profiles, check out Olympic.org’s Olympic Athlete Hub.

For more information check out our related blog posts about Social Media marketing.

I’m very excited to announce that InfoTrust is now an official Google Analytics Certified Partner!

Google Analytics Certified Partners are consultancies with recognized expertise in the field of web analytics and have exceptional impact on their clients’ businesses using Google Analytics™, an enterprise-class online measurement tool.

As a Google Analytics Certified Partner, InfoTrust offers a variety of services to help clients make the most out of Google Analytics, including enterprise analytics and reporting standardization, advanced feature implementations, website optimization, and more.

Thanks to our clients for giving us the opportunity to really push Google Analytics to global enterprise level, and a particular thanks to Michael Loban for his passion towards teaching Google Analytics and other digital marketing topics.

Finally, a huge thanks to Google for recognizing our expertise. As our analytics clients know, we are huge fans of the Google Analytics platform, and we look forward to having a closer relationship with Google and more insight into the future of Google Analytics.

About Google Analytics Certified Partner program

Google Analytics is the free, enterprise-class web analytics solution that gives you rich insights into your website traffic and marketing effectiveness. With features that are powerful, flexible and easy-to-use, companies large and small can analyze their traffic data in order to create more effective marketing initiatives and optimized websites. For more information, visit www.google.com/analytics.

The Google Analytics Certified Partner Program is a highly qualified global network of companies specializing in Google Analytics, a free, enterprise-class online measurement tool. Businesses of all sizes can work with a Certified Partner to receive professional help with training, implementation, customizations, and consulting services to make their websites and marketing campaigns more effective. Certified partners are carefully vetted by Google and meet rigorous qualification standards. For more information about the program, visit http://www.google.com/analytics/consultants_criteria.html.

Michael Presenting at the Chamber of Commerce on July 18, 2012

Michael Loban is excited to present a five-part series designed to teach attendees how to integrate their marketing and sales strategies to track leads from their initial marketing channel through a first conversation all the way to becoming a customer.  This is otherwise known as Closed Loop Marketing. This series about Closed Loop Marketing will allow program participants to see which channels are most efficient and wil give them actionable insights to make smart marketing investments. Attendees who complete the entire program will receive a Closed-Loop-Marketing Certificate.  Over 1000 people have now attended Michael’s seminars, and he’s been teaching at the Cincinnati Chamber of Commerce for about 10-15 events per year for the past 3 years.

Here’s a testimonial from Joanne Maly, an attendee at one of Michael’s past Closed Loop Marketing seminars:

There will be 5 sessions, each related to the same theme but a bit more specific than simply “Closed Loop Marketing.”

Session 1 – Increase your Marketing ROI – August 22
Session 2 – Using Digital Media to Increase Your Lead Flow – September 26
Session 3 – CRM to Improve Lead Nurturing – October 24
Session 4 – Don’t Guess What People Want – Get Analytical – November 28
Session 5 – How to Use the World’s #1 Sales App SalesForce – December 12

Register here for session 1

Register here for session 2

Register here for session 3

When (session 2):
September 26, 2012
9:00am – 11:00am

Where:
QFact Market Research
9908 Carver Road
Blue Ash, OH 45242

Registration Info: 
Customer Focus Center
(513) 579-3111
info@cincinnatichamber.com

Andrew and Sun testing out the new ping pong table

Wow, it seems like just yesterday when I was writing about our big office move.  Now we are settling into our new space and I have figured out the two words that will eventually ruin me:  “ping pong”.  Right outside of my new office door, in the freshly-painted-with-soothing-earth-tones lobby, sits our conference table.  And what do my co-workers do at every available opportunity?  They bring out a portable ping pong table and play like they mean it right in the middle of the day.  Behold a real conversation excerpt regarding said ping pong table:

Heather:  We need some ping pong rules.  No gaming until after 5pm.

Jimmy “intern I used to” Love:  How about 4pm?

Heather:  4:30 and it moves to 6pm if we get even one noise complaint.

Jimmy:  Firm but fair.

So that, my friends, is the new high-level negotiation at InfoTrust.  We also have a full size refrigerator now which I fill with healthy snacks and lunch supplies.  One might even wonder why I found a receipt for LaRosa’s on my desk yesterday???

Along with our growing office, we also have a growing staff.  Our previous programming intern from Cincinnati State Andrew DeWitt has become a regular member of our team.  I love it when that happens.  At every internship hire, I hope so much that our partnership with them will be able to grow into a full time employment relationship.  And, I also find one of my absolute favorite parts of HR work is offering someone their first “real” job.  Thanks for joining our team, Andrew!

The results of painting/decorating the marketing department.

We have also gained three new interns for the summer—Austin, Sun and Jimmy.   Jimmy was referred to us by Amin (brothers by another mother, or something like that… I’m not sure how they say it because I am a 40 year old woman out of touch with not so clever sayings).  They have singlehandedly turned our Marketing Department into a machine.  And, pushed the limits of my decorating tolerance when they painted and “decorated” their shared office.

Sun has jumped right in to developing with Andrew and what I like to call the “easygoing” office.  Sun and his wife are from China, and this is also his first US job while working on his advanced degree from UC.  Not that I would know, but UC grads are super welcome here.

Austin is a junior in high school and has been invaluable to our office transition although I think he has nightmares about putting together IKEA furniture.  We are happy to have him and I”m even happier watching our InfoTrust family grow.  Even if it means putting up with the new ping pong table.

If you’re interested in working at InfoTrust, tweet us @iwanttobesocial with the hashtag #workatinfotrust or visit our careers page.

Amin took the test last week and aced it, pretty much like everything else he does.

 What is the Google Analytics IQ Test?

Google describes the The Google Analytics Individual Qualification (or Google Analytics IQ) as “a proof of proficiency in Google Analytics that is available to any individual who has passed the Google Analytics IQ test.”

GA is a free product so anybody can use it. As a matter of fact, as of June 2012, 55.8% of company websites world wide are using GA. But using GA and doing it right are two different things. That is why Google Introduced this certification in order to separate the common user from a Google Analytics expert.

Now that Amin passed the test, we have 3 Analytics jedi masters – Amin Shawki, Michael Loban and Alex Yastrebenetsky, all certified, and all perhaps a bit too excited when they see a page view hockey stick chart.  Curious about a hockey stick chart? Here’s an example:

Please join us in congratulating Amin Shawki! For more information about Google Analytics email amin@infotrustllc.com.

The first step is setting up a webpage that will install a cookie on all browsers and computers that your internal team may use to access your website.  Here’s what you’ll need to do:

1. Create a new webpage with any content, even no content, because it can be hidden as part of your domain or just a static webpage.  Recent coding best practices suggests to not include Javascript in the body tag.  Instead, you would need to load the UA number first within the Google Analytics tracking code, and then implement a _setVar method. See the code below as an example and insert the Google Analytics tracking code with the slight change onto this new webpage:

   

2. In your Google Analytics account, go to the “Advanced Segment” section and click “+New Custom Segment”.
   
3. Name this custom segment “Include Internal Traffic”, then input the following logic:
   Include-> User Defined Value -> Containing -> Internal
   
   Save the segment but note that the containing field must match exactly to the code you initially wrote in the _setVar method on the static webpage in step 1 (in this case, “Internal”).
4. Create another custom segment and it “Exclude Internal Traffic”, then input the following logic:
   Exclude -> User Defined Value -> Containing -> Internal
   
   Save the segment but again, note that the containing field must match exactly to the code you initially wrote in the _setVar method on the static webpage in step 1 (in this case, “Internal”).
5. Send everyone that is on your internal team a link to the webpage you created in Step 1 so they can install the cookie on their browser.
   NOTE: Each team member must go to that webpage on EVERY browser they use, on EVERY computer they use, including mobile devices.  This will ensure ALL internal traffic is tracked appropriately.
6. Now to test.  Unfortunately, you will need to wait a few days before the segmented data shows up (since the cookie needs to be installed first).  If you wait 1-2 weeks after everyone on your team goes to the page you created in Step 1 on all browsers/computers, and if they visit your website in this time, you can then use the advanced segments and compare the traffic.  Just click the Advanced Segments button to see the advanced segments you created.
   
   The “Include Internal Traffic” segment shows ONLY internal traffic, so this number will be significantly less than ALL traffic as it is only showing your internal team visits.
   
   The “Exclude Internal Traffic” advanced segment will show all visits LESS internal visits.  I like this segment the best because it shows the true number of visits outside of the internal team.
   
   Showing both segments at once gives you an idea of how much real traffic you have compared to internal traffic.
   
   The best part about using advanced segments to track internal traffic on dynamic IP addresses is you are not permanently altering  the incoming traffic, merely manipulating the data view to see different information.  You can activate and deactivate the advanced segments as you choose without losing any data!  You can also share advanced segments to other users on your analytics, even if they are not administrators, by going to your Admin tab, clicking the Advanced Segments under Assets and clicking “share”.
   
   This is a nifty tool to make sure your digital marketing efforts are attracting your REALvisitors, not just your internal team.Let me know if this was helpful or if you have any questions/concerns at Amin@InfoTrustLLC.com.

In this blog post, I want to explain in greater detail how our mobile website works. A lot of people outside the Cincinnati area will not get to experience this product, and I want to showcase what the technology does. I hope more people will decide to visit Washington Park and try this out.

1. Home

You can access the mobile website by visiting m.classicalwalkoffame.org. If you visit classicalwalkoffame.org on a mobile device, you will also be redirected to a mobile version of the site. There is also a desktop version of the site that tells you more about the project and shares more information about each American Classical Hall of Fame Inductees. As you can see below, on the home screen you can view all the inductees or check out the Fountain and Plaza Queue. The queue will tell you what music will be playing next either in the fountain area of the park or in the plaza area.

2. Inductees

Park visitors can select an inductee’s music sample by going to the Inductees page. Currently, American Classical Music Hall of Fame has 100 inductees. Music samples are continuously being added to the site, and soon all 100 will be available for listening. As you can see below, the inductees page can be sorted by Plays, Name, Type and Year. You can also start typing the inductee’s name in the search box, and it will narrow down your search accordingly.

3. About Inductee

Once you find an Inductee whose music and career you are interested in, just select them from the list and you will be taken to their profile page.  There, you can listen to their music, read their bio, listen to the WGUC tour and listen to a special program that was designed for kids. WGUC has put together wonderful tours about each Inductee and their life and career.

4. Listen to Inductee Music

When you decide to listen to the Inductee music sample, there are three options:

• Play on Fountain – if you select this option, your music sample will be played at the fountain part of the park, and the fountain will “dance” to the music.
• Play on Plaza – your selection will played in the plaza part of the park.
• Play on Mobile Device – you will be able to listen to your selection right on your mobile device

5. Play on Fountain or on Plaza

Once you select to play the inductee’s music sample in the fountain area or in the plaza area, a Thank You message will appear inviting you to check out the Jukebox.

6. View Plaza Jukebox and Queue

Most likely, you will not be the only person in the park using this site. Therefore, once you add a music sample to the Queue, it will be one of many requested by park visitors. Once you see the Queue, you can vote for other music samples. This is what makes this experience so social. You can vote only once for each music sample. The order of music samples in the Queue is dictated not just by the time  it was added, but also by how many people voted for it. On top of the screen you can toggle between Plaza and Fountain Queues.

7. Listening to Music on the Phone

If you decide to listen to the music sample on your phone, a player will appear allowing you to listen to the music sample right on your phone.

8. More Information

To learn more about the Walk of Fame, you can always visit our More page.

I hope that this tour has been useful to users who have not used this site yet, or have not visited the park yet. We hope everyone gets a chance to visit the park and enjoy this interactive experience. To learn more about the technology, feel free to email us at info@infotrustllc.com.

American Classical Music Hall of Fame.

Founded in 1996, The American Classical Music Hall of Fame is a non-profit organization dedicated to honoring and celebrating the many facets of American classical music. The Hall of Fame seeks to recognize those who have made significant contributions to American classical music and by doing so aspires to sustain and build interest in American classical music.

Nina Perlove is an Executive Director of Cincinnati-based American Classical Music Hall of Fame. Dr. Perlove is one of the most listened to classical flutists of her generation with over 7 million views to her online video performances and tutorials worldwide. To learn more about Nina Perlove, please visit her website.

This project started with an idea of honoring American Classical Music Hall of Fame inductees by installing a pavement stone engraved with the name of each inductee. Similar to Hollywood Stars, but here in Cincinnati, right in front of our beautiful historic Music Hall.

3CDC Washington park plans included having an Interactive Water Park area. However, Nina’s boundless fantasy and passion for combining music and technology did not end there. If there is a fountain at the park, why not make it dance to the music of the inductees in the Hall of Fame?

In order to build a fountain that will actually respond to the music that is being played in the park, 3CDC brought in Scott Palamar from H2O Arts in California. Scott invented this amazing technology that makes fountain jets self-choreograph, making it look like they are dancing to the music that is being played. As he says on his website, “It is an evergreen and cost-effective replacement for traditional pre-programmed ‘canned’ content.” To put it in perspective, World-known Bellagio fountain has every jet preprogrammed to move to the sound. It is a very expensive proposition which makes longer term process of adding more music pieces pretty cost-prohibitive.

The beauty of the technology built by Scott, is that it pretty much ‘listens’ to any sound coming in as an input and makes adding new music samples to play as simple as copying a sound file. Below, is a photo of Scott and the simulator touch screen computer where all the magic happens.

Here comes our part. The best part is that this technology integration has never been done anywhere in the world and we are the first team to bring it to Cincinnati. InfoTrust Jukebox is a unique piece of technology that allows park visitors to access a mobile website that behind the scenes connects to park speakers and park Fountain (via H2OArts simulator), pick a music sample using smart phone and hear the music play at the Fountain or at the Inductee Plaza. Below is an image of our computer cabinet.

In the next blog post we will talk more about the user experience, and discuss how some of the technology works. Meanwhile, if you would like to learn more, please contact me directly at mloban@infotrustllc.com. You can view our photo gallery on our Facebook page. 

Multiple news sources around the country have taken an interest in Washington Park’s renovations.  Below are some links to their stories:

• New Washington Park Generating Excitement (NBC Channel 5 video)
• Interactive Mobile Feature to Ope at Washington Park Soon (cincinnati.com)
• Washington Park Web-app Makes Music Choices Social (soapbox media)
• UC Business Students and Alumnus Primed to Launch Cincinnati’s First Interactive Classical Music Experience (UC Lindner College of Business)
• Extreme Makeover: Washington Park Edition (cincinnati.com)
• Washington Park Fountain will have Interactive Music Feature (cincinnati.com)
• Washington Park Grand Opening Celebrations Include Free Concerts (Fox Channel 19)
• What Would You Show Visitors [to Cincinnati]? (cincinnati.com)
• Washington Park Renovations Nearing Completion (NBC Channel 5)
• Washington Park Alive with Music Today (cincinnati.com)
• Get Connected in the Great Outdoors (cincinnatiprofile.com)
• Interactive Water Display at Washington Park (NBC Channel 5)

For more information or if you have any questions or concerns, please feel free to contact us at info@infotrustllc.com.

The InfoTrust team standing by the fountain.

Cincinnati Mayor Mark Mallory just before cutting the ribbon.

Children playing in the Walk of Fame fountain.

If you have any questions about the Washington Park Walk of Fame or would like to contact us about setting up a similar project in your area, reach out to us at info@infotrustllc.com.

Polymet's Renovated Website

For the full story, check out the Press Release or visit Polymet’s website.

For more information about InfoTrust and the variety of services we provide, feel free to contact info@infotrustllc.com.

Below is a brief overview from the Google Analytics Blog, announcing Webmaster Toolkit and Google Analytics integration:

The Webmaster Tools section contains three reports based on the Webmaster Tools data that we hope will give you a better sense of how your site performs in search results. We’ve created a new section for these reports called Search Engine Optimization that will live under the Traffic Sources section. The reports you’ll find there are:

• Queries: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily queries
• Landing Pages: impressions, clicks, position, and CTR info for the top 1,000 daily landing pages
• Geographical Summary: impressions, clicks, and CTR by country

Webmaster Toolkit and Google Analytics Integration

You will not see any reporting data under the Search Engine Optimization section until you enable Webmaster Tools data sharing for your web property in Google Analytics.  If you haven’t set up data sharing between Webmaster Tools and Google Analytics, you might see this message:

Simply click on the Set up Webmaster Tools data sharing to configure this option. You will be taken to your website’s Google Analytics settings. Click on the Edit link under Webmaster Tools Settings.

On the following screen, select the website within your Webmaster Tools to link to your Google Analytics account. If you do not have a webmaster account associated with your Google Analytics account, you will be prompted to log in.

When you click save, you will then be taken back to Google Analytics where you can click Apply to finish.

Tips and Integration Notes:

• By default, SEO reporting is activated for all profiles that collect data for the website. You can disable SEO reporting for selected profiles by clicking the Enable Profiles button and deselecting checkboxes next to the profiles you want to disable. Click Apply to save changes.
• SEO data availability is affected by the greater of the starting date of your analytics profile and the starting date in your webmaster toolkit. For example, if your webmaster toolkit was setup on 1/1/2012, and Google Analytics  profile was setup on 1/10/2012, any data between 1/1/2012 and 1/10/2012 will not be available and the starting date for the reports will be 1/10/2012.
• According to Google, average position does not necessarily mean where your site ranks for a particular keyword. Rather, its a calculation of the average position.

Sharing WebMaster Toolkit access:

It is important to distinguish between Owners and Users.

