KDPaine's PR Measurement Blog

I am in such violent agreement with Jason Falls

Jason was kind enough to interview me at PRSA 08-- results are here: What Is The ROI For Social Media?

Finally a cure for CTS (Cranky Traveler Syndrome) a side effect of NPR addiction

 

Maybe its that we're all more worried about the money we're spending, or the increasing size of our carbon footprint, or maybe it's just that travel sucks these days, but I've noticed that myself and other fellow road warriors traveling more and enjoying it less. For those of us who are on Twitter, we vent our frustration by tweeting about late planes, obnoxious taxi drivers, uncomfortable hotel beds, bad rental cars and even worse food. We don't care who listens, and it doesn't make it any better, because clearly no one in the travel industry is listening to its customers. (Ever wonder why there's no @USAircares or @Unitedcares? I've come to the conclusion that they really DON'T care, and in the interests of transparency, it's easier to just ignore us than to actually listen.) But somehow, just venting to our Twitterbuds seems to help, at least temporarily. But in the long run, it really doesn't help much.

So I started cogitating on this notion during my last run, and I came to the conclusion that the real problem is the fact that traveling continuously takes us out of our comfort zone. When I'm home, I get up in the morning, turn on NPR, go for a run, listen to some tunes, listen to NPR some more, and eventually head into the office. When I'm on the road, half the time I'm getting up at 4 am to catch an early flight, so not only do I not get to run, there's no early morning coffee looking out at my rock garden, and I miss almost all of Morning Edition. This then makes me incredibly insecure because I now have no clue as to what is happening in the world and I'm afraid someone will find out or ask me to comment, and I won't know what they're talking about. (Actually this has happened. Bruce Horowitz of USA Today called one day for my opinion on the unfolding crisis at the LPGA. I had to ask him what the LPGA was J. Needless to say my quote was exceptionally pithy that day.)

But now I've found the cure. My friend Ryan Donovan, the new VP of Internal and External communications at SanDisk was kind enough to send me a new SanDisk Sansa, which in my mind, is the perfect electronic device. Not only is it every road warrior's fantasy companion, but as a runner it fits perfectly in those teeny tiny pockets at the front of my running shorts. What more could you ask?

First of all, I have to admit that I have resisted buying an iPOD since they first came out. I had a perfectly good MP3 player, and then later a perfectly good HP iPAQ which was my phone, my camera and my MP3player. It's now starting to die, and can't be fixed, and so while I'm waiting for my T-Mobile G1 to come in, I started looking around at alternatives and realized that I've lost any love for the all-in-one concept. While it's great to have a camera with me when I run, it's not so wonderful to have your phone ring just as you're topping the steepest hill on your run and realize it's that client you've been trying to reach for a week. Somehow "Hello," pant pant pant pant – makes it tough on the caller to know if you're having a heart attack or having sex, and either way, it's not what you want your client to think.

So I was thrilled to get my Sansa and even more thrilled to figure out how to make it work. Here's another confession, having never used an iPOD, I didn't' know what that round thing did J I could see the headlines now - Social Media Measurement guru calls SanDisk help desk, support teams puts questions up on YouTube. I felt like one of those idiots who call the help line because they couldn't get their cup holder to work. It made me realize once again what a culture shift Apple had wrought in eliminating buttons and other anachronisms.

But by far the most delightful part was finding that twirling that magic thumbdial brought up NPR. So this morning, for the first time, I got into a cab with Nina Totenberg and Maura Liasson. I practically skipped thru Detroit airport security, calmed by the dulcet tones of Steve Inskeep. Then I missed my bus in Boston and cheerfully waited for the next one.. All without a single whine or tweet, thanks to the delightful diversion of Morning Edition, BBC World Service and OnPoint. This thing is better than drugs or aromatherapy! So thank you Ryan, and everyone else out there who's been dealing with me of late, I apologize, but you too owe a big round of thanks to Ryan Donovan and SanDisk.

A very interesting insight into one methodology to measure influence in social media

Market Sentinel » Blog Archive » Measuring social media (2).

E-metrics wrap up

I've been trying to get around to collecting my thoughts about the various conferences I've attended this week, and now, just hours away from another conference I need to blog about, (PRSA) and am just now getting around to it.

First let me say that Jim Sterne's e-Metrics opening emetics presentation was as good a primer on modern day measurement as you can get. Jim and I bonded awhile back over a mutual passion for metrics done right.

A year ago, I had the good fortune to catch another measurement maven, Eric Petersen, give his talk at last year's e-Metrics conference, and it completely changed my perspective on measuring engagement. This year was no different. While last year's presentation focused on numbers, this year Petersen's clear message, was that it's not about the tools or the data, it was on the interpretation.

