Social Media from Both Sides of the Coin

Since the dawn of commerce, marketers (or simply people trying to express the value of their good/service) have been trying to find ways into communication channels to impart their message on prospective customers. As human technology advanced, and communication tools improved, marketers had reasonable but limited success, permeating the wall of friendly conversation to interject with business offers. In the modern era, technological communication is nearing the point of ubiquity in our daily lives, and marketers are trying their utmost to find out to their target market  Social media is a unique form of human technological communication that not only allows consumers and companies to have dialogues, but also provides an opportunity for customers to individually seek out marketing content, amidst all of the networking with friends and family.

Marketing messages and social interactions exist on the same plane, which, upon observation, inevitably draw parallels and perpendiculars between the utilization of social media by people and business. How does my use of social media compare to a firm? How does it contrast? To gain insight on the issue, I compared guidelines for standard corporate social media conduct from Moz with my own personal experience.

Community 

Obviously, one of the primary differentiating benefits of social media is the reciprocity of communication. My friend can post a status on Facebook, and I can "like" his post or give feedback by replying with a comment. Similarly, customers have the opportunity to "like" a company's post or complain about functionality, to which a business can quickly respond and quell an issue. This form of technological communication establishes an environment for dialogue that has previously never existed in the business world.

Winner of #NagbePhotoBomb

One major objective for companies marketing through social media is to increase engagement. The more interactive a consumer is with a firm's webpage, the greater their evident interest. Companies attempt to drive engagement by producing content that customers find interesting, designed around opportunities for consumer contribution. For example, the Portland Timbers (Major League Soccer) engaged fans by holding a #NagbePhotoBomb contest, where fans take pictures with a cutout head of Timbers player Darlington Nagbe randomly "photobombing" the shot. The winner as offered a chance to meet the Nagbe and receive a signed jersey. The promotion drove plenty of engagement and traffic to Timber's social media.

In a basic person-to-person setting, engagement takes place with simple ideas the resonate strongly with the community as a whole. I can't count how many times I've seen a thread based on #puppies full of exuberant appreciation for our canine friends. People like puppies. And taking pictures of their breakfast. Threads that show up focusing on these topics are completely user driven and organic, and is more a testament to the potency of community discussion on popular issues. A very valuable tool for marketers, indeed. If a firm is good enough at social media marketing, we witness a community's conversion into "brand evangelists." A company with a strong enough brand identity can earn the affection of a consumer, causing them to "love" and "defend" a brand on social media, creating an odd hybrid between the aforementioned corporate brand engagement and organic community engagement.

We Talkin' 'Bout Practice


In order to achieve goals in page views or any KPI in social media, firms must recognize the driving force that powers results: customer satisfaction. If you implement industry best practices into your social media strategy, you will have a better chance of achieving desired results.

Along with the industry standard practice for content creation (simple, educational, non-promotional) that I've discussed in previous postings, another crucial element to one's content is entertainment value. Another factor that, based on my observations, is often overlooked, is the timeliness of content. Content that is entertaining and is of immediate relevance to the consumer presents an opportunity for special resonance with a consumer. For example, when the stadium lights blew out at SuperBowl 2013, Oreo prepared a quick response to engage with customers in a timely matter.
By the time the lights came back on, Oreo's snappy slogan "You can still dunk in the dark" became the marketing phenomenon of the day.


This type of amusing content is what most social media users strive to produce, making a timely joke about current events to impress some friends. When a big corporation steps outside the box of concentrated brand messaging, the personality of the post is what draws consumers in and gains their trust. Trust, likeability, and familiarity are underrated components of social media brand messaging.

While these intangible qualities do in fact hold great significance in terms of interpreting consumer behavior, it is important not to overlook the foundational quantitative analysis. Just as individuals judge the success of their posts by "likes" and comments, companies must also approach their web presence with quantitative benchmarks like click through rate (CTR) and timing. By understanding what content is popular and at what times customers like to view content, firms can optimize their social media presence to claim as many eyeballs as possible.