For a full table of permissions go to – https://support.google.com/webmasters/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=2451999

Adding a User:

Adding an Owner:

Enter Additional Owner’s Email address:

And there you have it, linking Google Analytics and Webmaster Toolkit together in one blog post!  For more information or if you have any questions please feel free to contact me:alex@infotrustllc.com.

Additional Resources

Google Webmaster toolkit

Video – Google Webmaster Tools w/ Matt Cutts

Webmaster Central Forum

Webmaster Academy

Getting Started with Web Master Tools

Linking to Google Analytics 

Checking for errors in Google Chrome:  First you’ll want to install the Ghostery extension.  When Google Analytics is running, Ghostery will display “Google Analytics” in a small pop-up window, like in the screenshot below:

Chrome's Ghostery Extension in action

Once you’re sure Google Analytics is running you’ll want to make sure it’s running properly by checking for JavaScript errors.  One option is to right click anywhere on the webpage and select ‘Inspect Element.’  In the new frame that shows up, click the tab named ‘Console’ on the far right.  Another way is to go into the Chrome wrench menu and select ‘Tools>JavaScript console.’  The shortcut for this action is f12.  The console will look like this:

_gaq is not defined Google Analytics error

In the console you’re looking for the two common JavaScript errors:

• _gaq is not defined (see screenshot above)
• pageTracker is not defined

JavaScript Errors in Firefox:  It’s also a good idea to check for JavaScript errors on more than one browser to cover your bases.  In Firefox, first you’ll need to install the Ghostery and Firebug extensions.  To do this simply go to the Firefox menu, select “Add-ons,” then search for each Extension.  Once installed, the Ghostery and Firebug logos will appear in the Navigation toolbar.  Like with Chrome, when the page loads Ghostery will tell you if Google Analytics is running, and by clicking the Firebug logo or hitting f12 you can turn the Console on and off.  Once in the Console, like with Chrome, you’ll want to go through a handful of pages looking for the specific Google Analytics-related JavaScript errors: _gaq is not defined and pageTracker is not defined.

Real-Time Google Analytics:  Finally, if you want to confirm your Google Analytics is set up and working properly, use Google Analytics’ Real-Time function.  For an in-depth look at Real-Time Google Analytics check out 8 Reasons Why Google Analytics Real-Time is so Awesome.  In the GA dashboard, click the Home tab [1] at the top and select “Real-Time” on the left-hand side [2].  Test that Google Analytics is working properly by going to different pages in one window and ensuring “Active Pages” [3] in Real-Time is changing with you.  A screenshot of these three features is below:

Google Analytics Real-Time Dashboard

If you have any questions or would like to learn more about this topic please contact alex@infotrustllc.com

Books:

Avinash Kaushik  “Web Analytics: An Hour a Day” and “Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity”
Brian Clifton  Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics , Third Edition
Tim Ash Landing Page Optimization: The Definitive Guide to Testing and Tuning for Conversions, 2nd Edition
Bryan Eisenberg Always Be Testing
Eric T. Peterson “Web Analytics Demystified” is now available for free  http://www.webanalyticsdemystified.com/content/books.asp

Video Training Resources:

Conversion University from Google Analytics Team http://www.google.com/analytics/iq.html
Google Analytics YouTube Channel http://www.youtube.com/user/googleanalytics
Google Analytics Training from Justin Cutroni (AppSumo) http://www.appsumo.com/google-analytics-video-premium/?rf=srch

Online Resources:

Google Analytics Online Help  http://support.google.com/analytics/?hl=en
Google Adwords Learning Center https://support.google.com/adwords/certification/bin/static.py?hl=en&page=examstudy.cs This section provides a tremendous amount of resources about Web Marketing, including Analytics

Blogs:

Google Analytics Team Blog http://analytics.blogspot.com/
Avinash Kaushik Blog  http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
Luna Metrics http://www.lunametrics.com/blog/
Marketing Experiments http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/category/analytics-testing
Google Webmaster http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/
Justin Cutroni Blog http://cutroni.com/blog/
Eisenberg Brothers Blog http://www.bryaneisenberg.com/
Brian Clifton Blog: http://www.advanced-web-metrics.com/blog/
ROI Revolution: http://www.roirevolution.com/blog/

Free Tools:

Excellent setup checklist  http://www.google.com/analytics/learn/setupchecklist.html
Google Analytics URL Builder http://support.google.com/googleanalytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55578
Google Analytics Configuration Tool http://gaconfig.com/
Google Analytics Debugger (Browser Plugin) https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/jnkmfdileelhofjcijamephohjechhna
Ghostery http://www.ghostery.com/
Web Analytics Solution Profiler https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/web-analytics-solution-profile/?src=search

Firebug plugin:

Troubleshooting the tracking code https://developers.google.com/analytics/resources/articles/gaTrackingTroubleshooting
Google Blog – Analytics Pro’s Tools of Trade http://analytics.blogspot.com/2009/04/analytics-pros-tools-of-trade.html

For more information or if you have any questions please feel free to contact me: alex@infotrustllc.com

This HTML5 Web App has been optimized and tested on the iPhone 4S. Make sure you are using a HTML5 compatible browser. For best results on the iPhone, browse to the link below and then add to home screen and run it like any normal app.

http://infotrustllc.com/HTML5/DartTracker/

I am sure by now you know that Google Analytics Terms and Conditions state that  ”if you exceed more than 10 million hits per month, there is no assurance that the excess hits will be processed.” Many people ask, what exactly constitutes a hit? A hit is a pageview, a virtual page view or an event.  Essentially, any transaction that stores a piece of data.

So, what are your options at this point?

Option 1:

Use client-side sampling to collect a percentage of your site’s traffic rather than the whole thing. Why would you want to do that? What matters the most is not the absolute value, but trends of the traffic. Client-side sampling will guarantee that if your traffic spikes as a result of a successful marketing campaign, Google Analytics will be able to keep up with the trend.

Click this to learn about _setSampleRate Google Analytics Tracking Code API function that allows you to control the sampling client-side.

Option 2:

Upgrade to Google Analytics Premium. GA Premium allows up to 1 Billion hits per month. Unlike many other high-end Analytics tools, GA Premium does not penalize you for a successful site by charging a higher fee based on the level of traffic. GA Premium has a fixed annual fee and provides a number of major improvements over the Free version of Google Analytics. We will talk about GA Premium in another post, but it is important to note that GA Premium has almost an identical interface as GA Free and the process of upgrade is as simple as sending your UA number to your Dedicated Support Team from Google.

As always, if you have an questions or comments about this or anything Google Analytics related, feel free to reach out via email: Alex@InfoTrustLLC.com.

References:

• Google Analytics Terms and Conditions
• Google Analytics Data Limits

In statistics and survey methodology, sampling is concerned with the selection of a subset of individuals from within a population to estimate characteristics of the whole population.

 

Researchers rarely survey the entire population because the cost of a census is too high. The three main advantages of sampling are that the cost is lower, data collection is faster, and since the data set is smaller it is possible to ensure homogeneity and to improve the accuracy and quality of the data.

However, for some unfortunate reason, my geeky passion towards math, statistics and other engineering sciences are seldom shared by my friends and colleagues so if you spent your college years in anything other then classes on statistics, allow me to translate what this means.

Lets assume that your website generates a lot of traffic. Even though a product like Google Analytics collects all your website’s traffic data, it would take a significant amount of time to generate reports based on the complete set of data. Instead, the tool takes a subset of your data and presents a report based on a sample of the data, not the whole thing.

Up until recent it wasn’t possible to control sampling. If your data was sampled, you’d see the following message:

A new feature in Google Analytics is the Adjust Sample Size tool. The slider, which is located below the date range, allows the user to choose between faster processing and higher precision.  You can adjust the sample size from the default of 250,000 (which is the center of the slider) up to 500,000 visits.  When you choose a sampling threshold, that preference will be used in all reports until you close Google Analytics.

When does Google Analytics use data sampling

Google Analytics samples data when your requested data size meets one of the conditions:

• 500,000 maximum sessions for special queries where the data is not already stored.
• Any query that exceeds 1,000,000 unique dimension combinations.

Why should I worry about this

Data sampling may lead to inconsistent results when you run Google Analytics reports. Here is a real-life example:

When the scaling is set to ‘Faster Processing’ the report is built based on 981 visits and shows 9,605 IE visits from the state of NY.

Keeping everything the same, when the sampling is set to the middle of the scale, the number of IE visitors from the State of NY drops significantly to 7,918.

Finally, for this example, the highest and the average precision yield the same result for IE visitors from the State of NY – 7,918.

Why were the results the same between the average and the high precision? Be the first to comment below or send us a note with your answer, and if you’re right we’ll send you an InfoTrust SuperHero T-shirt.

What can I do about it

If you are concerned about the effect of data sampling, you have a couple of options:

1. You can make a change to GATC to only collect a percentage of your site’s traffic rather than all the traffic. We will cover more technical details in the next post on this subject.

2. Reduce your date range so you have less data.

3. Upgrade to Google Analytics Premium. We are working on a post about GA Premium, so stay tuned!

If your site gets more than 10M hits per month.

First of all, congratulations! Now, you should keep in mind Google Analytics Terms & Conditions state that ”if you exceed more than 10 million hits per month, there is no assurance that the excess hits will be processed.” We are going to talk about your options in a future post, but for the purposes of our discussion about sampling, we will assume that you have a Free Google Analytics account and your traffic is under 10M hits per month.  If not, and if you have any questions, don’t hesitate to reach out to me at Alex@InfoTrustLLC.com.

Stay tuned as we are going to publish another blog post on more advanced topics associated with sampling. Meanwhile, here are some good resources on this subject:

• Google Analytics Terms and Conditions
• Google Analytics Data Limits
• GA Sampling
• Google Announcement - controlling number of visits 
• Selecting the sampling size for reports

Don’t worry, there are many ways to do this!  One of my favorite techniques is the old “URL builder and shortner” trick.  This allows any URL you want to post on a social media channel to not only be shortened to fit any character restrictions (such as Twitter’s 140) but also be tagged with a unique extension so you can see exactly what links are driving the most visitors to your site.  Here’s how you can do it:

Say we want to post a link of our last blog post on twitter…

1. First we’d copy the original URL (http://infotrustllc.com/blog/social-media-web-marketing/facebook-top-10-apps-and-techniques-to-use-for-engagement), and go to Google’s URL Builder Tool.  We’d then paste the URL into “Website URL” and fill out the fields below.  Once done with the appropriate tags, we click “Generate URL” to obtain our new tagged URL.  NOTE* The “Campaign Name” field is what you will see in your Google Analytics so be specific here.  See the sample screenshot below for our example field names.

   

   Google URL Builder for Google Analytics

2. Now we copy the newly generated URL and go to Google’s URL Shortner Service.  We always log in to our Google Account (preferably the one that is associated with the Google Analytics account), paste the URL in the field, and click “Shorten URL”.  Our tagged URL will be shortened to use on any social media site now, in this example Twitter.  Using this service, we can also see the details of each shortened link such as how many clicks, what platforms were used, what browsers were used, country location of the visitor who clicked, and it even generates a QR code for that shortened URL.  To see all this, we just click “Details” next to the full URL once we generated the shortened URL.  Google’s shortening service saves our history of all URLs we’ve ever shortened, as long as we are logged in to our Google account first.  NOTE* You can use any URL shortener service you like to do this, as long as you go to Google URL builder first.

   

3. After we post our new shortened link all over our social-sphere (including twitter for this example), it’s time to check our analytics to see if it drove any traffic!  NOTE* Google Analytics won’t show inbound traffic from social media under Referrals anymore, but the tagged and shortened URLs will now show up as Campaigns. See below for an example URL we tagged with the name “June13″, maybe not the most obvious and specific campaign name but for our purpose in our team, this title is understood for its use.

   

   

And there you have it!  You now can successfully track inbound links from your social media in Google Analytics.  This can be convenient when testing new topics or blog ideas, but always remember to primarily look at trends with your Google Analytics.  Trends tend to be more useful, insightful and actionable instead of per-click or individual visitor data.  But it is fun to see what specific links work and which don’t, and yes, it’s okay to get sucked in to see what campaigns are more effective.

As always, we’d love hearing your thoughts! If you have any other apps we may have missed, any questions or you just want to chat, feel free to contact me at amin@infotrustllc.com.

First, please check out this YouTube intro video from Google Analytics team:

Here is our summary of the findings:

Amin is a tall handsome unshaved fellow on the left

Way to go Amin. I am sure it was a team of people who made it happen. Hopefully in a future post Amin will share more details about the organization and his team members. Go Bearcats!

Speaking of ideas that take a while to come to fruition, another opportunity that recently fell into my lap here is interior design.  That’s an even more interesting choice considering my desk here has nothing more on it than a sign my daughter made that says “Heather”.  I worked here for seven months before I even brought that in.  But, we are outgrowing our office space so we need more room.  It’s a great problem to have and shows how you really need to have an attitude here of “do what it takes to get things done”.   So, I get to research accent walls and office decoration.  Ideas welcome.

I sense that I got the office decorating job because anyone else would just have posters of Yoda, the Avengers and/or Tron.  Prior to my “Heather” sign, a poster of Ghostbusters was above my desk.   The expansion, the party and never knowing what to expect when I come to work each morning (or when I get up to work from home) is what I love about the small environment.  I’m also looking forward to spreading our wings and branching out into new space.  We are really trying to accommodate each employee’s inalienable right to direct sunlight.   Paint samples and IKEA catalogs are now office staples (right along with free lunch—which now has to be delivered a lot since we are so busy).  It’s a great   place to be when monotony is not part of your workday.  I remember in my first job where every other Wednesday was “process garnishments” day and every fourth Thursday was “turnover cost report” day.   Now, every day is a new day.

What else do I really like about being the operations/human resources/administrative/food/cleanliness manager here?  Having to get a variety of projects figured out keeps me fresh.  It really helps you stay at the top of your game.  While I am usually the “elder” employee here at InfoTrust, the “kids” often mention that I’m always open to new things like Spotify (which I’m not clear on but seems like a way to listen to music).  I also always get a chuckle when I get to break down my middle aged mom stereotype and mention that I don’t like wine or romantic comedies.  That’s what I love about it here.  Just like me, it’s not your stereotypical job.

Seriously?

Using Real-Time

1. You have to be in the new version of Google Analytics to use Real-Time Reports. If you’re not already using the new version, you can start by clicking the “New Version” link in the top right of Google Analytics.
2. Real-Time reports are in the Home tab.
3. You have to be an Administrator on your Analytics account, or you have to have access to a profile without profile filters.

Note: As I mentioned in the previous blog post, Real-Time Analytics and Profile Data, you will see unfiltered results at the account-level.

10 reasons why Real-Time Google Analytics is so Awesome.

1. You get an immediate sense of gratification when you bring up Real-Time and see that you have active visitors on your site right now.

2. Active Referrer can be extremely helpful in analyzing a real-time event that is driving an unusual traffic spike. With the traditional Analytics, you would learn about unusual traffic referrers after the fact, but Real-Time allows you to monitor Referrer traffic as it happens and react immediately. What would be a good example of this – a new article, Twitter or Facebook message.

3. On the same note, you can use Real-Time view to test social media posts in real time. Send out a message, and then watch the results. Real-Time also allows you to watch and filter Content that visitors are looking at so you can easily associate page views with referring sites.

4. Real-Time can be extremely insightful when you bring it up at the time you run offline ads – TV or Radio

5. Real-Time is an extremely powerful testing tool for many customizations to Analytics implementation and for testing if Google Analytics is actually working on certain pages of the site. Here is a scenario, you have a page that is generating a virtual pageview when a visitor clicks on a tab inside a page. You just finished coding the site and you need to make sure that your event is properly firing. Step 1 is to use Location filtering to narrow it down to your computer. In my case I am located near Loveland, OH at the time of writing this article so Google Analytics recognized me as City = Loveland.

Now Step 2 is to switch to Content tab and make sure that there is a page view corresponding to your virtual Page View. Don’t forget – as far as Google Analytics is concerned, a virtual pageview is no different from a real pageview.

6. Continuing on the same topic, if you use any Real-Time report can be used as a good way if your Google Analytics is actually working, events are firing, you are using the right UA number and all that good stuff. In many enterprise environments with centrally managed container-based Google Analytics implementations, an ability to test in real-time if Google Analytics is firing and if it is going into the right account can be a major time saver.

7. As if what we talked about so far is not enough,  how about another one – you are able to see real-time what keywords are bringing your visitors to the site. Really simple, set your medium to Organic and don’t forget to pick up your jaw from the floor:

8. Last, you can use Real-Time Analytics to test site performance and to troubleshoot performance issues. If your site performance all of us a sudden becomes very slow, you can look at the number of active visitors, compare it against the average historic number of concurrent visitors and either confirm or deny that a traffic spike is a reason for site performance.

Was that helpful? Please comment to share how you are using Real-Time Google Analytics to solve analytical or technical problems.

How come my Profile only shows traffic to a section of the site but Real-Time report shows everything?

An important thing to remember is that Real-Time Report does not support profile filters. What that means is that it shows all unfiltered traffic at Account-level. You can use content or location tab to apply a report-time filter.

“Design is subjective but UX can validate success. Deploy – measure – improve. This is an endless loop”

Jonathan Karron @jonathanatlanta

“The keyword I’m hearing again and again at #dsum12 is “personalized.” User-centered design and #UX has won.”

