Mark Tosczak, senior account executive at RLF Communications, shared with me his top five tips for web analytics. And because I’m a giving person, I’m going to share them with you.
1. Your metrics shall be tied to your goals.
Every Facebook friend and pay-per-click should be tied to a big picture. Don’t do anything until you know WHY you are doing what you’re doing. Someone in a tie will eventually ask you this question and expect you to answer it within 3 seconds.
2. Evaluate results, not activities.
Pay more attention to click through rates than a mere presence on a site or social network
3. Thou shall understand the data.
Know what things like “hits” and “unique visitors” mean before you start throwing them out casually in conversation.
4. Don’t trust computers.
Computers are not very good at more qualitative and subjective measurements so use multiple evaluation methods in your research.
5. Always measure!
You can’t really beat Google Analytics in terms of free analytics tools.
Hi Cathy,
Those are definitely some good points. May I add one to the list? It’s critically important to also track the changes and trends that occur over time and then use that data to reevaluate your social media strategy. The definition of insanity is to do something over and over again and expect different results!