Youtube in Social Media

Youtube is one of the earliest social media platforms, connecting people across the world with home videos, and a dialogue between users in the comments section. While the trend of success in social media usually follows the plot lines of becoming more human and personable, Youtube's evolution over the years has carried them in the opposite direction. In an effort to show customers videos relevant to their interest, Youtube has taken the reins of video distribution, implementing a model similar to a TV, where customers have a small range of channels to pick from for their entertainment needs. Essentially, the most successful Youtube channels are given a spot in the Youtube programming, but there is not much room for rookie content producers trying to gain popularity.









This behavior contributes to the conversation of "big corporation" style marketing vs the more personal "small business" social media. Does controlled media beat personal media? The jury is still out: Youtube is still successful in their endeavors, and small businesses continue to carve out their niche using personal social media communications as tool.

A Modern Approach to Content Marketing

In my previous post on inbound marketing, I delineated its goal to inform an interested customer enough to compel them to buy the product, providing satisfaction so strong that the customer develops an emotional attachment to the brand. Inbound marketing is a sound conceptual argument, but a surface level evaluation of the process leaves a begging question: through what methods to marketers actually drive traffic and intrigue for their company?

Part of the modern answer to this question is content creation. Companies that produce the highest quality and quantity content relevant to their industry are often very popular among consumers, earning both interest and enthusiasm for their good/service. If you can create a video, blogpost, song, etc., you are generating a considerable amount of potential business for you firm through content marketing. Behind the final product of a quick video or blog post, there is a much greater attention to detail than meets the eye. The Content Marketing Institute (CMI) online outlines the five key steps in a content marketing endeavor. Although CMI only scratches the surface of conceptual depth with these five pillars, they remain an excellent structure to serve as a starting point for you own content marketing work. For each pillar, I will expand the topic to provide a deeper understanding of the concept.

1. Understand Your Audience
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Similar to segmenting the market in search of a key target market, content creators must gain a clear perspective on their most-likely audience. Marketers employ all data available to them (surveys, interviews, web analytics) to compile demographic information on potential segments. Once you gain a reasonable understanding of your target market(s), the next step is to:

• Create buyer persona: create an educated and accurate narrative to depict the life and personality of the typical customer.

This "character" makes quite a useful tool when selecting the topic of content for production. By providing material that is interesting and relevant to our buyer persona, we see a boost of engagement with the webpage. For example, HubSpot Academy presents the situation of the Cool Kevin preferring a more creative content experience, whereas Boring Bob likes less eventful data rich content. You are probably reading this article with the intention of improving your knowledge of content marketing, which would make you a decent Marketing Mike! 

2. Coordinate with Buyer's Journey

This step requires a comprehensive plan for all phases of the purchasing process, so prospective customers can be shown content relevant to them in that stage of purchase. From the perspective of CMI, the purchase process can be broken down into three stages: awareness, consideration, and determination.

• Awareness: increasing your target market's knowledge of the existence of your brand. As opposed to the traditional marketing environment, modern marketing focuses more on the competition for attention in the digital world, rather than ad space in the physical world.
• Post blog articles, educational content, etc.
• Consideration: continuing to foster consumer intrigue with the product. The customer is now aware of the product, and is one step closer to making the purchase decision. 
• Case studies, product demonstrations, etc.
• Determination: Converting a marketing lead into a sales lead, as well as a sales lead into a sale. The customer makes a purchase decision and their opinion of the brand continues to be affected post-purchase.
• Free trials, live demonstrations, customer service. 

HubSpot and CMI assert quality points in their similar description of content marketing: create content relevant to the industry, rather than brand, speak to the right audience at the right time, in the right place. To some degree, CMI and HubSpot neglect the entertainment side of content marketing, where the sole purpose of a message is to acquire attention from the target market. According to Outbrain.com, a key component to garnering attention in the industry is to focus on producing viral videos. According to Outbrain.com, "content that is fun, dynamic, and playful is what goes viral." Even if a brand must deviate from the tone of their overall identity, a light-hearted viral video could achieve a drastic increase in consumer awareness.

