What do I mean by that, exactly? I mean you crunch all [...]]]> It’s the end of another year. We’re ready for the holidays. Students are preparing for exams. It’s time to sit back, relax and wax poetic on another year, right? No way. Now is the time to begin your end-of-year review process for new media.

What do I mean by that, exactly? I mean you crunch all the important data you’ve collected throughout the past 12 months and compare and contrast with past years, quarters, semesters and maybe even month over month.

Another question: Why would you, as a webmaster, community manager or new media specialist, undertake such a task? At my college, we do it for many reasons: to determine where strategy adjustments need to be made; to examine trends; to spot opportunities for growth; to refine campaign tactics; to allot resources; and to make projections.

If you’ve not done this before, you may wonder where to start. If you currently do an end-of-year analysis, you may wonder what others do. Either way, let me share what we do. Every January I spend a few hours reporting out high-level metrics as well as some deeper analyses. My list looks something like this:

•    Report on overall website visitor stats, including increases in various audience, geographic or behavior segments, compared year over year.

•    Take a deep dive into the new visitor segment, including trends and behaviors in terms of traffic sources and top content, as reported through Google Analytics (GA)

•    Conduct an analysis of search engine traffic to produce recommendations for SEO on our site

•    Take a deep dive into mobile device traffic, including operating systems, devices and a cross-check on bounce rates and how they differ from non-mobile traffic

•    Do a year-over-year analysis of our online enrollment campaigns as tracked by Google Analytics and other tools, which we’ve reported on monthly and per campaign throughout the year

•    Make observations and recommendations on times, days, keywords, messages and other factors for future online campaigns – taken from the data and from qualitative feedback gained through social media comments

•    Take a close look at all our tracked events (on Google Analytics), which includes things like request info button clicks, apply button clicks, video plays or landing page link clicks

•    Collect data to make any updates or adjustments to our “typical website visitor” persona using data from a variety of sources, including GA

•    Report on Facebook (and Twitter and LinkedIn …) visitor stats, including demographics, most-effective content, engagement and new trends

•    Analyze costs per lead across various venues such as Facebook ads and Google AdWords to help forecast future costs

•    Compare the many landing pages and their conversion rates and performance

•    Compile lessons learned for next year’s content schedule and strategy

•    Take a close look at queries from the built-in search function on our website and make recommendations for content updates or other action items, such as suggesting the moving of pages for easier navigation

•    Compile Web visitor feedback form submissions

OK, I know this sounds like a lot of work, and it is, but we start each year with measurement practices already in place, expecting that we will need to report on all this “stuff” at the end of the year. This helps make it manageable. We make sure we track, measure and collect all the information we will need so we are not scrambling later. We use Google Analytics, Facebook Insights, Crowdbooster, HootSuite and spreadsheets, plus reports from a couple internal systems’ databases to do most of this work.

If you’re not currently doing some kind of end-of-year reporting, start now! Make a commitment that 2013 will be the year of measurement and data-driven decision making. Come January 2014, you’ll be confidently crunching your data saying, “Look how far we’ve come in just 12 short months!”

Though the “bounce rate” may be one of the most basic metrics available in Google Analytics, it is often one of the most underutilized and misunderstood.

Google defines bounce rate as “the percentage of bounced visits to your site. A bounce is [...]]]> This originally appeared as a guest post for the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations blog. 

Though the “bounce rate” may be one of the most basic metrics available in Google Analytics, it is often one of the most underutilized and misunderstood.

Google defines bounce rate as “the percentage of bounced visits to your site. A bounce is calculated as a single-page view or single-event trigger in a session or visit.” Having a low bounce rate for your homepage or any given page on your site might seem like a good thing and, in most cases, it is. It probably means that visitors arrive at your site, stick around and visit other pages. Maybe they even fill out an admissions form or download a catalog.

So it may follow that looking at your bounce rate will give you a rough idea of your website’s appeal and effectiveness. More bounces might mean people aren’t doing the actions you want because they aren’t sticking around. Fewer bounces might mean people feel they have arrived at the “right place” and are sticking around and investigating further.

Metrics like bounce rate may seem straightforward at first glance, but they can often be meaningful in conflicting or contrary ways, depending on the particularities of your site, or even of a single page. Let’s look at some scenarios that go against the general rule.

Perhaps many people use a page other than the homepage as their entrance onto your site, and that page includes a link to a separate but associated website, like Blackboard, a student portal, staff email, or even FAFSA, for example. Visitors who arrive at that page and click a link like that are counted as a bounce because it takes them “off-site” to another Web domain where you are not tracking them. If the traffic volume is high enough, this will also have a significant impact on your site’s overall bounce rate, or global percentage.