Joseph Dickerson @josephdickerson

“@truste: Privacy by design: transparency, usability baked into UX must make it easy for users to keep their data private.”

Adam Hook @adamwritesgood

“When comes to UX, Designers must understand analytics. Analysts must understand design. @mickwinters”

Courtney Morton @CourtMortATL

“UX is the new black RT@iwanttobesocial: Product development shifts as people start to expect more and more from user experience.”

Jacqui Chew @jacquichew

“As design becomes commoditized, measurement driven optimization heightens the value of creative work.”

David Reeves @DavidReevesATL

“A/B testing should be a never-ending piece of the design cycle”

West Reed @WEST_REED

“The longer you inveset in design without validating its success, the greater the sub optimal ROI”

Simon Cole @simonjcole

“iPad=entertainment, iPhone=immediacy. Don’t adjust the current site, design the site specifically 4 the device.”

Bill Sullivan @nexxus1990

“Great design creates usability. Design without usability is just art.”

J Cornelius @jc

Did we miss any?  Let us know in the comments!  For any other questions, please email alyssa@infotrustllc.com

Twitter was the obvious choice of communication among attendees, and nearly everyone contributed to the hashtag #DSUM12.  So we decided to pull the top tweets from the Digital Summit and this hashtag, enjoy!

“Modern attention spans won’t tolerate paragraphs, sentences, words or characters anymore. They prefer visuals and images”

David Felfoldi @felfoldi

“60% of online video views click away from a video in the first 120 seconds. Short is good”

Virtue @virtue

“Takes 60 minutes after leaving your wallet at home to realize it. It only takes 15 minutes to realize you’ve left your phone.”

Alex Topiler @topularity

“A brand sits at the intersection of what a company does, and how the consumer feels about it.”

J Cornelius @jc

“Whatever you are thinking, think bigger.”

Tony Hsieh

“The customer is the number one sales person for your company. Why? They bought your product.”

Write2Market @Write2Market

“Your smartphone is now a store (and more) in your pocket.”

JR Schmitt @cloudspark

“Culture is the one competitive advantage a company can control.”

David Cummings @davidcummings

“A hashtag is a campfire that Twitter users gather around.”

Joel Lunenfeld @joell

“Customers expect companies to have a personality now; must change the way we think about engagement.”

Candace McCaffery @candacemcc

Did we miss any?  Let us know in the comments section!  For questions or if you want more information, feel free to contact me at Amin@InfoTrustLLC.com.

My presentation was on Measuring Social Media with Google Analytics, and throughout the conference I tried to attend other presentations on web analytics, measurements and metrics to learn the latest trends and tools. Throughout these sessions, there were 5 concepts that resonated with me the most.

1. Segmentation and personalization is the key to relevancy.

Every one of us wants to receive relevant information. Emails, messages and posts that do not reflect my needs and wants will never get my attention, will not generate a clickthrough and will not create a conversion. Every marketer needs to track and pay attention to the behaviors of their audience and adjust a message accordingly. Leverage buyer patterns, track content usage and my social media involvement to understand what content to send me at what time and through what channel. The ability to use data to create personable and relevant messages is instrumental in improving marketing ROI.

2. Averages are misleading.

During this conference several speakers stressed the importance of not getting caught up in looking at the averages. This information is often misleading as it takes into account uncommon visitor patterns. Average bounce rate is not a very good indicator of how your website is performing. Consider tracking your bounce rate on the landing pages or other key pages – this will give you more accurate information about your website’s performance. Another way to avoid looking at averages is by segmenting website traffic and comparing bounce rates by traffic source.

3. Making assumptions and going with your gut can be a costly strategy.

A lot of times marketing decisions are based on gut feelings and personal preferences. This means that the decisions are often biased and skewed towards our own preferences. The only way to be relevant is by following the following cycle:

1. Design your marketing campaign
2. Test its performance
3. Gather data
4. Analyze information
5. Optimize based on the identified insights

The most important aspect in marketing is constant optimization. The needs, wants and demands of your audience constantly change. If you do not constantly adapt to the shifts in the marketplace, you will start producing irrelevant messages that in return will make you irrelevant in the eyes of your audience.

4. Real time data matters when you can make real time changes.

Recently, Google Analytics introduced real-time analytics that show how your website is found and used by people in the real time. A lot of other analytical platforms offer similar capabilities. This creates a questions – what do we do with this data?

Data only matters when you know what do with it. Otherwise, you will get analysis paralysis. Always begin looking at the data with the goal in mind. This will help you find the right data insights. If you are still interested in the real-time data, make a list of changes and actions that you can take depending on what the data is telling you.

5. Data correlation is often more important than data causation.

It is always important to measure how each marketing tactic contributes to your overall marketing goals and objectives. However, I would also stress the importance of looking at the data correlation. Does the growth of your Facebook fan base correlate with an increase in the website traffic? For example, increased activity on Google+ will correlate with increased search engine traffic to your website that will correlate with the number of product demo sign-ups. Correlations and patterns will always help you figure out if you are going in the right direction.

Summary
There is a lot more information that I would like to share, but I would rather focus on these 5 tactics that can help you make actionable marketing decisions. We will post another blog post about this conference within a few days. This has been a great experience, and I plan to come back next year.

Background

Heather Alessandro is our Director of Operations here, and was actually the person who brought me in initially to interview at InfoTrust.  As any candidate coming in for an interview, I looked up my interviewer’s background and affiliations.  This is when I first came across Paige’s Princess Foundation.  Honestly, I was incredibly moved.  Taken from their mission statement, “Paige’s Princess Foundation, Inc. is a non-profit organization providing small grants to pediatric patients with life-long disabilities.  They are not condition-specific and consider applications from any disorder or diagnosis that results in the disability of the child.  Grants will be made to finance adaptive equipment or therapeutic services to enhance the quality of life, mobility and independent function of the child.”

So who is Paige?

Also taken directly from their website, “Paige Alessandro was a six year old kindergartner at Wyandot Elementary school when she passed away suddenly in May of 2010. She lived with her parents, Steve and Heather and big sister Grace and little sister Haley. Paige loved saying that she was the middle sister. Paige bravely battled a spinal vascular disease her entire life and suffered a very severe spinal stroke in 2008. After overcoming many obstacles, Paige died peacefully from acute liver failure which was more than likely a complication of her disease.”  Read more about Paige here.

Commitment to a great cause

I’m not writing this to solicit this organization nor the upcoming run (directly at least).  Instead, I’m writing this to share with you why we are committed to this cause.  I didn’t know Paige. I’ve never heard of spinal vascular disease and I’ve never known anyone that has passed due to this disease.  But I do know Heather.  She is leader that holds our team together and pushes us to continue forward.  Not only is she a visionary within InfoTrust, her unbelievable commitment to helping Cincinnati Children’s OT/PT patients reach their fullest potential through her foundation is truly inspiring.  This commitment and dedication is mirrored in Heather’s interaction and leadership in the office. It can be seen in our culture and core business values.  If nothing else, she and Paige’s foundation has helped me become more aware, motivated to give back, and ultimately more appreciative of how fortunate I am.

I pushed to have a blog post about this topic because I, and everyone at InfoTrust, feel connected to this cause.  We’ll close with a video about Paige’s Princess Foundation’s upcoming fundraiser run on May 19.  Okay, maybe I will solicit a little, register here! Or if you are not available (or not local) but would like to donate to this charity, you can do so here.

With all that being said lets Dive in.

While in the brainstorming process of creating my HTML5 Dart Tracking app I found myself with a problem of keeping the scores of the players even if your phone suddenly goes offline.  Cookies were one way of keeping my data consistent but with HTML 5 there is an even better solution and that is localStorage.  However while working with localStorage I found it had one unique quirk that required a bit of a workaround.  That is localStorage can only hold strings.  This was just not going to work because next to all my information that needed to be tracked was in the form of Arrays.

So after some research I found two functions that allow for arrays to be properly stored in localStorage. Below is some example code to help demonstrate the process.

The first function you will use will be
JSON.stringify(YourArrayVariable).  This will convert your array into a string that localStorage can handle and later be parsed.

This leads me to the second function which retrieves your variable
ArrayVariable = JSON.parse(localStorage['NameOfArrayString']).  And there you have it now you can store arrays in localStorage.

If you have any questions, leave a comment below or email me at andrew@infotrustllc.com

Change Your Site Name and Information

Go to Settings > General

From this page, you can edit general global settings about your website including:

• Site Name
• Tagline
• Email Address (used for notification purposes)
• Date/Time Formats

Make your URLS Pretty

Go to Settings > Permalinks

From this page, you can change your permalink structure to prevent WordPress URLS from having site.com?p=23. Using %postname% somewhere in your permalinks is great for SEO. WordPress will use the title of your page in the URL structure. If you look at this page, the title is “Guide to Setting up your WordPress Website”, the URL contains “guide-to-setting-up-your-wordpress-website”

Setup a Text Page as the Home Page instead of Blog Posts

First you need to create your home page, and the text you want to display on it. If your theme has a special home page template, be sure to select that template in the page edit screen under “Page Attributes”. You will also need to create a blog page that has no text, and select a blog template if your theme requires.

Go to Settings > Reading

Under “Front page displays” select “A static page” instead of “Your latest posts”, then for front page, choose the page you want to use. Also, select the blog page you want to use for posts page. In this settings page, you can also modify how many blog items will display on the blog page, and any archive pages (category and tag pages).

Enable Search Engines to find Your Website

When your site is 100% ready to be visible to the world, go to Settings > Privacy and select the option “Allow search engines to index this site”.

If you are interested in learning more about WordPress, be sure to join us for our Advanced WordPress Workshop on May 18. If you have any questions, leave a comment below or email me at alyssa@infotrustllc.com!

Below is a quick list we compiled of some of the most commonly used Facebook Apps to help businesses manage pages and drive the best engagement for fans:

1. Fan of the Week

Every week one fan out of those who interacted with your page is picked as fan of the week, encouraging everyone to participate more.

2. RSS Feed or NetworkedBlogs

These apps allow you to add your blog/favourite RSS feeds to your wall, boxes tab or a dedicated tab on your profile or Facebook Page.

3. Post Planner

Schedule Facebook posts that rock!

4. Youtube

Connects your Youtube channel and favorite videos to be shown directly on your Facebook page.

5. Ecwid

Add a store to your Facebook page and get access to 800 million potential customers.

6. SurveyMonkey

Easily embed a survey directly on your fan page or post a survey link to your wall. Gather feedback from people where they’re already hanging out!

7. Flickr

This app displays a Flickr member’s collections, sets and photos as a Tab within yourFacebook Fan pages. You can choose from a number of different layout styles, and unlike most other apps like it, lets viewers navigate all your collections, sets and photos within your Facebook tab the entire time.

8. Nutshell mail

NutshellMail from Constant Contact tracks your brand’s social media activity and delivers a summary to your email inbox on your schedule.

9. Jobcast.net

Post Jobs For Free on Facebook

Whether you’r a small business owner, or marketing manager for a billion dollar brand, knowing what resources are available to fully optimize your social media efforts can be extremely rewarding.  The demands of providing valuable content and continuous messaging can be daunting, but with the tools listed above, it can at least be more manageable.

As always, we’d love hearing your thoughts! If you have any other apps we may have missed, any questions or you just want to chat, feel free to contact me at amin@infotrustllc.com.

Below is an abbreviated FAQ and answers for anyone interested in learning about our international student/via application opportunities.  For more detailed information, check our our About tab here.  Disclaimer: our answers do not substitute legal advice from a qualified immigration attorney.

Do you provide visa sponsorship?

InfoTrust will provide H1-B visa sponsorship for a qualified employee, including the cost of visa application

I already have an H1-B visa, how do I get a job with InfoTrust?

No requirements exist that the individual remain for any period in the job the visa was originally issued for.

Do you offer health benefits?

InfoTrust is a small business, but we offer the same level of benefits as a large organization. We offer health benefits to you, your spouse and your dependents.  We also offer dental, long term disability and a Simple IRA with a company match.

My family is located overseas and it takes a very long time to travel home. How much flexibility do I have to take a couple of weeks off in a row?

We offer generous vacation package and you never need to worry about taking more than a week at a time. See blog post http://infotrustllc.com/blog/hr-and-recruitment/infotrust-vacation-policy.

Are you only looking for full-time employees?

We are open to hiring part-time and we will work with you to identify hours when we will meet in the office or work via Skype.  We have only three requirements – you have to be smart, you have to get things done and you have to be a team player. Do no not compromise on these. Everything else is flexible.

Do I have to work full-time to qualify for an H1-b visa?

No, it is possible to establish an H1-B visa for a part-time employee.

I am graduating from University of Cincinnati or another US graduate school with a degree. Am I going to be a subject to annual visa quotas?

Good news, effective 2006, there are no H1-b quotas for candidates with US graduate degrees.

If you have any other questions about InfoTrust and visa sponsorship, feel free to contact us at heather@infotrustllc.com or again, check out our extended information here.

The following is a list of free tools that anyone can use to monitor any type of buzz, conversations or messages about a person/topic on social media.

1. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite

   Simple to use, you can monitor and manage multiple social media accounts all in one place with the ability to schedule tweets, create filters for only certain topic updates, research trends and hot topics for your industry, analyze social media traffic and impact, and have more engagement ability with specialized posting.

2. Twuffer, Twitterstats

   Twitter tools to both schedule tweets and see the changes with your follower base (increasing or decreasing).

3. Twithawk, Twilert, Monitter

   All three of these tools send updates when there is mention about a specified topic or person on social media: good for monitoring your own name mentions or specific topics of interest.

4. Twitterfall

   For popular trends, Twitter is queried from the Twitterfall server, and results are streamed directly to you.

5. Social Mention

   Similar to Twithawk and Twilert, this tool scans all social media for mentions about a specified keyword, name or topic and sends alerts when there is any talk about those searches.

6. Klout

   This is a fun tool to determine your social media influence, designed to encourage more engagement online and through social media.  Based off your number ranking, you can potentially earn free prizes and awards.

7. OpenBook

   Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life.  Now, even if they are not your friends and you don’t know them, you cans till read people’s recent posts (based on their own words).

8. Google Alerts

   Google Alerts are email updates of the latest relevant Google results (web, news, etc.) based on your queries.

9. Guzzle

   Guzzle reads hundreds of feeds every second to get you the latest news about stuff you care about.

10. Social Seek

    Socialseek is for anyone looking to rise above the social media noise and finally get real engagement and social media ROI

Some other manual free searches can be found here: http://www.socialbrite.org/2011/01/11/guide-to-free-social-media-monitoring-tools/

Knowing what’s happening in the world can be very powerful and enlightening.  By monitoring yourself or the topics you care about on social media, you can potentially be better informed about what the conversations are and how to push yourself, your knowledge, and your personal brand, to the next level.

How can organizations improve the newsletter sign-ups on their websites? Let me help by offering 10 easy tips that can help you increase conversion – # of sign-ups/ # of visitors. 

1. Your newsletter sign-up form needs to have a value proposition. Too often, I see a newsletter sign-up box that doesn’t even tell me what I am signing up for. Here is an example:

Add a brief description to the offer, just to help your website visitors understand why they should join your mailing list. Here is an example: FREE subscription to a weekly newsletter with marketing research, case studies, web clinics and news digests.

2. Segment from the start. Offering several subscription options to your visitors can serve a dual purpose. On one hand, you are immediately segmenting your list; on the other hand you are telling your visitors that the newsletter is tailored to their interests. Here is how MarketingSherpa does it:

Do not offer your website visitors too many options. At the end of the day, you will have to produce all the different pieces of content that you promised.

3. Incentive goes a long way. Your newsletter is an offer, but what about an incentive? Think about giving people something of value if they sign-up. For example, sign-up for our newsletter, and we will send you a copy of our latest FREE eBook on <topic your audience is interested in>. Make sure that your incentive offers real value to the people who you want on your email list. I probably will sign-up for your newsletter if there is a chance to win a Starbucks Gift Card, but I will unsubscribe soon after. Here is an example of an incentive:

4. Address privacy issues. Last thing we all want is to get spammed. Tell people that you respect their privacy, and will protect their email and contact information. A short statement about your privacy practices can put your visitors’ minds at ease. Here is an example: We never sell or share your information.

5. Begin with an email box. When asking people for their contact information, begin with an email box. You do not need any more information, and when people list their email address they tend to be more committed than when they simply list their name. You might want to consider asking for an email (required), and then asking for person’s name (optional).

6. Do I really have to SUBMIT? Submit is not the most effective call to action. It is ambiguous to say the least. Try something more specific. Your call to action button should tell me what exactly I am getting myself into. Here is an example:

7. Consider using an image in your newsletter sign-up box. This might give people a preview of what they will be receiving from you soon. The image, however, should not be ambiguous but rather tell a story and support your offer.

8. Experiment with a newsletter sign-up pop-up box. This might work well on your blog. The reason I say experiment is because this doesn’t work for every site. However, it might be worth trying. I am inclined to sign-up for a newsletter when I am reading a blog and see that the company offers real value. Here is an example of the newsletter sign-up pop-up box:

9. Split test your newsletter sign-up form. The only way to surely increase the newsletter sign-up is to test your form and a call to action. Sometimes the color of the button, the call to action or the size of the form makes all the difference. Here is an example:

10. Leverage social proof. Consider including how many Facebook fans your company has as a way to prove the value your company offers. Another option is to add a quick testimonial to the newsletter form to give people a glimpse of what makes your newsletter special.

