Google Analytics mysteries revealed

Kyle James, aka the .edu guru, is sharing some great information about the value of Google Analytics that he’s picking up from a two-day seminar on the topic. He’s put a lot of effort into this post, sharing all kinds of tips and tricks that could help you make better use of this marvelous tool. If you’re interested in how to get the most from Google Analytics, head over to Kyle’s blog.

—————-
Now playing: The Weepies – Hideaway
via FoxyTunes

Silobreaker: a new PR analytics tool

I’ve been playing around a bit with a new analytics tool (and news source) called Silobreaker. It’s an online search service that provides contextual search results in a graphical format. Below is an example of one tool, a network map that allows you to see contextual links between your search term and other relevant data.

silobreaker_screen1.jpg
(Click image for larger version)

I’m not sure what it all means yet, but it’s interesting. I see some possible applications with measuring media relations efforts, media placement and overall online reputation management.

Silobreaker also has a blog, if you’re interested in updates.

Thanks to Lois Kelly for blogging about this and another interesting but probably less practical tool (for my purposes), HubDub.

Friday Five: not that you asked, but…

The Internet is full of unsolicited advice. Some of it is even useful. Here are five bits of counsel that may interest you:

  1. For writers: Five easy steps to editing your own work, by Anna Goldsmith of The Hired Pens, guest blogging at CopyBlogger.
  2. For marketers struggling with ROI of social media: Valeria Maltoni of Conversation Agent offers some ideas about measurement as part of a marketing meme making the rounds.
  3. For communicators, marketers, history buffs and closet socialists: FutureLab offers a lesson in mass communications with Soviet Propaganda – The Art of Mass Persuasion. Posted by Ilya Vedrashko on Thursday, the 90th anniversary of Russia’s Bolshevik Revolution, it features Vedrashko’s slide show of images that “showcase some of the tools and techniques used by the Soviet AgitProp (agitation and propaganda) as well as other governments, democratic and otherwise, and how some of the imagery was borrowed by brand marketers.” Makes you wonder who really won the cold war.
  4. For web designers and managers: Sam Jackson’s take on why college and university web sites don’t make the grade.
  5. For alumni relations folks: Andy Shaindlin (alumni futures) introduces a new Facebook group just for you.

Bonus link: discovered later but for everyone — be they writers, editors, designers, marketers, bosses, bureaucrats, teachers, students … anyone and everyone: 10 Simple, Sure-fire Ways to Make Today Your Best Day Ever. Just gloss over the metaphysical portions if you like (although I recommend reading the whole thing). If you don’t read it today, read it before you go to work on Monday.

—————-
Now playing: The New Pornographers – Adventures In Solitude
via FoxyTunes