3. Create the Content

The most important thing to remember when in the process of creating content is that you are delivering a product for the consumption of others. In other words, it is in your best interest to produce content that is as user-friendly and easily digestible as possible. CMI and HubSpot suggest a slew of best practice tips to help achieve that goal. 

The Content Marketing Institute has a heavily academic perspective, explaining that most of their traffic was generated by clicks on research content over any other type of content. CMI also suggests using longer, more in depth blog posts, rather than shallower, briefer posts. 

HubSpot Academy's segment on content creation, however, advised not to choose quantity over quality. It is crucial, however, to maintain the relevance of the blog with the aforementioned buyer personas. The HubSpot process for producing content involves three steps: purpose, format, and topic. Purpose refers to the offer from the business or the educational blog post, the reason for the content existing at all. Format refers to the manner in which the information is collected and delivered. If the data was collected in an interview, the format of the blogpost would be much more of a question-and-answer type post. Topic refers to the logical progression of purpose and format, Combining the buyer persona and the buyer's journey into one great circumstance and heavily increase the chance of an additional item. 

4. Promote Content

Promotion of one's educational content is somewhat self explanatory. HubSpot Academy suggests that when the material goes live, all involved employees immediately share the page on all possible individual levels of social media. The sharing of quality content will eventually distribute naturally, but it is certainly helped along by an initial burst of traffic. Another way to promote content on a blog is by adding call to action buttons in the side bar, which would specifically address the reader, perhaps prompting a donation or other generous action. 

Aside from personal promotion, firms can also drive traffic by investing in an ad system. According to CMI, there are three popular types of digital content marketing campaigns. A Google Ads campaign could be effective, but significantly high in cost. A social media campaign would gain increased exposure, but unfortunately not as much conversion. An email marketing campaign is generally a good idea, reaching many potential customers who are already involved, but email calls-to-action are usually unresponsive. 

5. Measure and Analyze

After you submit your work, the ensuing traffic data could prove to be quite valuable, so be sure to frequently check back and measure which metric benchmarks were and weren't hit. Although page views are the most common (and arguably most indicative) statistics used in measuring webpage performance, patterns can be found and recorded in fields like subject matter, user demographics, etc.

I Can See Clearly Now... Because of A/B Testing

No, the rain is not gone. Such is the life of a student in Bellingham, a resident of Washington State, a Pacific Northwesterner! However, upon reflection on my studies of A/B testing in a marketing context, I realized that I (at least partially) owe my clarity of vision to this vital marketing tool of experimentation.

Born with an astigmatism (nearsightedness) that continually developed throughout my childhood, I quickly became acquainted with my local optometrist through frequent checkups to update my prescription. In retrospect, narrowing down and pinpointing an eye prescription must have been a tedious task, especially when the test subject is an easily distracted six year old. Nevertheless, my eye doctor took the time to go over small quirks in my vision. He would isolate my vision to just one eye, administer lens samples of slightly differing strength, and use my "yes" or "no" feedback to prepare another adjustment, eventually refining the results into the correct prescription. This experiment style of simple variation and immediate feedback can be employed in a multitude of contexts, but it is arguably most applicable in the field of digital marketing.

Indeed, the beauty of A/B testing is its effectiveness in answering the simple questions digital marketers ask on a daily basis. If a marketer wonders whether a slight change in a webpage (wording, color, etc.) will positively influence a visitor's perception, A/B testing allows them to isolate the variable and test it against a control.

Optimizely is a leader in A/B testing, ringing in big name clients and providing educational content for prospective digital marketers. The first part of their post explains the basics, how visitors can react positively or negatively to a subtle variation to an original webpage, like a change in button color or wording of a banner ad. Although such changes may seem insignificantly minute, they do incrementally effect real change in consumer interaction with the site. Logically, if one performed A/B testing on all factions of a webpage, a website would reap considerable benefit from the cumulative result of all changes stacked together.



