Last week, higher ed new media communication specialist Alaina Wiens wrote about how recent changes to the Facebook Newsfeed are affecting user engagement. As Facebook tightens their grip on the algorithm that prioritizes when and where posts are seen, social media content creators are scrambling to figure out the requirements for successful Facebook engagement. Wiens reminds us that it's more important than ever to have a strategy. Facebook is … [Read more...]
Perception Measures and Content ROI
October 17, 2011 by
On the topic of content measurement and ROI, we typically think web analytics and business-driven analysis. But how do we measure the impact of our content on our users? Content strategist Daniel Eizans calls these "perception measures". This type of qualitative analysis is important if we aim to understand how and in what context our content best meets users' needs. In his post, Eizans breaks down the types of perception measures, … [Read more...]
Web Governance and Ownership
October 7, 2011 by
In a post this week, Jonathan Kahn, a strong advocate of content strategy and web governance, reminds us that the culture shift to a web-centric mindset for publishing and communication is still incomplete. As I described in my recent post about selling content strategy, we need to help stakeholders make this shift in thinking. Web governance is a responsibility that needs ownership. We still need to make the case for it — and to be prepared to … [Read more...]
The Fallacy of User-Centered Content
October 4, 2011 by
On Meet Content, we talk a lot about the importance of users’ needs. Last week Georgy discussed content as customer service, highlighting the need for our content to be helpful to users. Indeed, content is customer service! For web writing and content creation, I consider this the number one guideline: keep your audience in mind. What are their needs? Why are they visiting your website? Content can't be useful if you don't know why it's needed … [Read more...]
The Questionable Value of Real-Time Web Analytics
September 30, 2011 by
Yesterday, Google announced the availability of real-time data in Google Analytics. Hooray. Finally, we have it! Oh, wait. What do we have exactly? Real-time analytics is an attractive feature, but the value is questionable. What actionable insights can you make based on real-time data? (They do exist but are few and far between.) Google’s announcement prompted me to revisit a classic blog post by Avinash Kaushik, author of Web Analytics 2.0, … [Read more...]