Summary

At the end of the day, do not try all of these tactics at once. Use your website analytics to test which options work better, and continuously optimize your newsletter sign-up form. Remember; never take the attention of your website visitors for granted. You have to work hard on getting people to join your mailing list.

One way we look to develop our “good person” skills is to look outwards to the community.  Once a quarter, we all leave the office and go onsite to volunteer.  Last quarter, we all went down to the FreeStore/FoodBank.  We were humbled to be able to restock food and help out with such a worthy cause.  I’m even more excited about this quarter’s event because the whole office is coming out to support my charity, Paige’s Princess Run 5k (www.paigesprincessrun.com)!

It is so important to our culture to connect with the community and remember that we do not exist in the vacuum of our office.  We often times cite the Girl Scout motto of “leaving a place better than how we found it”.  We subscribe to that when dealing with our customers as well.  We want to help organizations be better.   Not only is giving back a fundamental responsibility (remember what Spiderman’s Uncle Ben tells him, “with great power, comes great responsibility”), it is a way to build character and respect among your company.

So, it’s a telling sign of our corporate culture that we are committed to servicing the community and quoting Spiderman movies.  Here are some tips for getting your company involved:

●Is there any personal connection?  Passion is contagious (see me for example dragging the InfoTrust gang to our 5k).  If there is a charitable organization that a team member suggests, pursue it.

●Go onsite to help.  Try to find an event or organization where your team can actually go and serve.

●Stay local.  To the above point and beyond, charity starts in your own area.  There are thousands of local organizations in the Cincinnati area.

●Shut down the office if possible.  Nothing screams commitment like closing the office for a few hours so every team member can attend the community service event.

●Keep it up.  Make it a quarterly goal to plan and implement one community service event per quarter.

Help us help you!  If you know of a great cause or charity that the InfoTrust team can descend upon and help for few hours, please email me the details at heather@infotrustllc.com

Below are some of the most popular enterprise social media monitoring tools but there are many, many more.  Using this list and exploring these options will give better understanding to what your organization’s particular needs are and what kind of tool is the best fit.  My next blog post will focus on the best social media monitoring tools that anyone can use, whether you are an individual trying to establish yourself as a thought leader or a small business trying to build your local presence.

1. Tweetdeck and Hootsuite

   With free and premium accounts, these tools are similar in functionality and design with both providing dashboards to manage and measure your social networks.  Simple to use, you can monitor and manage multiple social media accounts all in one place with the ability to schedule tweets, create filters for only certain topic updates, research trends and hot topics for your industry, analyze social media traffic and impact, and have more engagement ability with specialized posting.

2. Hubspot

   All-in-One marketing software that provides website and blogging tools, search engine optimization, lead nurturing, but mainly (for the sake of this blog post) multichannel analytics.  These analyics include social media measurement to understand how social media is driving leads.  Hubspot also provides many free white papers on different social media trends, updates and what’s new in the industry.

3. Radian6 (with Salesforce)

   Full service listening tool that helps users listen, measure, engage and discover so in order to create greater connections with fans. As part of Salesforce, this tool is fully integrated with the cloud-based CRM tool to organize all data for better marketing clarity on social media efforts.

4. Vocus

   Marketing software that makes it easy to attract customers through search engines, get followers on Facebook and Twitter, and generate buzz visibility for businesses and brands.  Vocus helps alleviate the uncertainty out of social networks and helps brands reach and influence potential customers.

5. Awareness

   This social marketing hub allows users to publish securly with enterprise-grade permissioning, workflow and audit controls.   Product also features centralized channel management.

With social media being more integrated with everyday lives and activities, its unwise for companies to ignore all the opportunity that comes with effective social media marketing strategies.  Delivering a tailored message directly to individuals that can become life-long customers and advocates is the goal with any marketing effort.  By monitoring social media, brands and companies can learn new insights about what is being said about their brand, who’s talking and making an impact, and ultimately make better marketing and business decisions.

Why should you speed up your pages? Well, in addition to Google incorporating site speed in search engine rankings, page load speed is very important in keeping your visitors on your website. Mobile users expect pages to load within 2 seconds, and you can provide a better user experience to site visitors.

Remove unnecessary plugins

While plugins add a great deal of functionality and bells and whistles to your website, they are most prone to making calls from external sites. The more functionality and neat things added to your website take up more resources and slow down your page loading process.

Ask yourself what real value each plugin adds to your site, and does it help you achieve your website goals? If the plugin does not help you achieve your website goals, the plugin should be deactivated and deleted. Cleaning out your plugins every so often is also a great practice for maintainability. You don’t have to constantly be asking yourself what each plugin is doing, and worrying if your site will break when it is removed.

If you deactivate a plugin, and realize you actually need it, it can easily be reactivated. Ah, the beauty of WordPress.

Install a caching plugin

While it seems contradictory to install another plugin, caching your website is one of the most noticeable things you can to to improve your page load time. Caching is the process of storing parts of your website that do not change (such as an about page) and loading those parts once instead of every time a page loads. You can install w3 Total Cache Plugin or WP Super Cache for this.

If it turns out you have more than 20 plugins to go through, this process may take longer than 10 minutes. The quickest and easiest thing you can do to speed up your WordPress website is install a caching plugin. And, if you have a lot of plugins, you know just how easy it is to install them!

Looking forward

Here are a few tips to keep in mind for future updating:

1. Choose the right image format. In general, .jpg is better for photographic images and .png is better for images with text and fewer colors.
2. Use WP smush.it to further compress image sizes.
3. Delete or remove unneeded post revisions.

Have any other tips for quickly improving the load time of your pages? Leave them in the comments below or discuss with us on twitter (@iwanttobesocial).

Don’t worry, it’ll be okay! In fact, the reason Facebook pushes these updates is to make our lives, the page owners, easier… right? I’ve written this blog post not only to go over the basic changes and design updates all our pages are going through, but also point out why certain changes should be taken advantage of.

If you want to see some of the updates watch this video

Here are my top 5 advanced tips for the new Facebook brand timeline changes:

1. The Cover Photo

Without default tabs anymore, an image that is at least 399px wide will be the first thing anybody sees when they land on your Facebook page.  Key points to keep in mind relate to overall strategy with social media in general: think about your audience, message, and making it compelling.

Opportunities here: since this photo is public but only seen at the top of your page (unlike the smaller profile picture), it can have huge impact.  Having the goal to make it memorable and evoking emotion from your fans would be best for this.  It should be temporarily changed (we recommend once or twice a month) and can be time specific relating to an event coming up or recent product/service release.  Just know, this image is what people will likely see first and last when visiting your page.

2. About section and apps (formerly tabs)

Pulled from your old Facebook page design, this section gives a little more insight to fans about your general business information but also, primarily, your brand personality.  Photos have a much more important role now with your page, since they are also permanent in their location at the top and more likely to be viewed by visitors.

Opportunities here: make sure to have pictures that tie with your goals, culture, brand promise or even employees.  There is room for only 3 more visible apps (viewers will have to click a drop-down to see more), so choose wisely!

3. Timeline Posting and Milestones

The general layout of a timeline is to paint a picture of how a person, brand, or company has progressed throughout time.  The interesting feature with this is the ability to set the date and milestones.  Setting dates to posts, images, and videos can give viewers a sense of how a particular business grew, a product was released and just a more compelling way to tell a company’s story.  Milestones play a part in this because it gives fans specific dates where a meaningful events occurred. There are a few ways to present your page in a compelling way.

Opportunities here: depending on how you set your posts and milestones, you can show the ingenuity and innovation with the company, its speed of growth whether it was consistent/steady or explosive, and it can show the ability to adapt if there was a new product, employee or other big change to the company culture.  Fans of your page want to know more than the basics about your products and services, and want to know the behind-the-scenes work that brought it to life.

4. Pinned and highlighted posts

There are times when something really exciting happens with your organization or there’s a really interesting bit of information you’d like to share with your fans.  But often times, this information isn’t seen by all your fans because other posts push it farther down the timeline.

Opportunities here: pinned posts can make sure certain posts stay at the top for 7 days, so as you continue with your Facebook posting strategy, the most important post in the last week is still the first one fans will see.  Highlighted posts make any post the full width of your page, also drawing more attention to it.  Be careful with these because as they draw more eyes, they will need to be more compelling.  We suggest having only really interesting links/articles or preferably pictures and videos as the pinned post.  Highlighted posts should also be pictures or videos that look better in a larger view or posts that are a bit lengthier than the normal post space would accommodate for.

5. Private messages

So now your fans can contact you directly through messaging instead of posting on your wall.  There isn’t much to say on this one besides stay on top of it.

Opportunities here: it’s pretty self-explanatory the reasoning behind this (personal engagement between fans and the brand) but the most important note is timing here.  If you are not active and up to speed with replies, your fans will be disengaged and you could potentially lose some of your most endearing fans.

The constant updates and changes with Facebook can get overwhelming sometimes.  The reason is not to frustrate you or potentially have you lose fans, but in fact the complete opposite.  All these updates and changes are to make Facebook even more engaging and compelling so that there will be even more value from those that use it.  I tend to look at the glass half full, and with all the changes being made, I think it’s the only way without calling it quits!  If you want to see our own company page in action, check us out here or like us below.  For more info, Mashable has a ton of information all about the new Facebook Brand Timeline Changes.

As always, we’d love hearing your thoughts! If you have questions or you just want to chat, feel free to contact me at amin@infotrustllc.com.

Employers who need qualified candidates:

Getting a rash of not right-fit candidates?  Think about building a better network through social media.  Your opportunity to get your job in front of the right person will multiply exponentially.  Using Twitter is a great first step as it is one of more intuitive social media sites.  Here are some tips to get you started:

• Develop an image.  Reveal the human side of the company and why it is a great place to work.  Do you let employees leave at 4pm on Friday . . . tweet about it!
• Provide Useful Information.  What’s the best way to apply?  Tweet your links and any tips you can give for a job applicant.
• Respond to comments.  As with all social media, you must engage in order to build relationships with job candidates.
• Post your openings.  Even if the qualified candidate isn’t listening, a lot of potential customers might be.  Show them that you are a growing company.
• Use Hashtags.  Make your job listings more searchable through location or specific qualifications.

Seeking  good employers:

This economy has left many people underemployed or unhappily employed, here’ a chance to jump start your search for your next big thing.

• Get your bio working for you.  Really elaborate on your skill set and what you want from your next position.  Make sure your profile and avatar look profession.
• Follow your dream companies.  Make sure that you have a connection to your ideal scenario company so you can see if they do post an opening.
• Follow jobsearch feeds.

1. @JobAngels – Helping the unemployed find jobs
2. @indeed – One search. All jobs.
3. @jobshouts – General job postings
4. @simplyhired – Job search site
5. @StartUpHire – Jobs at VC backed companies
6. @twithire – Job board service

• Tweet an informative dialog on your industry.  Show potential employers that you are up to speed on what’s happening.
• Networking with peers, past coworkers and influencers in your local industry can prove beneficial.  As always, job referrals is a great way to land a favorable job!

Take these beginning tips and get started on using Twitter to help meet your objectives in your career search or your candidate search.  Need more advice (or have some advice to give), contact us!  Check out my new Twitter at @HRHeatherA and our InfoTrust work environment at #Workatinfotrust.

And make sure to follow us @iwanttobesocial for more digital marketing, self branding and social media tips!

What is the conversion rate on your site right now? In other words, out of 100 website visitors how many have filled out a contact-us form, subscribed to your newsletter, registered for a webinar, scheduled a consultation or downloaded a product spec sheet? What have you done in the past six months to increase that number? A lot of organizations, often, ignore this crucial aspect of digital marketing  thus leaving opportunities on the table.

To help organizations with this process, I have decided to put together a list of 10 tips for converting website traffic into sales leads.

1. Create a Strong Value Proposition

How often do you visit a website homepage, and find yourself reading something like this:  ”We are a growing company who is an industry leader in offering exceptional services to organizations who want to succeed.” I can guarantee that you see these value propositions every day. When writing your own value proposition, remember to focus on the following:

• Why would this be appealing to your sales lead?
• Is what you are offering exclusive or does every other organization offer the same service/product?
• Is your message credible – can you support and prove your claims?

2. Have Relevant Calls to Action

We have all heard the phrase:  ”Ask and you shall receive.”  Most of the time, for a website visitor to become a lead, they need to fill out a form. The form’s call to action is very important and should tell people exactly what they are getting themselves into. Nobody likes to Submit to anything and we all are hesitant to just click Subscribe or Sign-up. Instead, make your call to action a bit softer and more specific – Contact InfoTrust for a Free Consultation or Request Product Information.

3. Have a Call to Action on Every Page

Yesterday, I was reviewing Google Analytics of one of our Clients, and I noticed that their landing pages have a very high bounce rate – over 80%. As I started to review the pages, it became clear that there is not a single call to action. When a website visitor reviews the page, their immediate thought is – what’s next. It is imperative to be able to answer this question.  Have a clear call to action to either contact you for more information, to request product literature, to read other blog posts on this topic, or to read client testimonial. Do not make people think.

4. Add a Secondary Call to Action

Your call to action assumes that the visitor is ready to make the next step. But what if the person is not yet ready to register for a webinar, do you lose them as a lead by not giving them any other options? Consider having a secondary call to action. For example, if my call to action prompts people to register for an event, my secondary call to action will prompt people to review testimonials of the past event attendees. Your secondary call to action should not compete with your primary call to action but rather give them an option to start smaller.

5.  Place Testimonials Next to Calls to Action

It is always a good idea to have testimonials on your site. However, testimonials are the most effective not when they are on a separate page, but when they are positioned prominently  next to the call to action. Let’s say I visit your site, and ultimately reach your contact us page. I am still not sure whether to fill out the form or not. A few testimonials, however, might give me the push I need. A good client testimonial will remove the anxiety that a visitor has before filling out yet another form.  Give visitors a Plan B.

6. Be Educational

All of us are tired of people telling us to buy! And yet, most of the websites are focused on selling rather than educating. Quite often visitor is not even ready to make a sales decision. They need to be educated on the value that you offer, on how you compare to your competition, on why your services matter, on how this will impact their ROI. Educational content will help you answer those questions, and position yourself as an authority rather than just being yet another “sales person.”

7. Plan on Being Mobile

By 2014, mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage. Plan for success in the mobile world right now. Chances are, your website already has a lot of mobile traffic, but is your website optimized for the mobile experience. Having a website that doesn’t work well on a smartphone or on a tablet will ruin user experience and very likely you will lose a lead. Recently, we have worked with a local organization optimizing their website for a mobile experience. This process increased conversion rate for mobile website visitors by over 200%.

8. Be Personable

People buy from people. Work on the tone of your website. It should not sound stiff and corporate, but rather sound human and personable. Recently, we ran a serious of tests for our  customer to increase the number of conversions on the careers page. The goal was to get more people to apply. Instead of a traditional recruitment language, we posted a personal letter from the CEO inviting people to apply and explaining what makes this company great. In one month, this process has improved the conversion rate by 30%.

9. Offer an Incentive

Incentives are what often helps us make a buying decision. Just yesterday, I got an offer for a free car wash with an oil change. Free car wash was an incentive that I needed to make a decision. Consider adding an incentive to your site. For example, Join Our Newsletter and Receive a Free E-book on 10 Industry Trends in 2102. A good incentive will always help you demonstrate value.

10. Test. Test. Test.

Do not take my word for it. There are a lot of best practices and common themes for how to improve the conversion rate on your site. However, the best way is just to test. By implementing a few changes at a time, and analyzing how well they work, you will be able to make your website more effective as a marketing tool.

If you are interested in learning more about the optimization services, consider reviewing our page on conversion optimization.

Basically, this means moving business applications and documents to be stored at a different location (provided by 3^rd part companies) and accessed online, instead of on in-house servers.  This is a trend that doesn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon.  With the ability to access shared documents from anywhere there is an internet connection, businesses have become incredibly more mobile and more global.  For those businesses just starting out, you might have the question, what should I use to start storing my information in the cloud?

This blog post is dedicated to giving you a list of our top program/tool choices to accomplish just this.  But first a video from one of the most popular cloud file-sharing services, DropBox, to better explain cloud storage.

So here’s a quick list of resources to take advantage of cloud file storage!

1.           Google Docs (basic form of using the cloud)- Create and share your work online. Collaborate and edit anywhere! Free to set up with google account and 1GB free storage.
2.           Salesforce (in some degree)- If you are already using this Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tool, good news! There are many applications that can link to your Salesforce account and provide online storage.  Appirio is one option but Box.net (below) is another.
3.           Box.com – Simple, secure sharing from anywhere. Free account has 5GB of storage, mobile app, and ability to sync with Microsoft, Google, and other business applications you may already use.
4.           Dropbox- You life’s work, wherever you are.  Free account has 2GB of storage, mobile app, and desktop client to save documents so you can access documents even when offline.
5.          Nomadesk- Secure cloud file sharing for your business. Unlimited storage with very competitive pricing for various amount of users.  Has mobile version and optimized versions for any platform.
6.           SugarSync- Sync your life.  Access, sync and share your files from any device.  Primarily for businesses, allows various tiers of storage and pricing packages depending on needs.  Has mobile version and large consumer base.
7.          Egnyte- File sharing for business. Designed entirely for enterprise use, allows various tiers of storage and pricing packages depending on needs. Has mobile version and large consumer base.

Others worth mentioning: Soonr, SpiderOak, and ElephantDrive.

Therefore, I have decided to assemble a list of 10 Google Analytics mistakes that you should try to avoid.