Maybe you run Google Analytics for your online PR newsroom and that newsroom is set up like a traditional blog with many stories on the “front page” that visitors can scroll through and browse easily.  In that scenario, a visitor could potentially come, read three stories, scan a list of upcoming events and leave – all on a single-page visit. Even though they did the activity you wanted them to do (gain information), visits of that type would be considered bounces.

My point is that the bounce rate can be misleading. What it tells you depends on the format of your site, or any given page; the purpose, goals and associated actions of your site or any given page; whether the content of the page is appealing and relevant; and how many people are entering your site from that specific page.

If the goal of a page is to serve your internal audiences like staff and students and route people primarily to their portal or email, then a high bounce rate is just fine. However, if the purpose of a page is to attract prospective students to request information and visit the admissions office pages, then a high bounce rate means something is going wrong and you need to re-evaluate your content, visual look, navigation or traffic sources.

As with any metric you choose to use in your analysis of website usage, I invite you to help yourself to a healthy dose of critical thinking, skepticism and problem-solving. Ask yourself what each metric is telling you. Don’t assume it’s the textbook answer. Are you applying filters that may skew your data? Is there a special event going on right now that’s impacting where your traffic is coming from and why they are visiting?

Thinking outside the box and assessing each metric you use helps you build a stronger, more meaningful and nuanced understanding of your institution’s website and what it’s doing for you.

The average website has a lifespan of about three to five years, and higher education websites are no different. In fact, college websites may be on the shorter [...]]]> This post originally appeared as a guest post for the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations blog. It has also been featured in Counsel, the NCMPR magazine. 

The average website has a lifespan of about three to five years, and higher education websites are no different. In fact, college websites may be on the shorter end of the spectrum because our audiences have very high expectations and, for the most part, are savvy Internet users.

Do you want to disappoint your prospective students before they ever pick up the phone or set foot on your campus? I’m pretty sure that answer is a resounding “no.” So, dear readers, you have a web redesign coming up! Here are six initial steps to help you begin the process.

1.    Gather a cross-functional team.
Just as your website should represent the full breadth and depth of your institution, your Web team should also have diversity. Call upon tactical as well as “big idea people” from marketing and communications, external affairs, IT, admissions, your executive council or decision-making body, student life office, living breathing students, alumni, and any other areas that will add value to your team.

2.    Start communicating now.
It’s never too early to develop a communication plan and start using it. Letting people know ahead of time and inviting their participation in focus groups or usability testing, for example, helps to cultivate buy-in and generate excitement about the upcoming project.  This will pay dividends later, trust me.

3.    Measure everything.
And start with your existing website. Conduct testing now and set baselines for performance, navigation, design and usability based on results from your current website. This will be your comparative data later and help you determine whether your redesign has been effective or not. Carry forward with data-driven decision making. Should it be Prospective Students or Future Students on that navigation button? Ask your audience which makes more sense to them.

4.    Purpose before design.
Design is fun. It’s pretty and exciting and what people will identify with when they arrive at your new, shiny site. But design is not everything, and it should be one of your last stops on the way to success. Before you go wild with color schemes and style sheets, have a firm, agreed-upon purpose, primary audience, content structure and administration model in place. A visually stunning website won’t do anything for you if visitors can’t find your admissions application, if department offices can’t update their pages efficiently, or if you miss the mark on how your content is written in relation to incoming students and their preferences.

5.    Know your limits.
Do the research ahead of time and be aware of when you’ll need to call in an outside resource to keep your project on track. Budget accordingly. While some institutions may have a bevy of programmers, designers, writers and marketers on staff, most have small shops with limited resources and capacity. Don’t be the hero. Know if you’ll need a programmer or graphic designer. Plan ahead if you’ll need to replenish your digital assets to support your new media-rich website.  This brings us to the last point.

6.    Plan to be engaging.
Your website is a front lobby, a gathering spot, an information repository and much more. Plan to use videos and to integrate social media functionality from the get-go. Don’t let these important aspects of your website be after-thoughts. Millennials and the upcoming generation expect better. And while you’re at it, make it scalable and flexible.

These six tips have barely skimmed the surface of a large college-wide website redesign, but hopefully they offer some helpful food for thought as you begin to think about the next version of your website and how it can be (or continue to be) a powerful and influential asset for your institution.

As marketing and communications professionals, we all wear many hats. These days one of those might be as a social media administrator for your college. Wear it with pride! Whether social media was dropped in your lap or has always been among [...]]]> This piece originally appeared as a guest post for the National Council for Marketing & Public Relations, here. 