When embarking on an A/B testing effort, higher rewards are in store for those that locate tests efficiently and use measured methodology. Usually, when selecting what aspect of your marketing to test, the most efficient starting point is with ads that show up as results on search engines. Ads are the most prominent communicators with consumers, acting as an initial point of contact, directing searchers toward the brand website for more information. Although optimizing ads is the primary driver of improved results, marketers also must allocate resources to perfect landing pages. Increasing the relevance of a landing page to a prospective customer's search will drastically increase the chance of closing with that individual.

The structured process Optimizely advises when conducting A/B testing is similar to the classic scientific method. The first step is to collect and evaluate data, in order to determine which parts of the website drive the most traffic, or which aspects have the most potential for improvement. The next step is identifying goals, referring to the process of defining which metrics will be measured to determine a successful change. Then, marketers give a hypothesis, estimating and justifying what variables need to be changed. Next, marketers create variation, designing the experiment, selecting precisely which variable will be manipulated, as well as the nature of the manipulation (red vs blue button). The fifth step is to run the experiment, where portions of the site's typical traffic are designated toward either the variation or the control, collecting data on both forms. The final step of the A/B testing process is to analyze results, drawing conclusions from the data about whether the marketer's hypothesis was correct. Through disciplined progression through the process of A/B testing, the marketer is ensured to have valid results, whether the variations are beneficial or not.

Since Google is the most common source of website traffic, their word on A/B testing best practices is wise and widely accepted. Optimizely relays a few of their tips in their blog post. Firstly, Google announces their lack of tolerance for cloaking. Cloaking basically entails firms altering the content of their website as a page "variation," intentionally displaying content to searchers that typically not be displayed. If you are running a test with multiple URLs, Google recommends that you use the rel="canonical" attribute to distinguish variations and point back to the original. When redirecting the original URL to a variation URL, using a 302 redirect rather than a 301 designates the webpage as a temporary change, rather than a permanent one. Finally, Google requires that tests run only as long as necessary for marketers to obtain statistically significant findings. An unreasonably long test is perceived by Google as an attempt to deceive the search engine. Any breach of these ethical guidelines established by Google can result in a demotion of your site or elimination of your content from the search engine completely.

Let's take a look at how some big industry names used A/B testing to optimize web results:

ComScore

Evaluating the impact of the characteristics of a testimonial bar on the webpage, ComScore tracked several goals like page views, clicks, and engagement. They tried three variations, keeping the vertical text box and adding a logo of the testimonial company, and implementing a horizontal text box with and and without logo as options. Combining their Digital Analitix tool with Optimizely's A/B testing, ComScore was able to filter through different clients and results to discern that the first option of variation was by far the best.

Sony

In order to test the effectiveness of a promotional banner ad, Sony constructed an A/B/C type experiment, with two variations from the original. The original banner ad informed the reader of the current promotional offering on laptops, emphasizing the personalization of the product. The winning differentiator was a larger banner ad, focusing entirely on the customizability of the laptop, as well as adding  call to action button to get the customer started on the process of purchasing a laptop.


Soccerloco

This test analyzed customer preferences for one of the most crucial pieces of the website, the checkout menu. Soccerloco tested the variation of a simplistic checkout with larger call to action buttons against a control of a detailed, wordy menu. The bigger call to action idea received the most traffic in testing, with Soccerloco projecting a 26% increase in revenue upon implementation.

What do all of these companies have in common? They were all seeking optimization of the web pages through subtle variations to achieve tangible results. Tangible results, indeed: they were all successful in their endeavors to produce value for the company.

How will A/B Testing affect the digital landscape in the coming years?