1. Check that the tracking code is installed properly, and only once. 

This is one of the most important items to check. Google Analytics tracking code needs to be installed on every page. Your website should have the latest ga.js version of the tracking code on each page. Once you have it on each page, the next step is to verify the tracking code. Double-check that the tracking snippet installed on your website matches the tracking code shown in the profile. If you are not sure whether your site has the proper tracking code on each page, try our free Google Analytics Tester. We will look at your site and will send you a detailed report.

2. Not tracking conversion

This is a question that I always enjoy asking during the seminars – how many people fill out your contact us form vs. the number of people that come to it. Not a lot of people who are in marketing and are responsible for making digital marketing decisions are able to quickly and with assertiveness answer this question. Too many times we are worried about things like PPC and SEO, and we fail to consider what happens to the traffic that our marketing efforts generate. Set-up and track conversions for each form on your site – contact us, newsletter sign-up and document download.

3. Lack of filters

First things first. What is a filter? A filter allows you to manage and to segment your incoming data giving you increased insight for your website. Filters allow you to limit and modify the traffic data that is included in a profile. For example, you can use filters to exclude traffic from particular IP addresses or focus on a specific subdomain or directory. Here is a list of filters to consider having and reviewing:

1. Exclude traffic from your office IPs
2. Exclude branded keywords
3. Track activity in a specific directory

5. Not being clear on what you are trying to accomplish

Frankly speaking, this applies to any type of analytics – not just Google Analytics. Most of the challenges happen when people do not know what they are measuring  yet expect to see positive results. Increase in overall traffic is great, but what is your new bounce rate? Focus on the items that can help you make better decisions.  If a certain metric doens’t contribute to your ability to make marketing decisions – ignore it. Data is just data. Insights is the data that you know what to do with.

1. WordPress Codex

The WordPress Codex is the top spot to get all WordPress information. In the WordPress Codex, you can learn:

• How to build or modify a WordPress theme
• How to build or modify a WordPress plugin
• How to modify the WordPress admin area

2. WP-Snippets

WP-Snippets is a great place to find that “one bit of code” you need to add functionality to a WordPress site. You can find everything to modify:

• Admin area
• Comments
• Conditional
• Custom fields
• Images
• Shortcodes

3. WP Tuts+

WP Tuts+ is part of the great Tuts+ network, offering free and premium tutorials to walk you through specific real-world examples. Some learning opportunities include:

• Creating a Post Rating System with WordPress and jQuery
• How to Include Javascript and CSS in Your WordPress Themes and Plugins
• Quick Tip: How to Implement Multiple Pages for your WordPress Posts and Pages

4. Smashing Magazine

Smashing Magazine is one of many tools in a successful web developer’s toolkit. They recently launched a section dedicated to WordPress. Some topics include:

• Smashing Special: WordPress Theme Trends for 2012
• How to Use Custom Post Types To Organize Online Marketing Campaigns
• How to Create Custom Taxonomies In WordPress

5. WPEngineer

WPEngineer.com includes great articles written by 3 WordPress Junkies who love WordPress. They provide WordPress tips and tricks including:

• First Impressions of Custom Post Type
• The Ultimative Guide fo the_post_thumbnail in WordPress 2.9
• WordPress 3.0 Multisite Settings

6. Digging Into WordPress

Digwp.com is authored by Jeff Star and the same author of CSS-Tricks, Chris Coyier. They extend their book “Digging into WordPress” with this blog. Some great tips include:

• WordPress Hosting Review
• HTML Formatting for Custom Menus
• Using ‘$’ instead of ‘jQuery’ in WordPress

These blogs can really help you get an advanced grasp on WordPress and give you the opportunity to highly customize your website. If you are looking for more hands on WordPress training don’t hesitate to check out our training offerings or contact me at alyssa@infotrustllc.com!

1. Using Pinterest to tell a story

Unless social media is not your thing, you have heard about Pinterest. The question is how to properly strike a balance between telling an interesting story about yourself with pictures, and not getting overexposed by showing to much. Stay away from having a Board with only pictures of you – leave those pictures for Facebook galleries. You want to use a Board to tell a story about yourself. For example, one Board can have all the books that you like. This will immediately tell another person that you prefer adventurous novels or science fiction or graphic novels or fast pace thrillers. You want to tell the audience a story about yourself.

Be careful about what you pin, a picture of the book on how to fix bad relationships and your broken heart does not belong.  Another Board can be with movies that you like, or may be places that you would like to visit. You do not want to sound desperate, so never pin a picture of Venice with the following description – “when we get married, this is where I will take you.” A Board that showcases your favorite Renaissance paintings  might just be perfect.

2. Leveraging YouTube

Having a fun video about yourself, and how you live a life in the fast lane is always a good start. But, you want to mix it up. All the videos should not be just about you. Create a couple of playlists to showcase your personality. For example, Marathon Playlist will immediately tell another person not just what music you like but how active and athletic you are. Another playlist that I recommend having is one with your favorite funny moments. If another person is checking out your YouTube channel, you want them to have a great time. You want them to associate you with fun and laughter, and the best way to achieve it is to have a nice collection of smart and funny videos.

3. LinkedIN – Show Professional Self

According to the American Research Institute for Dating (this makes it sound important) women look for men who have their act together. Therefore, LinkedIN is your way to demonstrate just how accomplished you are. Go well beyond basic information about your job and education. This is a place to share where you volunteer and all the skills that you have that make you distinctly better than anyone else on the market. And, do not forget to ask for recommendations. It is a sure way to prove how good you are at time management, work-life balance and stewardship. Lastly, belonging to professional groups is like attending various networking events, only better, since you do not actually have to leave your house.

4. Facebook – Largest online pool of people

In 2010, Some 43,869,800 Facebook users changed their relationship status to single (Mashable). Here, you have to be careful. What you do on Facebook will not be only visible to people whose attention you are trying to get, but also to your parents. Using Facebook timeline feature, you can showcase your personal growth, and what an esteemed member of the community you have become in the past 10 years. Do not forget to post cute pictures – borrow your friend’s pug if you have to. On Facebook, you can look at the pictures of your friends’ friends. Use this as a way to get it. If your Facebook friend is a friend, they will make an introduction.

5. Twitter – Your elevator speech in 140 characters

Telling a story in 140 characters requires practice. However, besides tweeting about yourself, use this as an opportunity to follow people of the opposite sex and strike a conversation with them. (Guys, this might be the only place on Earth where following a woman will not get you in trouble.) Use common # to participate in discussions and learn more about the people you are trying to approach.

6. Google+ – Use Hangouts and get to know a person better

We are all very busy, and do not have the time to meet with every person individually. Use Hangouts to simultaneously meet with up to 9 prospects, and find the right one for you. Google+ is still not being used by everyone, but it is better to get started now. You do not want to be left behind. This network has two other features that are worth using in the dating process.

1. Place people in Circles, this way you can be more organized and only share relevant content.
2. Play games, beating someone’s high score is always a good excuse to say hi.

7. Blogs – the window to your soul

Blogs are a great way to get personal and lay all your issues out on the table. Your blog is not for bragging; do not write extensive posts about why you are the best thing since Brad Pitt or Angelina. Share your views on politics, child labor laws in Malaysia or what impact the church had on medieval society. Think about your audience, and tailor your content accordingly. Blogs are also a great way to pull your online presence together under one roof.

8. Foursquare – Single person is in the house

Foursquare already gives you points for checking in at the locations where the mayor is in the house. Now, I think it is time to use geo location services to announce that single people have just checked it. This way, once you are at a a social gathering, it becomes extremely easy to find other single people who are shy and hide near the bar. However, you do not want to overdo it, and look creepy. Be very casual about it.

9. Craigslist – Only if you are running out of options

Summary

Well, I think we covered quite a lot here. There are certainly a lot of other tools and techniques that did not make it on the list. We will add them later. For now, my last recommendation would be to power off the device on which you are reading this and go out to meet new people.  Happy Valentines Day!

Please follow the timeline:

December 13, 2011: SalesForce.com announces Analytics Edition on its blog: http://blogs.salesforce.com/product/2011/12/introducing-the-analytics-edition.html. The edition includes features such as:

• bucketing, a feature which lets you group data and place them in categories – buckets. For numeric data, you can say that deals under $1000 are small, and over that are large
• cross-filtering, that allows you to filter on related objects, for instance, in a report on accounts and contacts, to show all contacts in accounts that don’t have a closed opportunity.
• a new report format – joined reports – where you can join reports together, to report on multiple children of the same parent, for instance, meaning you can have a report showing the products, and team members on each opportunity in your team.
• higher limits on snapshots, scheduled reports and dashboards, and dynamic dashboards.

However, analytics functionality is priced at an extra $40 per user.

Late December, January 2012: SalesForce.com user community passionately cheers the arrival of analytic abilities, especially joined reports, however, the users are outraged with the cost and the fact that every user in the organization has to pay an extra $40 per month.

User community starts rallying against price increase. Here is just one place on SalesForce forum - http://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000gDktAAE

Some quotes from LinkedIn Groups:

…I am sure that almost every other salesforce.com user out there would agree as well. Let’s make our voices heard. Please go vote on this idea: http://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000gDktAAE..
Marc speaks eloquently of how Netflix, BOA, etc, have had to reverse proposed pricing changes. The Salesforce community needs to raise it’s voice - Please go vote on this idea: http://success.salesforce.com/ideaView?id=08730000000gDktAAE

and guess what… it worked:

January 31, 2012: Blog post on SalesForce.com Product blog “Responding to customer feedback“:

…We got it wrong, and we sincerely apologize to our customers.

Today we are announcing that, as part of the Spring ‘12 release, our new enterprise analytics features will be included in Enterprise Edition and Unlimited Edition at no additional charge.

As a social enterprise, it’s essential we listen to our customers and what they expect around continuous innovation and enhancements on their existing products. We welcome your feedback.

George Hu,
COO, salesforce.com
@georgehusf

All I can say is it takes guts to admit mistakes. There is a legend that when an executive at Google made a mistake that cost Google a few million dollars, Larry Page thanked the employee and continued by saying that it is ok to make these mistakes. If you are not making mistakes then you are not taking any risk, you are not innovating.

If you don’t innovate – you die… just plain and simple. One of my most favorite quotes is a quote from Alice “…it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”. I recently published another blog post about that. Check it out – http://infotrustllc.com/blog/education/leadership-and-capability

As I started going over my notes from this week, I couldn’t help but wonder about how did I manage to keep all these balls in the air, get some things done and even have some life?… So, lets summarize:
I started the week doing some pretty advanced web analytics work for one of the largest companies in the world. Can’t talk much about this project, except to say that I absolutely love analytics and working with this much data is a pretty awesome experience.

On Tuesday I had a planning meeting with our customer, one of the Centers at Xavier U, about their website and the complete closed loop marketing integration of all their online marketing activities, the website and SalesForce. Kind of one of my favorite topics.

On Wednesday we launched a new Product – InfoTrust Tester for Google Analytics. We launched this product in what we believe is a true Lean Startup manner. We have identified the minimum viable set of product features that we feel add the most value. Our goal is not to make a commercial product but to validate that there is a market need…And boy, oh, boy, have we validated! Our brilliant marketing leader Michael, along with our incredible UC Intern (fellow BearCat) Amin, put together a comprehensive social media marketing plan for getting the project in front of the right people that would serve as our early adopters. We finally finished some cosmetic CSS changes on the report around 3pm in the afternoon on Wednesday and around 4pm Amin launched our first social media marketing push – primarily on Twitter and a little bit of Linkedin. That’s it. No PPC, no ads.

That same Wednesday night I took my wife and my aunt to an Opera. That wasn’t a true real Opera, but a live broadcast of the “Enchanted Island” from NY Metropolitan Opera. I have to admit, I fell asleep for a little bit, but other than that, I enjoyed every minute of it, especially fantastic Danielle de Niese as Ariel and magnificent Placido Domingo as Neptune (see photos). Oh yeah, and during the intermission I ran out to Yagoot next door to sneak in some Frozen Yogurt. Frozen Yogurt and Opera – what can possibly be better?

However, that wasn’t it – when I got home around midnight, I found out that we were totally swamped with request and of course our ‘minimum viable product’…well, kind of crashed…A sleepless night, caffeine and donut-fuel code crunching in the morning and we were back together. Oh yeah, I crashed on a couch in our office and snored so loud that I woke myself up. Kind of funny and embarrassing at the same time. Dinner with friends wrapped up our Thursday night.

Dinner with friends wraped up our Thursday night.

Friday morning was my monthly CEO roundtable meeting. I feel that joining our roundtable has been one of the best things I’ve done for my professional growth. Someday I will share a story about the roundtable and the invaluable lessons that I’ve learned, but not today…

George and I finished Friday at an onsite meeting with a sound and music control system engineers, brainstorming the implementation of Washington Park Walk of Fame project. We’ve been writing quite a bit about it on our Walk of Fame Blog, but the short version of what we are doing is: we are building an integrated mobile experience where the Washington Park visitors will be able to play music on the phones and request that a certain piece is played through park speakers and… park fountain. Now, how cool is that? You push a button on you iPhone and within seconds 11000 sq.ft splash fountain starts playing the music. Of course, little things like sharing what you are doing on Facebook, and showing your friends pre-recorded YouTube videos, so they can share in the excitement, is just a part of the overall Walk of Fame experience that we are building. There is going to have to be a lot more crazy coding sessions and all hands engineering discussions about how to build something for the City of Cincinnati that has never been done before. We are also contributing a lot of in-kind services to make it happen, but that’s a topic for some other day. I am not exaggerating, there is no other park in the world where the visitor can listen to music on the mobile device, push a button, hear it play through park speakers and see the fountain play and splash to the sound of the music.

Looks like Saturday is going to be quite a bit of work in the morning and early afternoon. Then my wife and I are going to have a romantic dinner downtown and go to symphony to listen to some Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Schumann – a performance dedicated to Valentine’s Day. Some time on Saturday I am going to pick up my wife’s car – my Valentines’ Day present for her was to install an aftermarket remote car starter for her 2011 Rogue which she absolutely loves.

What are we doing next week? Hard to say, but one thing for certain – at the end of this week I definitely have some things to remember and it is never boring. Hope you enjoyed reading this story. Do you want to share yours?

1. Experience Rules

My guess is that Pinterest will have Boards for companies in no time. However, while they are getting there, let’s use what we have. The first step to creating a successful presence on Pinterest or any other hot social platform is drafting your value proposition. In essence, value proposition is answering the following questions. If I am your ideal audience, then why should I like your Pinterest Board and not your competitors? What will you offer your audience that will not be available anywhere else? Use your Board to tell a story. If you are a restaurant owner, do not just post pictures of random items on your menu. Tell a story.

• Share what ingredients are used to make your top dishes.
• Share best food pairings – how to pair an appetizer with the main dish or what wine to choose for each main dish.
• How your desserts are crafted?

2. What if my business is not photogenic?

That happens. We offer web analytics and CRM integration services to companies – we do not sell cupcakes, do not make clothes and do not give advice on interior design. In case your company does any of these, Pinterest is an ideal marketing channel for you. So, what can we do in a complicated world of B2B sales?

• Add value. We may not sell cupcakes, but we can post the 10 most important analytical charts that your business needs to measure its importance.
• Pin the best infographics on web design, conversion optimization and web analytics.
• Share some of our best slides from the the presentations that we offer.

The best thing you can do when thinking about content is to listen. Companies often ask us to share the best charts that they need to look at when tracking their marketing performance. Our seminar attendees often ask us to publish slides online. If we are careful at listening to what our audience wants, we can produce content that will add value.

At the end of the day, Pinterest is not right for everyone. However, we first need to try it out, see if our audience responds and then make a decision.

3. Do the research

You just might be the first organization in your industry to have a Pinterest board.  However, there is still room for research. Here is a great article from Mashable on 21 Must Follow Pinterest Users.  Review what others are posting. Research what some organizations are doing, and make a list of what people seem to like. However, the most important research is asking your client base.

4. Think beyond marketing

You might not be sold yet on using Pinterest to market your services, but think about HR. Pinterest is a great platform for building an HR brand and telling a story of what it is like to work at your organization. It is still marketing, but it is focused on a different audience. Remember that last company outing that you had, consider posting pictures from the event on Pinterest and explaining why your company is such an awesome place to work at.  Even web developers are seeking out Pinterest.  Our web developer, Alyssa Roll, finds Pinterest fascinating and very “design focused.”

5. Keep an eye on metrics

It might be too early to have a complete measurement strategy for Pinterest. But, it is always a good time to look at your Google Analytics and if people come to your website from Pinterest.  Also, keep track of what pictures people like the most.  This will help you figure out what to do next.

There are no experts in Pinterest, we all are just users. Let’s give it a try and learn from each other. HAPPY PINNING!

Often, we are asked questions about Google Analytics set-up and whether it is properly installed on the site. Proper set-up and tracking is absolutely necessary when it comes down to data reporting and analysis. Improper GA tracking can cause a number of issues on the website.

We see it time and time again, Google Analytics isn’t installed properly on all pages of a website and therefore the pain of incorrect data follows. Improper set-up of Google Analytics can cause the following issues:

1. Lack of data about pay-per-click
2. Campaign tracking
3. SEO reporting
4. Pages do not appear in reports
5. Affiliate links are not tracked
6. Lack of goal conversions

The cost of ignoring one of these problems can be in thousandths of dollars. But how can you know, or if you know something is wrong, how do you fix it?