My favorite line was his opener: In God we Trust, all others bring data. He went on to point out something I've been saying for years, that the data is available, the challenge is to get people to use it. What people don't understand, Petersen said, is that businesses can create sustainable and strategic competitive advantages by investing in collecting, using and interpreting that data, or as he put it, the qualitative and quantitative analysis and multi-variate testing to drive decisions and actions.

Who is doing it well, you ask? Peterson pointed to Marriott, Geico, ask.com, Intuit and Overstock. (I would add our clients at ASPCA, Georgia Tech, SAS and MADD to that list.

He also pointed out the elephant in the room, and that is that Web analytics is hard. He's right. It's not easy to interpret web analytic date correctly, but I would argue that what is hard, but necessary, is to correlate that web analytic data to other social, and traditional media as well as other outcomes. My second favorite piece of advice from Petersen: There is no such thing as "web analytics" it's all analytics so take a class in SAS and learn what SAS can do for you.. " Nice plug for my client, but its good advice to up and coming PR people as well.

 

Amy Africa shocks and awes them in Phoenix

There were a lot of wows at the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer this week in Phoenix. My personal favorite was Arianna Huffington given my journalism background, but Gary Vaynerchuck and Amy Africa were close seconds. Others have captured the highlights of Gary V's presentation, but I was so surprised by my enthusiasm for what Amy Africa had to say, I just had to share. If you don't know her, Amy Africa's is a web consultant with a newsletter goes out to 850,000 people and gets a stunning a 67% open rate. That alone caught my attention.

She then proceeded to conduct the whole session as a "Who wants to be a millionaire" game which was a brilliant way to keep people engaged at the end of a long couple of days. So here were her questions and her tips:

 

1. What does PC mean: Perpetual Cart is essentially a perpetual call to action (either an order form, a download, a request to register for a newsletter or a perpetual lead form) It should be in at least in 3 places on your web site. The PC tells the user what to do. Click here now is clicked 4-6 times more often than search or conventional info buttons. As she says, you have to ask for the order constantly
2. What is most responsible for success: Navigation is responsible for 60% of success – more so than design, colors, photographs or anything else.
3. What is the 2^nd most abandoned area on an average site: Internal Search Function. The first most abandoned is the Entry Page, 2^nd is Internal search function 3rd Shopping cart or lead form. If only 17% abandons on lead forms, not enough people going there. 60% should start a transaction and not finish it. You want them to raise their hand. On search we lose 66% of the people. Which means that we have what people are looking for but they don't know how to find it.
4. What are the best performing trigger emails? Welcome, unsubscribe, abandoned site, cart and search, thank yous. Africa suggests that you send a customized email to people who try and fail to get info or buy stuff on your page. Assuming they've given you their email, but don't convert into action, you reach out and say "we're sorry you didn't find what you were looking for" These emails have the highest click thru and open rate. "We noticed you tried our search, and it didn't work, can we help – should get 60% conversion"
5. What is a drill: the action a user takes on your site. How many drills is a critical metric. If you cannot keep track of drills take page views and divide by 130.
6. What is BTF – Below the Fold. Assume that only 30% will see what you put BTF, only 10% will ever hit the back button. When your site loads visitors first look to the upper right, after second page will only look down middle column. They look left when they need help, they look to the right when they're about to leave. So whatever message is most important should be in every quad above the fold. You want to have at least 3 products you can buy and 2 PCs above the fold. You need to ask for email address 12 different ways, ask the experts, or download a white paper., more you ask, the more chances you get the order.
7. What percent of your daily traffic should come from Repeat Visitors: 40%
8. What do people see bests on line: People – they really only see pictures because it is inherently difficult to read text on line
9. What is the max amount of traffic an entry page should account for? 6-10% The better your site is in terms of if you have more than 6-10% not enough pages indexed. Don't want to drill everyone to the same page.
10. How many columns do the best converting sites employ – from eye pop to conversion. : 3
11. What does BOB stand for: Best of Breed. Who is your bob. Who is your best of breed is typical average user's favorite site. Look at the last 10 places they were before your site.
12. What has the biggest impact on conversion: The Referring URL – where they came from
13. What is #1 major influence on trigger email.. deliverability ..(getting past the spam filters) not the subject line, the creative or the format.
14. Name 2 of the least known metrics that make the most amount of difference: CTS=Clicks to sale DTS == days to sale, How many clicks does it take to make a sale, how many days does it take – they move the needle.
15. What makes up for all the other weaknesses on your site : Trigger emails.
16. What is P/S Navigation Problem/Solution Navigation -- must have . . allows a user to search in the way they want.
17. What is a plug? A non-animated banner. Plugs are mini commercials to drive people back into your site. Allows people to see things you want them to see
18. What is max amount of time to spend on an n average page. 40 seconds
19. Best way to improve product page conversion, add more "Buy now" buttons, second best way, add multiple visuals.
20. What is theming? Rotational banners that increase AAUS Average user

