MANAGING YOUR PRESENCE
ONLINE—AND USING ANALYTICS
TO TRACK RESULTS
Susan Mernit
March 2011
Welcome to the social media ecosystem
Over 200 Million Americans are on Facebook
Roughly 44 million people use Twitter
There are over 2 Billion photos on photo-sharing
community Flickr
You are now connected to everyone on the planet
via Google searches
How do you show up?
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
What is your social media—and online
3
—presence?
• Do you know how you show
up on the web? Are you
discoverable through
search? If someone hears
of you—can they find you?
Do you know how you show up online?
Search as your starting page
Your name, email, phone, organization
The Game Has Changed
Even
beyond
Google,
everyone
is
inter-‐
connected
We’ve
gone
beyond
centralized
authori:es
that
creden:al
us—newspapers,
universi:es,
affiliate
groups
To
crowd-‐sourcing,
networks,
and
the
wisdom
of
crowds
-‐-‐And
you
need
to
play
to
compete
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
We’re going to talk about the basic social
media toolbox and how to use it:
• Facebook
• TwiEer
•
Linked-‐In
• Flickr
• YouTube
(Vimeo/Viddler)
• Blogging
• Google
and
Facebook
analy:cs
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
1. Start with listening
Do you know how to monitor?:
Google alerts
RSS reader
Twitter search
Facebook search
“Listening dashboard”
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
Need a driver’s manual?
Resources to learn with re listening
• Mashable.com
• Google videos on YouTube
• SEO videos
• Knowledgebases for specific products
What are other faves resources that work for
you?
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
It’s okay to do “bursty” work
Blog or twitter daily.
Visit Facebook daily; update your status & interact
Build your linked in contacts weekly
Use YouTube, Flickr, Scribd, etc as needed to
intensify your connections, share materials
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
Pay attention to SEO, headlines
SEO is about crawling Make it catchy, we’re
robots.txt in the entertainment
Use precise economy
descriptions in your Make it literal so your
post heds post can be discovered
Revise your meta-data Keep testing and
to reflect how you improving!
want to be seen
Read up on SEO, this is
a must have skill
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
Self-monitor and check the metrics
Set up ego alerts for your name at google.com/
alerts and search.twitter.com
Install Google Analytics on your site and learn how
to use it.
Check your content and keywords in Google
analytics: are you turning up where you want to be?
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
Remember, it’s about the outcomes
• Building
your
brand
• Being
known
for
something
• Expanding
your
community
• GeOng
results
It
is
all
about
the
rela:onships—when
you
build
your
brand,
you
build
them
as
well.
copyright, 2009, Susan Mernit, do not reuse without attribution. 3/3/09
Measuring results
What’s this about?
How can using Google Analytics inform your
knowledge of what's work in your project--and what
isn't?
What are some strategies and best practices for
reading Google Analytics--and Facebook insights—
to help a site owner make decisions about what you
focus on and where you spend your time and effort.
Google Analytics: Read it w/yr morning coffee
Most viewed stories
Time spent per traffic source
Geographic location and patterns
Referrals & distribution insights
Core questions
Is my content generating traffic? (see GA)
Is my content driving discussion? (see FB)
Where is the audience coming from?
Where are the BEST users coming from?
Where are my geographic clusters? (GA & FB)
What are the trend-lines on interaction (FB)
Opening screen: Past 30 days
Check in daily with the monthly, weekly,
Daily dashboards
Review top stories
What’s the top story: Jean Quan Mayoral election—okay,
how come? Time to drill-down…
Check entry points for top stories
What was the big traffic source for Quan election story?
Checking entry points shows that Yahoo drove most of the traffic for this story
—far more than any other source.
Quan story content detail
Quan election story—Time spent shows story was read; high bounce shows—
readers left; 80% exit rate confirms that.
Geography: Where is your audience?
Drill down from country to state—for Oakland Local. GA shows 99% of traffic is regional
and provides overall baseline metrics: 1:36 minutes on site, 56% new visitors.
How many visitors are from SF Bay area? From Oakland?
GA can drill down on state info…
Top four sources are Oakland or within 8 miles of Oakland. Los Angeles traffic is
Mehserle trial.
What is the pattern of someone from the
“core” location?
Smaller percentage of *new* visits
Lower bounce rate
What are top entrance keywords?
Helps evaluate search engine traffic at keyword
Level for ALL search engines. Are we delivering
Right content for these keywords?
What keywords led people here?
Bounce rate on top landing pages
Blacks leaving bay story has 30%
less bounce Why?
Traffic sources
What can this teach me?
Note high Yahoo &
Google referrals; yet
Facebook
Is #4 over all.
Learnings from GA review
Focus content against audience behaviors: PV analysis of published
content demonstrated appetite for neighborhood-level stories &
investigative pieces, not features.
Understand value of referral channels: OL gets more traffic from FB
than Twitter, but Twitter users stay longer, read more pages
Facebook outperformed SFGate partnership for referrals; led to
cutting investment back
Unmet content/community needs: Stories by/for Queer community,
Gospel music audience, Bicycle commuters
Slim success: Korean community coverage
Facebook insites
Facebook insites—visible
to adminstrators
Offers analytics for FB fan
or business page
Two views of page
—”Old” insites & new
insites—check out both
Great tool to map against
Google Analytics data
FB: Basics on users
FB: Maps user likes and comments
FB: Shows “likes” over time
FB: Shows levels of interaction
Geography: Compare w/Google!
We look at cities—where’s the audience?
Workflow recommendations
Daily view: Google Analytics & Facebook page
metrics for individual posts
Weekly view: Facebook insites
Monthly: Review of GA & FB against core goals,
with close look at trending keywords, referral
patterns, time spent per referral.
Write
up brief summaries to share with key team
members, discuss in meetings
For more information
Google analytics blog http://analytics.blogspot.com/
Help site:
http://www.google.com/support/googleanalytics
YouTube videos on using GA
Books--Big tomes:
Advanced Web Metrics with Google Analytics, by Brian
Clifton
Performance Marketing with Google Analytics, by
Sebastian Tonkin (and others)
Contact info
Susan Mernit
susan@oaklandlocal.com
Useful resources
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• Facebook Business Account FAQ:
http://www.facebook.com/help/?page=721
• Twitter account creation:
http://twitter.com/account/create
• Great article on social media and small business:
http://techcrunch.com/2010/07/17/how-social-
media-drives-new-business-six-case-studies/
•
• Don’t forget about follow-up classes from Oakland
Local Academy—and the social media support our
consulting group can provide you with along with
advertising services.
Contacts for more info
• Oakland Local Academy
– Kwan Booth, Trainer,
kwan@oaklandlocal.com
– Susan Mernit, Trainer,
susan@oaklandlocal.com
– Plus a whole team who’d
like to help
– PS Follow Oakland Local
on Facebook & Twitter!
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