Digital Landscape

From my perspective, A/B Testing embodies a spirit of analytics. Pursuing a hunch in the digital age ends with immediate answers, confirmation that your subjective opinion is right or wrong in the eye of the mainstream consumer. This type of fast-answer justification and frequent experimentation has worked its way into American business culture, according to Wyatt Jenkins, or the Harvard Business Review. As HBR states, this new digital era has brought about the death of the HiPPO (the highest-paid person's opinion). Instead, people are buying into the new "experimentation culture,"  now inclined to remain skeptical of an idea until it has some testing results to back it up. Jenkins notes that while this shift in tech culture is overall for the better, there remains the looming risk of marketers becoming too absorbed in the present, forgetting to think innovatively toward the future. While I do agree with Jenkins for the most part, I don't buy the caution of forgetting to think of the future. The role of A/B testing is not necessarily to map out long-term possibilities, although continually collected data, providing frequent updates, has plenty of potential to create long term patterns of predictability for web page optimization.

Inbound Marketing and You

In recent years, the further growth of the internet as a communication system has ushered in a new era of marketing strategy and tactics. Modern marketing proceedings place emphasis on the digital nature of the marketplace. In a blog post from Marketo.com, Andrea Lehr explains that the majority of customers are positively affected (more inclined to make a purchase) by an internet search for a product of their interest. The days of shouting marketing messages from the mountaintop are fading quickly, as the more efficient audience engagement and selection process appears as a ripe usurper.

More and more companies are allocating resources toward developing strategies for inbound marketing, where customers are inclined to seek out information about the firm/product, rather than the other way around. Lehr points out that the general consumer attitude toward traditional marketing being forced upon them is one of rebellion. Consumers tend to actively resist traditional marketing like mail-in ads, fliers, and website banner ads. Inbound marketing quells this problem by changing the dynamic of communication between firm and customer. The goal of a company's inbound marketing effort is to intrigue the customer into seeking out information for themselves. 

So how exactly do firms draw interest in the eye of the consumer? The broad answer to the question, as outlined by Lehr, is to fine tune the company's brand identity, and share these core expressions with the consumer. One priority in inbound marketing is to design and create a compelling site for prospects to visit when researching the company. A webpage can often exist as the forefront of the brand identity in the customer's mind, so marketers must try to retain the interest of visitors when they access the site. Another critical importance is the employment of content creation for the company. If a firm focuses on creating brand messages that are interesting and not necessarily advertisements, more genuine intrigue will be generated, all the while building the brand identity. 

Inbound marketing goes deeper than simply making interesting content for a user base. According to Hubspot Academy, inbound marketing is all about combining creation with context. Companies need to understand the finer details of their typical customer in order to produce content and/or deliver service that is relevant to them. Hubspot advises firms to interact with customers in all four stages of the purchase process: attract, convert, close, delight. Obviously, with a attraction and conversion, original content could play a significant role in a customer's gathering of information. However, in the during and after purchase phases, the focus of the firm shifts toward ensuring that the customer had a positive experience. It is important to note that each of these steps implies a reflective analysis done by the marketer, constantly gaining and using intel to provide a service most optimal to the users. 

Another point from Hubspot that resonated with me is their unique method of profiling the user base. Hubspot compiles their research and "educated speculation" about the demographics, psychographics, and other qualities of a segment to create one defined profile of a single theoretical customer, supposedly embodying the most likely of all of the findings, the average consumer in that segment. Using this tool, marketers are able to attach a narrative to their profile and better understand the needs and wants of the mainstream. 

Once marketers can identify the type of customer they are marketing to, they can select at which stage of the "buyer's journey" that they wish to send a message. The buyer's journey is comprised of three steps: awareness, consideration, decision. Awareness and consideration certainly fall under the domain of inbound marketing. During these stages, firms should release interesting and valuable content to the consumers, that have no direct plugs for the company. Releasing educational material will inform the consumer of their problem, and also inspire them to seek out ways to solve it. It is during the decision phase when companies should step in and offer their product as a possible solution. 

Unfortunately, both Hubspot and Marketo neglect to highlight the drawbacks of inbound marketing. According to Outsourced Marketing Services, the most significant disadvantage for inbound marketing is the amount of time and money a company is required to invest when switching onto the path of digital marketing. Inbound marketing, in the long run, may be more cost efficient, but it is critical that the firm allocate a sizable chunk of its marketing budget to inbound marketing. 