Cision catches up in social media

Today's announcement of Cision's deal with Radian 6 to provide Social Media Monitoring
has some interesting implications for the market. First it of course, brings a legitimacy and main-streaminess to the marketplace that may have been lacking. Those of us who have been doing social media measurement for awhile are very familiar with brands like Radian6 and Buzzlogic, but we tend to forget that not everyone is as savvy. So the introduction of a familiar clipping brand is not altogether a bad thing.
I also congratulate Cision on partnering with Radian6. As anyone who has watched this space for awhile, you know I've been a fan of theirs for a while. Having watched Cision try to integrate technology in the past, I wish them alot of luck, but at least they were smart enough to partner and not try to develop their own system in house.
Finally, I welcome more people monitoring, because ultimately it will broaden the market for analysis. Monitoring is just a first step into truly managing your reputation and relationships in social media. The next step requires human analysis, expertise and undertanding, and the more people who take that next step, the better. 

Beware the reincarnation of Chatty Cathy

When I was a little girl, my two favorite dolls were Patty PlayPal and Chatty Cathy. Patty Playpal was a "lifesize" doll that was the sister I always wanted. I had a sister, but she was older and bossy and beautiful, so needless to say I really wanted a different one. So for Christmas one year I got Patty Playpal who was just the same size as I was. I'd put her in my bed at night, and when my mom came home late from a collection or a party I'd make her kiss Patty good night. I always wondered if she knew the difference between us.
And then then there was Chatty Cathy -- the first "talking doll." You had to pull a string and a series of pre-programmed messages like "I'm sleepy" or "I'm your friend"  came out of her mouth. I can still here them in my head -- very scary.

But I got to thinking that those dolls are really a metaphor for the old ways of communicating. You programmed your "thought leader" or CEO or Vice Presidential candidate to say certain things, and people would hear them and presumably believe them. And you could dress someone or something up to look like somethime (be it a candidate or computer) and editors would write nice things.

Today it is obvious that neither of those approaches work any more.  If you dress someone up, people will immediately figure out how much the dress cost. No one believes pre-programmed messages anymore, because we've heard too many of them so we don't believe any of them. And besides, there are a gazillion fact checkers out there to show just how made up your messages are. Guess its time to put those favorite old toys in the trunk, and go out and find new ones.

Signs your not in New Hampshire Any more

Just came back from my first run in a week. It was actually chilly out there in the desert this morning, but just gorgeous. But definitely different. Unfortunately I left my camera at home, but came up with a  few signs that I wasn't in NH anymore:

1. Instead of running thru bright orange, red and yellow dead leaves you find yourself running beside orange and yellow and sage green cacti and realizing you really really don't want to fall down anywhere near them.

2. It's all so nice and flat.

3. The dogs all look hungry

4. The shadows seem longer, and the sun is definitely brighter

5. There are no other runners out here.

6. All the cars that passed me were trucks

7. You don't have to go up a mountain to see as far as the eye can see.

Seriously, I'm here at the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer (#MPDM on Twitter) and it is a great conference. Lots of hands on training, lots of people who really know what they're doing, and equal numbers of people eager to learn.

Funniest moment of the conference so far: I sat down to dinner last night next to an old friend from Portsmouth, NH that I hadn't seen in years. He was part of the early e-Coast crowd and moved out to Washington. Love it when you have to come all the way across the country to reconnect with people.

Highlight of the conference so far: Arianna Huffington. She's a cross between Helen Thomas, Henry R. Luce, Walt Disney and Carmel Snow -- and if you close your eyes she becomes Zsa Zsa Gabor.  She really is reshaping the world of media in the way that Luce and Disney did, and as much as Carmel Snow created the way people consume fashion today, Huffington is creating the modern news and information delivery system. 

Admiring the work of a competitor

I've always admired the Pew Research Center but never considered them a competitor but it looks like they're doing some serious Media Analysis these days, at least where the candidates are involved. What I particularly love is that they use latent analysis-- looking at the entire article for tonality -- which is how we at KDPaine & Partners do it, rather than analyzing content on a sentence by sentence or paragraph by paragraph basis the way some of our competitors do.

Content overload

In the last 24 hours I've been to the Marketing Optimization Conference and the Marketing Profs Digital Mixer and my brain is totally overloaded. From Jim Stearne to Arianna Huffington, there is just too much to blog about. However, since I had lunch yesterday with some of the folks behind Google Analytics, I thought I should point out their announcement.
It's pretty amazing stuff, and if there I ever ever ever hear another PR person whinging about not having a budget to measure stuff, and they haven't installed Google Analytics, I won't talk to them until they do. !