Solution: We just released a free tool – Tester for Google Analytics that provides an effortless way to test if Google Analytics is properly set-up on your site. Our GA Tester generates an easy to understand report that includes:

1. Summary of findings
2. Itemized list of problems
3. Opportunities for improvement

This report will only provide you with 10 errors found on your site. Per your request, we can also provide an in depth analysis of all the problems across your website. This way, you will know exactly what issues need to be addressed immediately to improve your website’s performance. Do not ignore problems that can steer you in the wrong direction. Try Tester for Google Analytics today.

If you have any questions about this or if you want more information about our free Google Analytics Checker, email us at info@infotrustllc.com.

*Tester for Google Analytics is an independent Google Analytics installation testing tool that is not in any manner related to or affiliated with Google. Brought to you by InfoTrust LLC.

Check these out for more info on Google+

1. Google Plus Official Support, Google Blog about Google+, Google+ on Youtube
   Real life sharing rethought for the web.
2. SocialMotus Blog and SocialMotus Youtube
   Management, Publishing, Monitoring, Engagement, Tracking, and Reporting.
   Follow @Socialmotus
3. Chris Brogan
   President, Human Business Works and Google+ Evangelist
   Follow @ChrisBrogan
4. SocialStatistics
   Tracking the top 100 users on Google+. Can start tracking your own Google+ statistics too.
   Follow @SocialStatistic
5. Recommended Users
   Discover whom to add to your circles
   Follow @alireza_yavari
6. Hubspot Blog on Google+ Creation, Hubspot Blog on Google+ Design
   Inbound Marketing Software
   Follow @Hubspot
7. Mashable Google+ Brands’ Tips, Mashable Brand Using Google+
   Largest independent news source covering web culture, social media and tech
   Follow @Mashable

Google+ business page or brand page examples

1. Coke
   
2. BBC News
   
3. Macy’s
   
4. Toyota
   
5. Intel
   

Thanks for checking this out and don’t forget to add InfoTrust to your circles on Google+ using the widget below!  As always, we’d love hearing your thoughts! If you have questions or you just want to chat, feel free to contact me at amin@infotrustllc.com.

The common reaction to this news of another “must-have” social media channel is, another one!?   Though we don’t condone peer pressure, we have to encourage you to at least consider the wonderful opportunities that lie with Google+.  The remainder of this post will highlight key features of Google+ briefly.  Check out Part 2 for outstanding resources to check out (as is tradition), and a few examples of great Google+ Brand pages.

What is Google+?

Google Plus is a social network designed to perform “real-life sharing, rethought for the web”.  For businesses, this means a way to connect and engage with customers and fans on a more intimate level (if desired).  This is accomplished through the following features:

1. Circles: A way to easily split up your connections into different “communication groups”. Put your friends from Saturday night in one circle, your parents in another, and your boss in a circle by himself, just like real life.
2. Hangouts: Up to 10 people can have a live video chat here, all together.   Bumping into friends while you’re out is one of the best parts of going out and about. With Hangouts, spontaneity hits the web.
3. +1 and comment sharing: Similar to Facebook “Likes” and posting comments, this is the Google+ version of interacting with content.
4. Easy picture and video sharing: Integration with Android powered phones, YouTube, and Picasa makes uploading photos and videos easier to Google+.
5. “Sparks”:  Industry conversations and knowledge sharing forum-like dashboard. Similar to Twitter “trending topics”, this brings news and hot conversations into the Google+ realm.
6. Search: Now, Google+ is integrated with Google Search so that any connections with your Google+ will pop up in your search queries.  Search brings you updates from your circles, news from around the web and public Google+ posts, giving you instant access to the topics you care about and the people who care about them along with you.

So why use Google+?

1. Improve your Google Search ranking and SEO; as Google is implementing +1’s and Google+ sharing into its search algorithm
2. Social is the new norm, even Google is adding a social component to all its products/services
3. Google+ now has 60+ million users
4. Early adopters gain a bigger following
5. Social CRM is improved with circles by allowing direct messaging based off how you form your different communication groups
6. You can have a nifty widget such as the one below on your website! Just be careful if you hide the amount of people in your circles on Google+, it will show as “In 0 people’s circles” in the widget (we have more friends than that!)

As you probably know, social media isn’t going anywhere, and neither is Google+.  As the search giant strives more and more to control the web and provide products that improve people’s lives, they are pushing more towards social.  Google+ is the baby child in their list of products, and they will surely spoil and pour all their energy into helping it grow up and mature.  Again, make sure to check out “Lists you shouldn’t miss: Google+ Part 2” for a full list of resources, blogs and examples of great Google+ pages.

1. WP101

WP101 includes easy to follow video WordPress resources including:

• What is WordPress?
• WordPress.com or WordPress.org?
• How to Install WordPress
• The Dashboard

Not all videos are free, but the ones that are free give a great introduction to WordPress. Visit WP101.com or subscribe.

2. WPBeginner

WPBeginner has a great 6 step guide for creating your first self-hosted WordPress blog as well as other topics including:

• How to Install and Setup WordPress SEO Plugin
• How to Install and Setup W3 Total Cache for Beginners
• 13 Vital Tips and Hacks to Protect Your WordPress Admin Area

3. WPCandy

General WordPress news including updates for popular themes and plugins. Some topics:

• WordPress.org and .com Join the SOPA Protests with Blackouts
• Gravity Charge with Integrate with WooCommerce
• How to Manage a Proper Multi-author WordPress Blog

4. SpeckyBoy

Speckyboy includes basic theme tutorials, theme collections, plugin collections, and other useful goodies.

• 10 WordPress Plugins to Help Optimize Performance
• 30 Fresh Minimal WordPress Themes (2011 Edition)
• Top 10 Social Bookmarking Plugins for WordPress

5. HongKiat

In addition to design and blogging tips, Hongkiat has a section dedicated for WordPress which includes everything from development to free plugins. Among some of their topics are:

• WordPress Search: Useful Plugins and Snippets
• Beginner’s Guide to WordPress Plugin Development
• Free Slideshow Plugins For WordPress – Best Of

Visit Honkiat.com or subscribe.

6. WPMods

WP Mods focuses on WordPress modification, maintenance and customization. Some topics include:

• Many WordPress Theme Stores Are Violating The General Public License
• Create a Sales Page Easily With The Convertible Landing Page WordPress Theme
• Essential WordPress Plugins

7. WordPress Codex

The Codex is one of the most important resources when it comes to learning WordPress. It is WordPress’s own documentation that contains information from beginner to advanced developer. Some beginner topics include:

• Getting Started with WordPress
• New To WordPress- Where to Start
• WordPress in Your Language
• Creating and Using Posts
• Using Permalinks

Did we miss any?

What were your favorite resources when learning WordPress? Did we miss some important ones? We hope these websites can help you further your WordPress knowledge! If you would like to learn more, check out our training offerings.

According to MarketLand, Enterprise-level corporations — those with 1,000 or more employees — are managing an average of 178 company-owned social media accounts each.   When you think about it, it really can be overwhelming.   Most companies do not have a planned solution for “overload” and yet it continues to grow year after year. As social media platforms continue to expand,  the need to have a clear social media marketing plan is just as necessary as a traditional marketing plan.   So, the big question becomes how do you conquer social media overload? Just like everything else, it starts with goals and objectives.

1. Social Media Goal Setting and Objectives

Whether or not you are already overloaded or just dipping your toes into social media and are overwhelmed by your options, the first step is to define your goals and objectives.  The below chart from a 2011 Marketing Sherpa report on Top Social Media Objectives gives you a good overview of key social media objectives to help you refine your objectives or set new ones.

Once you have determined your key objectives it will help you narrow down what social media platform works best for your business.

2. Education and Resources

Regardless of the number of social media platforms your business participates in, it still gets back to the basics - Education.  If you or your team do not know the basic features and applications of the platform or tool that you are using, you may find yourself “overwhelmed”.  Well-known sites like www.socialmediaexaminer.com and www.socialmediatoday.com  provide a wealth of information to help you learn how to use a wide range of social media platforms.  However, if you have a large staff or multiple departments using social media you may want to consider hiring a social media trainer to help you allocate your resources effectively.

If you would like help trying to assess your training needs and business goals, InfoTrust has an additional Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire available to help you outline your requirements and goals.

3. It’s Just Social Media

At a previous job, I had a particular stressful moment with our company’s music-on-hold project and the customer service representative on the other end said “Relax Tracy, its Just Music-On-Hold.”  I have to say, that is some of the best advice I have ever received.  So, when you are overwhelmed and bogged down by social media overload just remember to say to yourself “It’s Just Social Media.”    And, then remember to go back to the basics and determine your Goals and Objectives and investigate Educational Opportunities and Resources.

If you want to talk more about Social Media Overload and how Training can help, shoot me an e-mail at tracy@infotrustllc.com.

Companies

Almost 90% of companies plan to use social media for hiring.  Companies are getting their own story out via Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  They are making job seekers want to work there as they “sell” their culture and benefits.

Recruiters

They are sourcing candidates from social media over 50% more than 2 years ago.  Over half of companies out there plan on investing more money into social media recruitment.    Recruiters can easily search LinkedIn for key words and experiences.  Once candidates are sourced, you can bet your last dollar that most recruiters are going to check out your digital footprint and Google your name.  This is probably why employers are encouraging candidates to make their profiles more employer friendly.  Every 1 in 3 candidates are rejected for something an employer found online.

Hiring Managers

Hiring managers are connected through user groups and LinkedIn interest groups to colleagues.  That’s an easy way to source a candidate.  Everyone is looking at online content.

Job Seekers

The odds are not in your favor with 6 people for every job opening in America.  When managers look at your social media personality, you need to make sure it is your best image.

Employers:

• Get your job information out there on social media.  Your competition is.
• Use social media to a competitive advantage.
• Connect with passive candidates on social media.
• Make sure you are writing your own online story for people to read.

Candidates:

• Research your company before the interview.
• Make sure your online profile is a good representation of your skills and experiences.

These numbers are a call to action—use social media to your advantage!  If your company needs help putting social media to work for them in the recruiting process, please contact us.  We would love to help you gain a competitive edge.

Heather Alessandro

Establishing Your Goals

1. Determine your exact needs. What specifically do you want to achieve through training?
2. Establish exactly what you want to learn, how you want to learn it, and what you’re willing to pay for it.
3. Formulate your ideal outcome. What are your goals? What constitutes success?

Experience

4. Ask the company for background on their past presentations. How many have they done? Do they have a speaker bio(s)?
5. Ask for a list of specialties the company speaks about?  Make sure the company has experience in the subject(s) you are interested in.
6. Research the company or individual for certifications/credentials.  For example, if you would like a presentation on E-mail marketing does the company have any Marketing Sherpa certifications?
7. Ask for any case studies or testimonials from previous attendees or companies. Can you speak to former clients?
8. Google the company or presenter. Are they the in the top 5 results for their specialty?

Learning Style

9. Analyze your group learning style.  How does your staff learn best? Hands-on training? Problem solving? Work-sheet based training?
10. Make sure the company has the same learning style. Does the company offer custom presentations? Do they only do group sessions or one-on-one trainings?

Be Successful

Learning new skills and acquiring new knowledge is what allows us to continually improve ourselves and our companies. But, just like everything else you have to have the know-how to get the most out of the learning experience. Optimize the end results by taking the time to find the right trainer for your current needs.  If you would like more help trying to assess your business needs, InfoTrust has an additional Training Needs Assessment Questionnaire available to help you outline your requirements and goals.

We love lists.  So we decided to create a series of blog posts devoted to giving you valuable resources to help with your digital marketing strategy.  Hence the name, “Lists you shouldn’t miss”… kind of rhymes doesn’t it?  In the first blog post of this series, we will provide you with valuable resources for the wonderful tool: Google Analytics.

In a world with infinite resources available at your fingertips, it can get a bit overwhelming to sift through them all and find valuable content to follow.  The best way to stay informed, held true since the beginning of time, is to learn from others.  This old adage is especially true in today’s new digital world.

Some of the most valuable tips and tricks using Google Analytics can be found from other users.  We can do our part to stay on top of any updates and continuously educate ourselves.  But wouldn’t it be nice to just have a list of resources available or people to follow without searching for hours and digging through countless articles and blogs?  We think so too!  Below is a list of the best blogs to check out, all about Google Analytics:

1. Google Analytics Youtube Channel and Google Analytics Official Blog
   The latest news and content from the Google Analytics team and friends
   Follow @googleanalytics
2.  Avinash Kaushik
   Author, Digital Marketing Evagenlist- Google, Co-founder – Market Motive.
   Follow @Avinash
3. LunaMetrics
   Google Certified Partner, they bring the complete digital experience to brands using innovations in Google Analytics, SEO, PPC & Social Media
   Follow @LunaMetrics
4. E-Nor
   Helps measure success and leverage valuable and actionable insights.
   Follow @enorinc
5.  Closed Loop Marketing
   Design. Development. Conversion. Usability. Analytics.
   Follow @rgilliam
6. KissMetrics
   Guidance you need to help you succeed with online analytics, marketing and testing.
   Follow @KISSmetrics
7. Web Analytics World – Jump Digital
   Web Analytics World Blog
   Follow @waworld
8. Web Analytics Book
   Social Link Building Strategies
   Follow @webanalyticsnyc
9. Gordon Choi
   Analytics Insights, SEO/PPC/SEM/Tools/Tips/Google+
   Follow @gordonchoi
10.  SmartDate Collective
    The world’s thinkers on business intelligence and data analytics
    Follow @SmartDataCo
11. Online-Behavior
    Marketing Measurement and Optimization
    Follow @onbehavior

Most digital marketers would say Google Analytics is a powerful tool, but it’s only as effective as the human conductor and analyst.  There are so many ways to utilize it effectively, it can be daunting.  We hope this list was helpful to narrow down the resource selection available and highlight what’s out there.  For more information about Google Analytics, attend our free seminar Thursday, January 12 and make sure to check out our other blog posts about Google Analytics.

As always, we’d love hearing your thoughts!  If you have questions or you just want to chat, feel free to contact me at amin@infotrustllc.com.

SUMMARY:  In this post, we will provide a condensed overview of Google Analytics Real-Time along with 5 best practices for leveraging this feature in social media campaigns, email marketing and traditional advertising.

We all make marketing mistakes and blunders. What makes a real difference is how fast we make changes and get back on the right course. We need to keep our hands on the pulse, and be able to immediately notice and address problems and opportunities associated with landing pages, email campaigns, content creation and social media. Below is a screen shot of how Real-Time analytics looks (Name of the company is removed.)

1.  Events, Tradeshows and Conferences

I often attend conferences and various industry events. Organizations often invest quite a bit of money and time to make an impression at the tradeshow and get people to remember what they do. Since, at the conference you only have 1-2 days to make an impression it is important to see website traffic in real-time. Below is an example of how analytics shows you the location of your current website visitors. This way, if your event presence is not generating any buzz, you might want to try another tactic to generate buzz and website traffic from this event.

2.  Landing Page Optimization

A few months ago, I spoke at a conference on email marketing. One of the event sponsors had a table there. They were giving out business card size cards with a QR code to download a free guide on integrating email campaign with lead nurturing software that they were selling. Great marketing campaign, if you ask me. However, the landing page had a form that each person had to complete which was cumbersome, and likely turned a lot of people off. This is where real time analytics could become helpful again. Analytics could show that people are going to the landing page, but the conversion rate is tiny, and therefore the landing page has to be optimized immediately.

3. Social Media Viral Message Spread

Every time a new blog is posted and a video is released, it is a good idea to send a tweet and use numerous social media platforms to promote new content and generate traffic to the website. Immediately, you can track how far your message is spreading, where people are coming from and what are your top sources of traffic. For example, there might be a site that is generating quite a bit of traffic to your new blog post. If this is the case, a good strategy might be to go to that site, participate in any discussions about your message and maximize your exposure.

4. Website Change Tracking

We often get questions whether a website has Google Analytics properly set-up. Quite often, certain pages, sub-directories and domain names are not set-up properly causing analytics to be skewed. There are a whole range of issues that might impact whether Google Analytics is properly tracking your site. Often, when the IT team is making changes to the website, some Google Analytics issues might arise. Real-time analytics can help you almost instantly identify these issues and address the problems immediately. Often, when a major change on a website is complete, real-time analytics can work almost like a quality assurance department – telling you how your visitors react.

5. Email Marketing

Have you recently sent an email to your list? What was their immediate response? Now, you don’t have to wonder. This will help you achieve better results from the email campaign. Instead of sending an email to the whole list, break it down into two segments. Send an email to the first segment, and then based on the data that you get, send an email to the other segment. Such approach will help you achieve higher marketing ROI.

SUMMARY:  It is important to get data timely. The opportunity cost of ignoring a problem or not taking advantage of an opportunity can impact your marketing ROI. Do not get caught up looking at how many people look at your site every second – focus on data that can help you make better marketing decisions and increase your ROI.

read more at Chatter Customer Invitations FAQ – Salesforce.com.

SalesForce Chatter is a great way to collaborate with the customers, but I think unless the pricing is very low and in large volume, it will be counter-productive and hurt adoption if SalesForce users/Group Admin have to consider license ramifications when making groups available to customers and external users.

Prior to the advent of social media, I basically had to gauge people strictly from their resume and a brief phone interview.  I also had to call the Cincinnati Enquirer every Friday by noon to make sure that our employment advertisements got printed in the Sunday edition.   Then, I would wait for the resumes to get mailed into the post office drop box where I would have to drive to pick them up.  It’s really difficult to get a full picture of someone through just a piece of paper and a quick phone conversation.  That’s probably how I ended up interviewing a guy who started crying about his dog;  I have to think that social media would have tipped me off on that one.