Both Hubspot's benefits and drawbacks are highlighted in an Harvard Business School case focusing on Hubspot itself. Hubspot sells analytical software by subscription, and found that after a few motnhs of usage, customers tend to have a higher churn rate (discontinuation rate) than expected. It turns out, one of the sole reasons consumers used the service was to access the SEO software. They would discard the service once the changes to their website were made. In order to combat the high churn rates, Hubspot took new measures in educating their customers on their product. Hubspot offered more than just SEO; they were providing an interactive analytical network with great customer support. Parallel to these reforms was the introduction of the CHI (Customer Happiness Index), which measured how close customers were to quitting the service. Members with low CHI scores would be given special attention, long training sessions to understand the Hubspot product. Hubsopot found that once people had a full understanding of the product, the churn rate plummeted.  

Clearly, inbound marketing worked out for Hubspot. They switched their marketing focus from new customer acquisition to the understanding and retainment of current loyal ones. This is a real world example of inbound marketing at work. If people are interested in or engaged with the marketing, then there is a significantly higher chance that they will buy/won't churn. 

Delving Deeper into Google Analytics

Google Analytics is a valuable tool in the belt of a digital marketer. In order to achieve a deep comprehension of the software, one must build upon their understanding of the fundamental tenants into the more complex driving mechanisms of Google Analytics.

At its core, Google Analytics relies on four platform components to convert a search effort into a findings report: collection, configuration, processing, and reporting.

Collection refers to the gathering of data into a Google Analytics account. GA applies to any sort of device that is capable of accessing a webpage. When a search commences, Google Analytics uses a piece of code adde to the website by the author to guide data collection specifications.

The next two steps, configuration and processing, are intertwined actions that while distinct from each other, seek to achieve a common goal in the data analytics process. Configuration is the arranging of data in a manner that is optimal for processing. Users can place sorts on a search, so that the software returns data pertaining only to their request, thus filtering out irrelevant data. Processing represent the tail end of this portion, where the filtered data is an output of a collection under configurations. During this phase, users can also import data from previous searches to add to the resulting data from the current search. Processing combines all data sources, and finalizes output.

The reporting portion of the analytics process is pretty self-explanatory. A user employs Google Analytics to group data in descriptive and illuminating fashion. GA offers a range of customization to allow for optimal individual flexibility in presentation.

When Google Analytics collects data, it constructs a data model using three different classifications for data type: users, sessions, and interactions.

Users are simply unique visitors to a website. It an objective for digital marketers to profile their consumers based on their habits during their time with the website. These habits are best summarized over the recording of sessions. Sessions refer to the overall "sitting" of activity of a user on a webpage. Each session is a culmination of all interaction of any kind with the webpage.

Through this style of data structure, Google Analytics is able to utilize groups of smaller observations to make a conclusion or estimate about a consumer. This system highlights the advantage of GA and Web analytics in general, that every consumer interaction with the company can be recorded and documented.

How does Google Analytics obtain such specific information from webpage usage? The answer lies within the design of the website and webpage itself. When users plug in a tracking code to their webpage, they will be able to easily record the interactions a consumer has with the webpage. When data is "packaged" and sent to Google Analytics as a hit, the method producing the hit varies depending on the device the consumer is using. If the consumer is using a PC, then the webpage uses a Javascript tracking code. If the device is mobile, software development kits (SDK's) record browser and app internet activity.

Applying the Finishing Touch

After data is collected and configured according to user preferences, the final task for digital marketers is to have a greater understanding of the reporting segment of the analytics process. With the final set of data arriving after the processing phase, users can utilize API to search even more narrowly in final queries. When presenting findings, users tend to focus on key performance indicators (KPI's), justified by apt use of dimensions and/or metrics.