As marketing and communications professionals, we all wear many hats. These days one of those might be as a social media administrator for your college. Wear it with pride! Whether social media was dropped in your lap or has always been among your primary responsibilities, time management is key for both effectiveness and sanity in the 24/7/365 world of online content.

As the director of new media for my college, community management is one of my primary duties, and I take it pretty seriously. Not only am I a front-line responder to Facebook comments, funny tweets, and shared YouTube videos, but I am also tasked with developing and implementing high-level strategic initiatives that move my college forward in the Web 2.0 ecosystem. All these things take time, so I have developed, crash tested, and (hopefully) honed effective time-management tips that help me accomplish what my office-mates often attribute to a small army of elves I keep hidden in my office. My elves have dutifully agreed that I can share these tips with you, my NCMPR colleagues:

1.  It’s OK to schedule content, but always leave room for spontaneity.
Tools like HootSuite, Tweetdeck, and Facebook’s built-in scheduling feature are really helpful, but if this is your primary, or even sole, means to post content, you’re missing the boat. Savvy audience members know the difference between manually entered posts and those that are scheduled, possibly giving the impression that your college lacks authenticity. Allow time in your day to be spontaneous. You never know when hilarious news, an important campus happening, or a crisis are around the corner and will require time dedicated to your social media channels.

2.  Take the time to prepare an editorial calendar of sorts.
Amid all your spontaneity, have a plan! While a social media version of an editorial calendar is a horse of a very different color, it’s still a good idea to have a basic framework in place. Mine includes reminders for obscure holidays, my ongoing “Friday Fill in the Blank” series, dates from our academic calendar and the student success events that mesh with those dates, social media blasts that coordinate with my division’s multi-channel marketing and enrollment campaigns, and pertinent contextual data such as intended audience, channel (Facebook v. Twitter) and any keywords or URL tag information.  Having this calendar balances the time I have to spend being spontaneous with the time I can allot to more methodical and strategic communications. It also allows me to condense preparation into one block of up-front work.

3.  Delegate and decentralize where and when appropriate.
At Mount Wachusett Community College, we practice a hub-and-spoke model for our social media administration. We have quarterly social media administrator meetings, and all social media activities articulate with our Marketing and Communications Division, though we are not the primary manager for many pages and accounts. We practice a “three administrator” rule, where two admins must reside in the functional area for any given social media channel and one sits in marketing. That means that although I have access to activity across more than 20 social media channels, our admissions folks answer admissions questions and our fitness center staff answers questions about the pool hours. Share the wealth! Having functional areas involved in the process gives our community the most relevant and authentic content possible, and it builds engagement  and cultivates buy-in for social media with our internal staff.

These tips are my top three, but there are certainly many more. Use the comment section; I’d love to hear tips you’ve had success with as well as those that failed the crash test!

This trend towards visual curation, video as web, and double-fudge chocolate rich media makes me think [...]]]> I’d like to shake the hand of whomever is in charge of the marketing and PR push behind Pinterest’s recent meteoric rise to fad-dom. They are everywhere from HuffPost to Mashable to key industry events and quasi-magazine talk show websites.

This trend towards visual curation, video as web, and double-fudge chocolate rich media makes me think that augmented reality and Google Glasses are the upcoming intersection of life offline and on…

Measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

I stumbled across it [...]]]> Anyone else intrigued by Klout? According to the website, they provide:

Measurement of your overall online influence. The scores range from 1 to 100 with higher scores representing a wider and stronger sphere of influence. Klout uses over 35 variables on Facebook and Twitter to measure True Reach, Amplification Probability, and Network Score.

I stumbled across it while reading one of Chris Brogan’s posts on improving your influence in the online world. Since his Klout score is 80 out of 100 and I find his content pretty spot-on, I hopped on over to the Klout website.  After doing some reading about the Influence Metric and Amplification whoosie-whats-its, I determined that I really needed a slide rule.

Ok, but seriously, I signed up with my Twitter account, looped in my Facebook as well, and let it calculate my influence. The Klout score analysis page is interesting. The way in which one is ranked is democratic enough, with the quality and klout of your contribution reflected in how much it is valued and shared. Ultimately, though, what I like best about the site is the deft way in which Klout delivers a small amount of relevant and engaging information in a polished and complete feeling experience.

It’s about quality, not quantity. And it’s about the value of social media content as a currency.

At the end of the day, my Klout Score doesn’t tell me too much more than what I can already surmise through some pretty simple searches and dashboard checks. And, if Facebook or Twitter aren’t primary channels for you, your score may be skewed. But, the Klout experience does demonstrate some sophisticated social media marketing and top notch strategic business thinking.

For many people who are active in social media channels, this has potential as a good tool to have in the toolbox.

How are you measuring your reach and influence online?