Recruiting with social media is just a much better use of my time and energy.  And, InfoTrust is not alone with our new recruiting strategies.  JobVite recently found that 89% of US companies will use social networks for recruiting.  And, how could they not with over 65% of online adults using social networking.  It’s the new radio—a great way to reach passive candidates and promote your company while finding top talent.  And, it’s a two way street.  Candidates can also get a flavor for a company as well through social media.  What types of posts and commentary are they tweeting or posting about?  The two way street of communication opens up a much broader picture of both the candidate and the hiring company.

I think it’s fairly obvious to most companies that social hiring is something to consider.  Over 55% of companies will be investing in social media hiring this year (www.JobVite.com).  This is definitely a case of easier said than done though.  How exactly does a company just start finding people online?  I’d like to invite readers to a series of blogs I’m writing on specifically how to engage candidates on each platform.  My first study will be Twitter, and I’d certainly love to hear from other recruiters on how they have successfully incorporated social media into their hiring strategy as well.   Please send me your success (or still trying) stories, and we’ll learn from each other!

Heather Alessandro
heather@infotrustllc.com

Lead nurturing can take a significant amount of time, and requires a sequence of marketing touches. Brian Carroll, Executive Director of Applied Research, MECLABS and author of Lead Generation for the Complex Sale says:

“Most lead nurturing programs don’t begin to impact conversion before at least five meaningful touches, and it’s important to continue nurturing leads whether it takes five touches or 25 touches to get them to the sales-ready point. If you have a nine-month sales cycle, you should nurture a lead in those nine months, and that’s at a minimum level. So that means nine nurturing patterns during the course of that lead.”

Let’s examine 3 tactics that organizations can use to nurture existing leads and move them down the funnel.

1.  Leverage Third Party Content

Let me share a personal example. In the summer of 2011, I met with an executive from a large manufacturing organization. He expressed his desire to establish a corporate social media strategy that will include corporate training, creation of a social media playbook for all the employees, strategy for leveraging social technology to improve marketing, customer service and recruitment. After our meeting, he put this campaign on the back burner and promised to get back to me in a few months.

Immediately, I established a calendar and began to nurture this lead. In the first month, I sent a copy of the JobVite Social Recruiting Survey with my summary of findings. Next month, I sent a copy of the ROI of Social Media in the Enterprise by SelectMinds. The following month, I sent an invitation to a webinar on Social Media Policies. Several times, I got an email back with a few questions on the documents that I shared and how the findings would affect his organization. In December when we met again, four months after our first meeting, he had copies of these reports printed on his desk with a list of questions. Later that month, we began working together.

The most important item is building a calendar and finding content that can help your leads make better decisions. Your goal is not to overwhelm them with information but rather add value. 

2.  Design a Highly Targeted “Tips” Email Series

A newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with prospects and leads. The challenge is that a newsletter is often not targeted towards specific needs that leads have, it is generic. Chances are you already know what services your leads are interested in. In my line of work, I often know that a company is interested in an analytical assessment of their marketing efforts, in conversion optimization or in a CRM integration services. Sort these leads into different email lists based on the services in which they are interested. Then, begin sending automated emails to these contacts. The goal is not to necessarily generate direct conversations, but rather maintain contact by sharing tips, expertise and work examples.

3.  Leverage Social Media

Social media is a great way to stay in touch with leads. Give your leads a compelling reason to join your Facebook page and use it to build conversations and answer questions. A good tactic is to position your page as a source of industry related content; share events, news, resources, articles. However, do not overdo it. Here is a great chart by ExactTarget that addresses why people unlike Facebook brand pages.

Even in B2B sales, you are selling to people. Research your connections on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIN and try to build a social profile of your potential client. Connect with your audience on LinkedIN, follow them on Twitter and keep an eye on what they are posting. Free tools like SocialMention, Google Alerts, Twilert and BackType can help monitor the market.

Summary

Marketing is not just for generating new leads, it can also help you build relationships with qualified prospects with the goal of earning their business when they are ready. The number one step in lead nurturing is establishing a schedule where marketing can touch their contacts a number of times.

In this post, I decided to outline 3 metrics each Google Analytics user should use to make better marketing decisions. These metrics will help users refine their marketing strategy and improve their website.

1.  Site Search

Generally speaking, most people who use Google Analytics can quite easily say what keywords people use to find their sites. But what about the keywords people use to search your site? Each website that gets any kind of traffic should have a site search. It helps website visitors navigate your website, and it helps you analyze what content website visitors are searching for. The easiest way to add site search to your site is by utilizing Google Site Search. It is easy to use and very affordable ($100 annually for the websites with 20,000 search queries limit).

Once you add site search to your site, you can start tracking queries, and track what people are searching for when they land on your site. This will help you identify the search terms visitors use and how your visitors engage with the website after the search. If you see that your users are constantly searching for the same service/feature, it means that you need to make some changes to your menu or to your home page to make this keyword more evident. You will also be able to track where the searches begin and end. These items are crucial for improving website usability and driving conversion rates.

2.  Performance Goals

Each site has business objectives. One of the business objectives of my site is to get a certain number of qualified leads each month. Another objective for my site is to get people to register for free events. Establishing and measuring these objectives is a sure way to know how well your website performs.A goal conversion takes place when a certain action is taking place on a site related to your business objectives – transaction is completed, form is submitted, newsletter list is joined. Properly tracking goals will help you geo target your campaigns, refine your website keywords and create your buyer personas, among other things.

3.  Ratio Between Direct, Referral and Search Traffic

Each website gets three types of traffic. Direct – visitors that get to the website by typing the website URL into the address bar. Referral – visitors that arrive from other sites like Facebook. Search – visitors that find your website by searching for information on Google or Bing.

The important thing is to maintain a balance, and use all three channels to drive traffic. A lot of organizations see search engines as their number one source of traffic. This is great, and it means that the SEO campaign is working. However, what would happen if Google changed their search algorithm, and the traffic suddenly dropped? Do not put all of your eggs in one basket.

There is no one good formula that fits all. 30%/35%/35% formula will not always work. Look at the historic data, and see which channel has traditionally underperformed? Perhaps, referring traffic has been less than 10% over the past two years. There is your opportunity for improvement.

Summary

Google Analytics can offer you a lot of useful information, but more is not always better. Every time you look at data, I would recommend asking yourself two simple questions:

1. So what?
2. Who gives a #$%^?

If you are able to answer these questions, than the data is worth examining. If not, do not waste your time.

1. Research Digital Marketing—we continually strive to be ahead of the curve in this ever-changing landscape so make sure you know some key terms—inbound marketing, Google analytics, SEO.
2. Be Social—social media, that is.  Check out our website, LinkedIn profile, Facebook page, Twitter, etc.  And google yourself to see what your own digital footprint looks like.  We will google you so make sure that you are still proud of those college YouTube videos.
3. Think Agile.  Do yourself a favor and look into Agile Marketing in Cincinnati.  You’ll probably run across a good looking fella named Alex Yastrebenetsky.  Here’s a hint—he’s an InfoTrust owner.
4. Know Michael Loban—our other owner.   Michael has a rich history of training and educating businesses on social media and digital marketing.  Check out his presentation series and other speaking events before meeting him.  It’s a great conversation starter!
5. Prepare to meet the entire team.  Seldom is the interview with just me although I will usually be your host.  With our small, collaborative team, we usually try to give you at least a quick introduction to the entire team.
6. Put together some questions.  I love talking about all of the projects that we do.  So, make my day and let me share what we have been up to.  Remember, interviewing is a two way street so make sure we sell you on working here.
7. Ask if we value training.  Then, sit back and relax while I speak for hours on just how much.
8. Bring some examples of your work.  I typically put together a portfolio of our candidates that includes a traditional resume and online work samples.  Let us see what we can look forward to when bringing you onto the team.  We also love to hear about new ideas or innovative and interesting projects that you have enjoyed.  Don’t be shy, bring it!
9. Don’t expect a lot of bureaucracy.  We are a small team and we pride ourselves on getting things done quickly.  You’ll probably see some work getting done right on the spot.
10. Be on time.  You can get here whenever you want when you work here, but be on time for the interview.  We’re busy.  We might be busy eating free snacks or making coffee in our fancy new Kuerig machine, but that’s still busy.   Plus, it helps us work better.

We are always interviewing so if you are looking for an internship or full time opportunity in digital marketing or website development, please email me your resume!  We actually just hired a new intern from UC, Amin Shawki, so stay tuned for our next collaborative blog—how to find the perfect college internship.

Heather Alessandro
heather@infotrustllc.com

Let me tell you about some of the people I work with. Alex Yastrebenetsky is the CEO of InfoTrust and is the most welcoming CEO that I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Alex has made sure from Day 1 that I had everything I needed and always have access to him whenever I need. I probably do not have to tell you much about Michael Loban since he is well known locally as a digital marketing guru. In my previous job, I had attended many of Michael’s seminars and always learned so much. Now, imagine working with Michael everyday and having access to such knowledge on a daily basis! Next, is Heather Alessandro, InfoTrust’s HR expert and otherwise known as the “person who gets things done!” Heather made the interviewing process so simple and straight to the point that I almost felt like I was joining friends for lunch and not being interviewed for a job. Heather is also a very amazing Mom and was recently recognized by Children’s Occupational and Physical Therapy Department for being one of the largest private donors through her non-profit Paige’s Princess Foundation. And, then there is Alyssa Roll who is just a super-hero in my eyes when it comes to Web Developers. And, in a few weeks we have a new intern starting – Amin! I will be sure to post all about Amin when he starts. We have to roast the new intern, right? Just kidding – we are excited for Amin to start!

So, this season is definitely happy for me! I have a great new job working with fabulous people who are passionate about their company and their customers! P.S. Did I mention the new Keurig machine in the kitchen! Love it! And, don’t even get me started on the free lunches!!!   If you want to know more about working at InfoTrust, shoot me an e-mail at tracy@infotrustllc.com.

Happy Holidays and have a Happy New Year!

Tracy O’Connor

Please watch this fantastic presentation by Carly Fiorina

I encourage you to watch and subscribe to Udemy presentations. However, I also encourage you to read about “The Red Queen’s race“. Here is a quote from an incident that appears in Lewis Carroll’s Through the Looking-Glass and involves the Red Queen, a representation of a Queen in chess, and Alice constantly running but remaining in the same spot.

“Well, in our country,” said Alice, still panting a little, “you’d generally get to somewhere else — if you run very fast for a long time, as we’ve been doing.”
“A slow sort of country!” said the Queen. “Now, here, you see, it takes all the running you can do, to keep in the same place. If you want to get somewhere else, you must run at least twice as fast as that!”

WordPress-to-Lead Plugin: A Free Contact Form Builder for WordPress

Building Contact Forms in WordPress has Never Been Easier

Finally WordPress + salesforce.com together! WordPress users have been asking for a way to capture leads directly into Salesforce CRM, instead of losing them in their email inbox, as so many WordPress contact form plugins tend to do. And, we know that WordPress users would really like a custom contact form solution that doesn’t involve cutting and pasting code. So we’ve done it – we’ve created the WordPress-to-Lead for Salesforce CRM plugin! It’s an easy-to-use contact form builder that captures leads directly into Salesforce CRM.

Read more on SalesForce Blog

Here is where you can download the module from – http://drupal.org/project/popups

Unfortunately some kids did not show up and we ended up with a lot of candy left. A true engineer is the kind of person who is bother by the fact that there is a lot of unsorted candy in the bag, a person who needs to sort it all into little piles, so you know exactly how many Snickers, Milky Ways, Skittles, etc you have left.

So, after about 1/2h of sorting leftovers, here is what we came up with We are heavily interviewing right now and looks like we are going to start giving away candy after the interview.  Best candidates will definitely get highly lucrative M&Ms, average candidates will probably score some snickers and maybe reese’s pieces. You should know that you failed if you are just handed a fist-full of any other candy that’s left…

Social CRM: Connecting Online Communities with Salesforce

• Consumers interact with their favorite brand on Facebook far more than other social networks
• 56% of consumers said they are more likely to recommend a brand to a friend after becoming a fan on Facebook
• 51% of consumers said they are more likely to buy a product since becoming a fan on Facebook
• 52% of those who go online said that they spend at least one hour a week on Facebook
• 76% of consumers said they have never “un-liked” a brand on Facebook
• 77% of consumers said they interact with brands on Facebook primarily through reading posts and newsfeeds
• 78% of consumers who “Like” brands on Facebook said they “Like” fewer than ten brands
• 58% of consumers said they “Like” a brand on Facebook because they are a customer
• 45% of consumers said they spend most of their time on Facebook in the newsfeed
• 69% of consumers said they want to hear from some brands on Facebook more than others

• Experts are clueless.
• Customers cannot tell you what they need. They can only describe their desires in terms of what they are already familiar with.
• Jump to the next curve. Big wins happen when you go beyond better sameness.
• The biggest challenges beget best work.
• Design counts. Best design typically wins
• You can’t go wrong with big graphics and big fonts.
• Changing your mind is a sign of intelligence.
• “Value” is different from “price.”
• A players hire A+ players.
• Real CEOs demo their products.
• Real CEOs ship. Nothing else matters if you cannot get things done.
• Bonus: Some things need to be believed to be seen

Read the whole thing: http://blog.guykawasaki.com/2011/10/what-i-learned-from-steve-jobs.html

Guy Kawasaki: The Art of The Start Presentation

Source :http://www.onlinemarketing-trends.com/2011/08/salesforcecom-list-of-acquisitions.html

Another take on SalesForce acquisitions:

Source: http://authoritylabs.com/blog/salesforce/

Public vs. Private Cloud:

Source: http://www.forcedotcom.com/2011/07/cool-infographic-public-vs-private-cloud.html

CIO: from information to innovation

Source: http://blogs.salesforce.com/company/2011/09/cio-from-information-to-innovation-infographic.html

How important are social networks and technologies to the CEOs of UK businesses?

Source: http://www.salesforce.com/uk/socialenterprise/infographic.jsp

Mining both the lead e-newsletter article and the white paper, this webinar will be led by Jim Schleckser, CEO and managing partner of the CEO Project, a firm that coaches CEO members to higher levels of performance using a structured methodology and regular peer-group meetings. Along with business leader panelists, the moderator will lead participants through:

An expanded discussion of the most valuable roles a CEO can play in bolstering leadership capabilities and growing a company (e.g., architect, process engineer, coach, player, and learner); sharing challenges and solutions via Q&A. Typically, webinars feature a “challenge/solution” style Q&A designed to allow participants to share questions, views, and solutions regarding a wide variety of topics, such as motivating and managing human capital; finding financing on the current market; raw materials pricing, and what to expect in the coming months; the overall success of entrepreneurs emerging from the recession; and spurring innovation and entrepreneurship.

http://video.webcasts.com/events/pmny001/viewer/index.jsp?eventid=39716

Local Newspaper Web Sites are Most Informative: Newspaper Web sites ranked first in all five content types, edging out local television websites for local news (34 percent vs. 32 percent), with wider margins for local information (32 percent vs. 23 percent), local sports (30 percent vs. 24 percent) local entertainment (29 percent vs. 18 percent) and local classifieds (43 percent vs. 12 percent).

Local Newspaper Web Sites are Most Credible: Newspaper Web sites ranked first for being the most credible source, beating second-ranked local television Web sites for all content types, from local news (35 percent vs. 32 percent), local information (34 percent vs. 23 percent), local sports (30 percent vs.24 percent), local entertainment (30 percent vs. 19 percent) and local classifieds (43 percent vs. 13 percent).

Advertising on Local Newspaper Web Sites More Trustworthy: Nearly eight-in-ten respondents (78 percent) across all demographic groups rated “more likely to be current” as the top reason advertising on local newspaper Websites are most trustworthy. Credibility and local relevance were also important factors with close to 50 percent of respondents citing these attributes for reasons behind local newspapers advertising trustworthiness.

Read full report by Newspaper Association of America

I started my search at the Honda dealership. Since I was not quite sure about what I wanted, I thought that test driving a new Honda Accord would be a good start. Additionally, Honda had great leasing deals. Arriving at the dealership, I was greeted by very professional staff, and within minutes, a sales person was struggling to answer my simple questions. Apparently, he had no idea that there was a special going on, and he had to go to the Honda.com website to learn about terms and conditions.

The first car I looked at what Honda Civic. It was a fun car, but I was not able to figure out all the different trims. When I started to ask my sales consultant why one trim was more expensive than the other one, the answer was – it has a spoiler. Apparently, the only thing that  differentiates Civic DX-VP and Civic LX is a sporty spoiler, which costs over a $1,000. After I got home and checked the website, I found my sales associate was mistaken. Here is a link to their website, if you want to see for yourself.

After, I test drove my Honda Civic, we went to look for Honda Accord, and I mean look for. Apparently, the dealership did not have Accords on the premises, and we had to drive to another location to find my Accord. We had to travel to a remote location twice, and each time, my sales professional could not find a car. Finally he said, and I quote:  ”What the F…,” and we went back to the dealership. There, he finally found an Accord he wanted me to drive. The car had a manual transmission. Good thing I drive manual, and so we took it for a test-drive. As we were pulling out, we realized that this car was occupying the handicap parking spot. So if you need a handicap parking spot, you might not find one at this Honda dealership; they are using these parking spaces to showcase new cars.