In my personal experience, my own presentations of findings to class rely on the duality of qualitative and quantitative support in making my points. Google Analytics seems to have the same philosophy in mind when suggesting methods to report findings. From an abstract perspective, even the process of users utilizing Google Analytics falls in line with this duality. With Google Analytics, a large percentage of users rely on the software to complete statistical work, although they still stick to the technical side somewhat, coding websites and setting up queries. However, there is also a creative side to Google Analytics, where users can strategize what type of findings might be fruitful amongst a sea of big data.

Thoughts on Google Analytics

As technology continues to advance in today's society, offering more avenues for efficient information consumption, digital marketing falls right in line, growing congruently and analyzing data from newly surfacing phenomena. In the past decade, the online activity of the consumer has become one of the most crucial indicators for analysis and behavior prediction. Google, an established technology leader and open source distributor, offers affective analytical software at the enticing price of free! While initially appearing to be a daunting task, learning and using Google Analytics is pretty easy to pick up after a few training sessions.

So how exactly does web analytics inform digital marketing strategy and tactics?

In "The Forrester Wave: Web Analytics," author James McCormick outlines several strong traits web analytics brings to the table. Firstly, through cloud computing, web analytics are capable of processing larger amounts of data than traditional methods. In internet marketing research, almost every consumer click is recorded and stored in some form, so obviously the ensuing massive quantity of information is best suited to be analyzed by a system capable of cloud computing. In addition, web analytics are also actionable and speedy. Modern analytics software has improved to the level of identifying insights within the raw data, allowing the utility of the data to be more easily conveyed to the general business community. These results can be delivered much faster than with traditional methods, so executives will receive instant utility from the product. Web analytics companies also tend to consider the user perspective of an online experience with a firm, helping gather insight into the individual profiles of customers, enhancing the personalization of advertisement.

In a maturing analytics market, Google Analytics stands out as the most popular option for most consumers. Amongst the fervent competition, why Google Analytics?

According to an overview of the product on the Google Analytics website, GA's key differentiating factors are its insightfulness, impact, and actionability. Google Analytics uses traffic sources to inform the mode in which their audience is accessing content. Their in-page analytics service provides a clearer picture of their audience's behavior and preferences. These tools help provide vital insight for customers, allowing them to shape their tactics in accordance to newly found consumer patterns. In order to achieve greater impact in a webpage, Google Analytics examines a customer's page and identifies which components are most effective. Using multi-channel funnels and attribution, Google Analytics depicts a webpage as a network of traffic driving variables. With gained impact from Google Analytics, customers can rank components of their webpage, designating resources to prioritized factors. Finally, Google Analytics provides content that is immediately actionable to the customer. In addition to identifying and interpreting patterns in the data, the service also includes real time interaction between customer and software. For example, if a webpage is running at capacity, Google Analytics will alert the customer of a slow in traffic and the cause of the problem.

This testimonial from the Google Analytics website is, of course, a little biased toward its own product when explaining the service. It is important to consider Google Analytic's standing among competition in order to gain a clearer picture of the analytics market. Essentially, Google Analytics lies in the middle of the road when in comes to quality, producing basic and understandable content, whereas competing firms opt to provide a deeper and more complex depiction to statistical experts. In a continuously maturing market, Google Analytics stands out as the most popular option for most consumers. Although the product cannot reach the potential functionality posed by some of its competitors, its open source availability, ease of use, and brand association earn an easy primary choice with the mainstream consumer.

How does Google Analytics work?

In order to become certified in the use of Google Analytics, one must first obtain education on the software from a series of training modules housed on the Google Analytics website. Through this program, users learn the mechanics of the software, as well as methods of utilization. Highlights from the program include: functionality of the website and reporting findings.

The process of Google Analytics is designated by four consecutive functions: collection, processing, configuration, and reporting. Collection refers to the accumulation of massive amounts of consumer data. Users can embed a piece of Javascript in their coding for a page or activity that will enable the activity of a consumer to be recorded at the point of interaction. Each activity that the user wants to record have the specific designation in its code. After collection, Google Analytics converts raw data into useful output as part of the processing phase. While processing notes the presence of variables in the data, the configuration phase allows the user to place sorts and filters on the data in order to gain specific insight. Lastly, Google Analytics provides a platform for the user to format and present findings. There are several options and recommendations for a user to consider when selecting a "focus" of a presentation.

