Short URL Services

URLs (web addresses) can be extremely long! If you are not hyperlinked and can’t cut/paste then the web page may not be visited. People just can't be bothered to walk the walk...

To the rescue came organisations offering a URL Shortner service. There are LOADS of these services and they differ in many ways. You may have heard of the TINY service. For example click on this URL

http://tiny.cc/mrmix you will reach a fantastic book at Amazon, please feel free to buy it!

Do you see what I’ve done? I’ve changed the long 38 symbols...

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0199281963/

to the short 20 symbols...

http://tiny.cc/mrmix

I can track how many people click the tiny link by going to the Tiny web site. (Click on the image to see it better)

Just to prove my point I did the same for bit.ly so try

http://bit.ly/mmix

(Click on the image to see it better)

Take a look at many others at this link

URLShortner compilation

And now google offer one too see

http://goo.gl/

Q. Why is this so good and why is it relevant to metrics?

A. Well there is no restriction on how many aliases I can create at for this one site or for others, and I can use the many other services too. That means I can use different URLS in different campaigns. If I am promoting my book on my business card I can use one, another as an email signature, another I can use in Blogs, another one on my TV ads and so on. This simple device allows me to see the effectiveness of these different modes. In metric-speak this is ATTRIBUTION. I can attribute actions to the initial web page that was served.

Do yourself a favour. Create 20 short URLs ready to use with different campaigns, but make sure that the service you choose allows you to track the visitor numbers. My favoured two are the ones above

http://bit.ly/ and http://www.tiny.cc/

Blogs & Blooks

Complicated wording coming up!

On our journey for what is happening today, (rather than yesterday) people, (rather than books), become essential.

Yes we can learn a great deal about measurement, metrics and research from web pages and text books, but the field of digital marketing is ever-changing. I find that blogs are an important source of knowledge. There are many blogs, what I mean are the many blogs produced by professional researchers and analysts.

Here are the three blogs I like the best:

1. Occam’s Razor by Avinash Kaushik
2. Brian Clifton
3. Eric Peterson

The first one was even turned into a BLOOK (that is a word meaning book based on a blog) you'll find details of the book at the blog. The second one is also available as a book and Eric also has books. These blogs are the place where these experts sound out ideas, and those ideas eventually become books.

Many other professionals write blogs and many are linked to this LINK, just look under BLOG ROLL. Thought for the day: to keep up to date, keep in touch with real people.

All happening at Yahoo

Yahoo offers a free Analytics software, similar to Google Analytics. However you need to spend advertising money with them. I feel special because I have had an account to use for educational purposes. I can report that it works and I enjoy using it and teaching with it.

Today Yahoo launched a network of consultants, see

http://web.analytics.yahoo.com/ywacn.php

And I see they are using an academic David Reilley to look at Advertising effectiveness. See his work on Yahoo advertising here

http://research.yahoo.com/project/2616

Today's news of Google/Microsoft collaboration must only strengthen the offering. Certainly one to watch

buy.ology and Neuroscience

I have spent months trying to write a book review for a book by Martin Lindstrom called buy.ology. My difficulties are many, so I am going to share some of them with you!

First of all the book is written in the style of an airport book, in other words, easy reading for managers on the move. It is well written in that it is a compelling read and the fact that it is "true" makes it even better. However as an academic this style is frustrating, as an academic I want to see the objective, method, results and conclusion in a clear way, easily seen.

The basic story is that Lindstrom is a respected marketer and he raised loads of money from multinationals to fund research. The research was to look at brain activity in conjunction with use or thoughts of brands. This is a case of metrics and measurement, so that is why I mention it here. His conclusions come thick and fast before we see the method, another reason why I find it annoying. Some highlights are:

• cigarette packet warnings create craving rather that warnings.
• Product placement may be a waste of time

Another difficulty I have is to trace how these things come from the data... I am still searching. Judge for yourself, you can see the author describe the book, download a PDF chapter free etc. Just go to his web site here

Web site Analytics?

A quick observation. On the whole I try to use the two words "web site" as opposed to "website". The Web Site version is generally used with "classic" (albeit recent) books such as

• Peterson Eric T (2004) Web Analytics Demystified: A Marketer’s Guide to Understanding How Your Web Site Affects Your Business. Celilo Group Media
• Peterson Eric T (2005) Web Site Measurement Hacks. O Reilly ebook
• Sterne, J. (2002) ‘Web metrics, Proven Methods for Measuring Web Site Success’ – London - John Wiley and Sons Inc

Also what is perhaps worth paying attention to is the use of

• Web analytics
• Web measurement
• Website analytics
• Website measurement
• Web site analytics
• Web site measurement

Some authors say that measurement is different from analytics (the reasons vary) but I often use them interchangeably