At this point, I was getting pretty tired of the whole experience, and my sales associate who was struggling to explain why I should lease instead of buy, or vise-versa. At the end, I took the business card of this sales professional with absolutely no intention of ever calling him. Call me old fashioned, but I feel more comfortable buying a car from the person who treats his job as a job and not as a hobby. As a business owner, I am curious how come this person still has this job/hobby.

My next stop was Nissan. My guess is that Nissan cars are the best cars in the world. Do you know why I say this? I was inside the dealership for 10 minutes, and not a single sales associate offered to help me. Then, I approached a receptionist, and asked her about their leasing specials. She had no idea what they were, and told me that I have to wait for a sales associate. If nobody cared to help me, I did not want to trouble anyone and waste their time trying to sell me a car, and so I left.

My last stop for the day was Mazda. I wanted to test drive their new RX-8. Mazda dealership was closed on Monday, August 31st. I guess nobody buys cars on the Memorial Day, and so the dealership is closed. The best part was that 6 cars that were outside were actually open. I saw several people getting it and out of the new cars, while the dealership was closed. Why lock the cars, really?

At that point, I decided to buy the car another day. Ultimately, I have to wonder why with so many advances in technology, the process of selling cars continues to be so inefficient. My be it is because it depends on people.

This post was not done to trash any of the companies that were mentioned here, but rather to share my frustration and raise the question for an open discussion. These companies obviosly can’t control what is taking place at each dealership, but their reputation is taking a hit because of the poor customer service to which a lot of people are exposed. Ultimately, I still might buy one of the cars I was planning to buy on Monday, May 31, but I am likely to buy a car from another dealership.

PS:  I am not going to disclose the locations of the dealerships I visited, and the names of people who ‘tried’ to help me. The reasons for this are quite obvious.

Recently in every store I started to see those “Live, Laugh, Love” pillows that you are supposed to buy, bring to your house, put on a coach and snooze on while watching evening news, before you get up and go to work the next day. It’s like a subtle reminder that between daily commute, a full work day, all responsibilities and ideally some time with your family and even some exercise, you have to remember to live, laugh and love. Well, guess what, living, laughing and loving works a lot better when you take your family away to for a month long vacation. These are the special moment that you’ll remember forever. We are proud to offer a 4 week vacation to employees who have been with the company for over a year.

MYTH 1: “You get what you pay for.” Google Analytics is free, which means the system is down a lot.

Google Analytics makes use of the same network of secure and reliable data centers used to power Google.com, making downtime an extremely rare occurrence. We have a large team focused exclusively on keeping your data safe and accessible, and benefit from multiple redundancies in our infrastructure around the globe (this makes us fast as well).

We even rely on Google Analytics for our own mission-critical products such as AdWords, which see huge volumes of traffic every day. If you’re still having doubts, we’d encourage you to talk to some users and ask them how their experience has been with uptime.

MYTH 2: Google Analytics is basic and doesn’t have any “advanced” features or metrics

Ack, this one is a tough one to swallow! A more frequent complaint is actually that Google Analytics has too much data. The product includes over 90 standard reports with more than 125 metrics and dimensions covering everything from visits to internal site search queries.

Custom reports and user-defined variables allow you to create your own metrics and reports where the standard ones don’t meet your needs. With Pivoting, Advanced Segmentation,Secondary Dimensions, Event Tracking and the ability to share customizations, Google Analytics reports are more powerful than ever.

Google Analytics may look “basic,” on the surface, but it can do a lot more than you think! If you have complex needs try talking to a Google Analytics Authorized Consultant or diving into the documentation on the Google Code Site.

More Info (Feature List, Custom Reports, Advanced Segmentation, Analytics API)

MYTH 3: Google Analytics only supports third-party cookies

False! Google Analytics has always used first-party, not third-party cookies. First-party cookies are important because they allow Google Analytics to track repeat visitors, so you can see which keyword, referring site, etc is responsible for bringing buyers even when it takes multiple visits for them to convert.

MYTH 4: Google Analytics is not really accurate

If you’ve spent time doing web analytics work, you’ll know the sinking feeling that comes when two sets of numbers don’t match. If you’re experiencing a data discrepancy, don’t panic. There are many others in the same boat.

Google Analytics uses JavaScript tags to collect data. This industry-standard method yields reliable trends and a high degree of precision, but it’s not perfect. Most of the time, if you are noticing data discrepancies greater than 10%, it’s due to an installation issue. Common problems include JavaScript errors, redirects, untagged pages and slow client-side load times.

For tips on how to sensibly approach data reconciliation, check out this post by Avinash Kaushik, Google’s Analytics Evangelist, or this whitepaper on accuracy in Google Analytics. You can also talk to an expert.

All web analytics tools face the same technical limitations posed by JavaScript tags, so if another vendor claims their tool is more accurate, ask for some evidence.

More Info (Web Analytics Data Reconciliation Checklist, Whitepaper)

MYTH 5: It’s not possible to export your data from Google Analytics

Not true! You have two options for exporting data. Use the “export” button at the top of each report to export the current view in PDF or XML (up to 500 rows). Or, use the new Analytics Export API to extract large amounts of data in any format you like. Also, if you want to share data with a colleague, you can schedule reports to be delivered directly to their email inbox, or even send regular updates to your own email address.

More Info (How to Export your Data, Analytics API)

MYTH 6: With Google Analytics you can’t control your data

You have three options for data sharing in Google Analytics. You can change these options at any time from inside your Analytics account.
• do not share your data
• share your data with Google to improve its products
• share your data anonymously for benchmarking

No matter which option you choose, your data is protected by several layers of defense:
1. Dedicated security and infrastructure teams
2. Multiple redundancies to prevent data loss
3. Network redundancies to keep data accessible
4. Advanced security, firewalling and routing to keep data secure
5. Restricted access and principle of least privilege for personnel
If you opt-out of data sharing, your data will remain within Google Analytics and will not be shared with other products or services. If you decide to share your data with Google, it will be used to improve those products and services. Lastly, if you decide to share your data anonymously with others, it will be blended with other data to support the Google Analytics benchmarking feature. For more information on these options and what they mean, refer to the Google Analytics data sharing FAQ.

If you’re still concerned, Google also offers a software product called Urchin (www.urchin.com) that you can run locally.

More Info (Data Sharing FAQ, Google Privacy Policy)

MYTH 7: There is no professional support for Google Analytics

Contrar! We flipped the model. Instead of providing an expensive analytics product with a one-size-fits-all professional services plan, we provide a free product and let you purchase the professional services that fit your needs.

There are several ways to get support: email support, help forums, the help center, and a network of Authorized Consultants. Authorized Consultants speak your language, accept your currency and often share your timezone. More than 80 companies across the globe provide a full range of installation and analysis support for Google Analytics. Some examples of things they can help you with are:
• Validate and troubleshoot your installation
• Integrate your analytics data with other data sources or CRM
• Optimize your marketing efforts
• Train your staff on how to use Analytics
• Respond to support tickets, phone calls and provide on-site consulting
To find out more, give one or two of them a call. Our Authorized Consultants are hand-picked and are the best in the business.

More Info (Google Analytics Authorized Consultants)

MYTH 8: Google Analytics does not support A/B or multivariate testing and isn’t well-integrated with other tools

Google offers a full range of marketing products including a free testing tool called Google Website Optimizer. You can use it to test different page elements and find out which ones yield the highest conversion rate and ROI. You can also use Google Analytics in conjunction with Website Optimizer to create an optimization plan for your site.

Google Analytics is also integrated with many of Google’s other business products includingAdWords, AdSense, and AdPlanner. It is also widely supported by third party tools ranging from content management systems, to email suites, to call center applications. In addition, you’ll find many products that are complementary to Google Analytics including DoubleClick, TVAds,Webmaster Tools, Google Trends, Insights for Search, Feedburner, and more.

More Info (Google Website Optimizer, GWO Blog)

MYTH 9: You can’t segment data in Google Analytics

In the fall of 2008, Google Analytics released three new Enterprise Features: Advanced Segmentation, Custom Reports and Motion Charts. Advanced Segmentation lets you segment visits by dozens of metrics and dimensions such as geographic location, time on site, referral site and much much more. You can create segments on the fly and apply them to virtually all the standard reports in Google Analytics as well as custom reports.

More Info (In Depth Look at Advanced Segments, Video)

MYTH 10: You have to spend a lot of money to get “real” web analytics

Getting a return from your Analytics data does take an investment. The most important investment to start with is making sure you or someone at your organization has the expertise and time to put your data to use. If at that point you still feel you need to pay more for a more complicated tool, that’s OK, but remember that every dollar you spend on a tool takes away from money you could be spending on actually getting results, i.e. hiring or contracting a talented analyst (see the 90/10 Rule).

The question sometimes comes up, “if Google Analytics is free, what’s in it for Google?” Google benefits from Google Analytics in two ways. First, if webmasters build better sites, it helps us connect searchers with the information they need faster. Second, if advertisers use Google Analytics, they are able to see their advertising ROI, which helps us demonstrate the value of Google AdWords. Both aspects have helped create a strong business case for Google Analytics over the years.

Google Analytics is getting more powerful with each new update, and you may be surprised by what it can do. Find out more by attending an Analytics Seminar for Success or talking to anAuthorized Consultant in your area. If you’re an AdWords advertiser, you can also speak with your Customer Service Representative.

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Below are other key findings from the Forrester report’s Executive Summary:

• Free web analytics takes residence within the enterprise. A staggering 53% of enterprises surveyed currently use a free technology solution as their primary web analytics tool, and 71% use free tools in some capacity. This places use of fee-based solutions in the minority, with only 33% of survey respondents paying for web analytics technologies (12% use homegrown solutions, and 2% use some other option). In addition, it dispels the belief that free solutions are only being used in small organizations or somehow diminished in their capacity to provide value to the enterprise.
• The merits of free analytics products are compelling. Among respondents currently paying for their primary web analytics tools, 66% would consider displacing them with a free alternative. While the primary driver for this consideration is cost, 60% of enterprises are more likely to consider a free tool now because of recent improvements in free solutions. Additionally, 52% are enticed by free tools because they allow enterprises to invest more in the people necessary to drive insight rather than the technology used to collect and analyze data.
• Balancing costs and benefits requires introspection. We found that 52% of practitioners employing both free and fee-based solutions fail to effectively use more than half of the capabilities offered by their tools. This realization is cause for a needs assessment to determine if fee-based web analytics technologies are justified or simply excessive. For many, spending on web analytics technologies could be better allocated toward program development and acquisition of expertise.
• Reliability and ease of use are characteristics that enterprises crave. For 71% of enterprises surveyed, web analytics data plays a significant role in driving decisions. So it comes as no surprise that users place a premium on data assurance, with 45% citing reliable data collection as the most important vendor selection criteria. This was followed by 40% who listed an easy-to-use interface and product pricing as the second equally most important vendor selection consideration.
• Organizations are approaching a point of inflection. Nearly two-thirds of enterprises would abandon their current web analytics provider given the right circumstances. While 74% of large enterprises agreed that web analytics is a technology that they cannot do without, many indicated that alternative tools would suffice. These metrics indicate that organizations are receptive to change and justifiably seek solutions best suited to meet their needs.

If you’d like to learn more, download the full report. We’d love to hear your thoughts. Post a comment and tell us what you think!

link to http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/05/the-10-90-rule-for-magnificient-web-analytics-success.html, Kaushik is one of the foremost experts in analytics
“A part time person, or your admin, providing access to your favourite expensive analytics tool can’t help your management make actionable decisions.”
Actionable steps

1. Get a free Google Analytics account
2. cancel your contract with an expensive analytics tool vendor (saving of $50-200K)
3. Hire a smart analyst ($50K-100K/year) or get a consulting firm on a retainer
4. Put the rest of the money in your pocket

The objective of this article is to  examine popular Twitter strategies and see if what works in business marketing can help us find dates.

1. Your Twitter page needs to have character. There is already too many Twitter profiles that are not memorable and simply are too generic. The competition is tough, and unless your profile and upcoming Tweets have something unique about them, it will be tough to get the proper attention. Before you start creating content, create your value proposition. In dating terms it often means answering this very simple question – what is so special about me, and why would anyone want to date me?
2. Who is your audience, or what type of people do you think you want to date, and who wants to date you? Unless you are as popular as @APLUSK, it is doubtful that everyone will follow you online. You need to clearly identify who you want to follow, and what type of people you want to follow you. Since you are using Twitter to get in a relationship, it is likely that people who might start following you are potentially interested in learning more about you, or simply are other singles in the area.
3. Listen before you talk. Anyone will tell you that it is very important to listen to the conversations that are taking place around you. Quite often people will tell you just what they need. If on Twitter somebody mentions that they want a cup of coffee, it is a perfect opportunity to send them a coupon to your coffee shop. If somebody says on Twitter that they did not like their date, or that they are spending a Saturday night alone watching a film, it might be a perfect opportunity to engage in a conversation with them.
4. Be informative and consistent in your Tweets. If your Tweets are always about you or about your company’s products, it will become obvious to your audience, and they might stop responding to you. Your tweets have to be engaging, and you have to constantly participate in a conversation with members of the Tweeter community. Just like on a date, everything can’t be just about you. Share with people content that highlights your personality. For example, articles on your favorite movie, schedule of your favorite band, restaurant suggestions. Your job is to paint a picture, and most importantly to have fun doing it.
5. Follow people that matter the most to you. If your company is selling a local service, you mostly care about Twitter users who are located in your area. Use such tool as LocalTweeps.com to help you find local users. Chances are, you probably want to be in a relationship with someone who lives nearby.
6. Follow local thought leaders. For example, following local newspapers and venues will tell you when and where are the best events to meet other singles. You need to be aware of the life of your community, and what opportunities are there for you to shine. In business, the ruls is to go where people are. The same applies to dating –  go where people are.
7. Be very creative about what goes into Tweets. If you really are trying to use Twitter for dating, try posting some pictures of yourself from time to time. Feel free to ask different questions; something among the lines of ‘what would you consider to be a perfect date’ might draw attention. Promote other people, and retweet information that you find interesting and informative.
8. Marketing is just like dating; 50% of it works and 50% doesn’t. So experiment. There is tons of material on using Tweeter, but until you begin to experiment and seeing what works for you, you will not get it. Simply following what other people are doing will give you mediocre results, and in dating terms will make you look like a stocker.
9. Twitter is not the only thing you need. Just like in business, Twitter is not your marketing strategy, but rather a tool that can complement your other marketing efforts. In future posts we might consider creating a dating blog.
10. Network, network and network. In dating terms this reads – mingle, mingle and mingle. The more you engage with people, a better chance you have in meeting somebody who just might be perfect for you.
11. Talking about innovation, why not introduce a special # to highlight that your post is specifically related to dating. This way it will be easier to find people that are also thinking about dating. #Singles – might be the appropriate #.

Overall, it doesn’t seem like Twitter is being used to its fullest capacity by people who are trying to date. However, it seems like it might have potential. As long as you are open and upfront about your intentions and keep you Tweets fun and engaging you just might meet another person who is also looking for a nice Friday night date. The way your market your products and services on Twitter can be applied fairly well to marketing yourself when you are trying to date. On the other hand, what works in dating is a perfect example of what can work in company marketing. You have to be engaging.

Lastly, if you think a person might be interested in going on a date with you, why not ask them via Twitter? This way it might be harder for a person to say know, when other people are following them. If this is too much, than stick to DM, or better yet use a phone, and afterwards do not not forget to use Twitter to announce how amazing your date was. @personname I greatly enjoyed our dinner together.

• accountingjobstoday
• careerbank.com
• jobsinthemoney.com

administrative, data entry & secretary

• homeworkers.org
• net-temps.com

advertising

• marketingjobs.com
• talentzoo.com

aerospace

• aeroindustryjobs.com
• ctsinternational.com

agriculture

• agcareers.com
• agindustryjobs.com

airline

• avjobs.com

apparel

• clothingindustryjobs.com
• fashioncareercenter.com

architecture

• architecturejobs.com
• e-architect.com

arts

• artjob.org
• artcareer.net

audit

• careersinaudit.com
• taxtalent.com

automotive

aviation

• aviationemployment.com
• aviationjobsearch.com uk board
• avjobs.com

banking

• bankjobs.com
• careerbank.com
• jobsinthemoney.com

bilingual

• latpro.com

biotech

• biohealthmatics.com
• biospace.com
• medzilla.com

broadcast

• amfmjobs.com
• careerpage.org
• tvjobs.com

brokerage

• brokerhunter.com

callcenter

• callcentercareers.com
• callcenterclassifieds.com
• callcenterjobs.com

chemical

child care

• care.com growing!
• greataupair.com
• nannies4hire.com

college

• see entry-level

communications

• writejobs.com

computer & systems

• computerjobs.com
• computerwork.com
• dice.com
• gjc.org
• tech-centric.net

construction

• constructionexecutive.com
• constructionjobs.com
• mepjobs.com
• topbuildingjobs.com

consulting

consumer

corporate

• see management

courier

• see delivery

creative

• krop.com
• creativejobscentral.com

customer service

• callcentercareers.com
• employmentguide.com

database

• databasejobs.com
• dbjobs.org

defense

• defensetalent.com

delivery & courier

design

• aigadesignjobs.org
• coroflot.com
• fashioncareercenter.com

distribution

• see logistics

diversity

• diversityjobs.com
• diversityworking.com
• hirediversity.com
• latpro.com

driver

• 1800drivers.com
• classadrivers.com
• everytruckjob.com