There are plenty of tools available for personalizing one's findings in a report. Typically, users are encouraged to emphasize the resulting dimensions and metrics of a data set. Dimensions include more descriptive information about consumers, like geographical location and traffic source. Metrics refer to the number of pageviews a website gets on a computer, or the number of "activities" it receives from a mobile device. Both dimensions and metrics are key components to a telling report, and Google provides ample customization for users to uniquely present their findings.

Introduction

Hi! I'm John Perkins, currently a Marketing student at Western Washington University. I'm an intrinsically curious person with an academic affinity for constructing logical arguments to solve problems. Logical arguments, along with their accompanying proper justifications, are a huge component to the marketing research process. In Digital Marketing this quarter, I'm hoping to expand this notion into the technological forefront. I'd love to learn more about modern methods of data analytics, and how to apply these methods to obtain tangible findings.

Response to Readings

In Schlee and Harich's "Knowledge and Skill Requirements for Marketing Jobs in the 21st Century," significant emphasis is placed on balancing marketing education between conceptual knowledge and technical skill. Both entities are valuable to students and prospective employers, so it is important to mix in both types of skill building into ones' marketing curriculum. According to the article, marketing students aren't often fully equipped with the software capabilities to perform advanced but necessary functions in the business world. While I, for the most part, agree with Schlee and Harich, their piece begs the question: how much responsibility for these technical skill falls on the educator? Marketing is a broad and diverse subject, so it is obviously imperative that professors cover the basics of the aforementioned conceptual and technical tenants in their teachings. From there, though, I would argue that the burden of specialization falls on the individual student, who is more attuned to their own career path, and can seek the skills they require independently (there are lots of technical skill opportunities in open source online).

One reason for the increased focus on technical skill in marketing is the rapid advancement of technology and integration with our lives, to the point of ubiquity. Thus, digital marketing is born. Shar VanBoskirk, in her piece "US Digital Marketing Forecast, 2014 To 2019," examines the transition of both marketing research and marketing practice into the digital world. The increasing amount of people living second "digital lives" on the internet, coupled with the widespread media permeation of all corners of the web, provides a grand opportunity for a company to deliver a relevant, cost effective ad. Social media involvement also continues to grow, allowing companies to develop reciprocal communicative relationships with their customers, facilitating development of brand identity and consumer loyalty. The future of advertising lies in online messages like banner ads, where companies get paid per click and receive informational feedback that helps profile a segment. One thing that struck me in consideration of the rise of digital marketing is the newfound capability of a firm to deliver a marketing message to an individual specific to their interests, with the same cheapness of generic mass production. Digital marketing allows marketers to have the best of both worlds.

While digital marketing is advancing as an industry, the transition from college into a full time digital marketing job has proven to be a bit of an inefficiency for firms looking to hire. According to the Online Marketing Institute in "The State of Digital Marketing Talent," in addition to their being a disparity of talent between new and established employees, locating new talent has been a significant difficulty. Many companies struggle to find room in their budgets to hire new marketers. Therefore, when they do have an opening, they invest plenty of effort in finding a suitable applicant to fill the position. However, with a large percentage of students receiving ineffective or irrelevant training, resumes often display inflated skill sets, increasing the workload of recruiters. While I do follow the logic of this dilemma, I would argue that the skill gap could be quickly made up with proper instruction from the firm. Sure, they're investing extra resources to teach employees their preferred skill set, but it is a valuable investment. From my own personal conversations with recently graduated digital marketers, they learned a lot on the job that wasn't taught in the major, but they were able to learn quickly and produce results for their firm. Yes, my evidence is purely anecdotal, but it drives home the point that companies can still create even with undereducated hires.