Taking Analytics Up A Notch

Amazon.com, Inc.

Founded in 1994 and headquartered in Seattle, Washington, Amazon.com, Inc. (Amazon) has grown to be a Fortune 500 company and one of the largest online e-commerce retailers. While Amazon was launched as an online bookstore, it has since expanded to offer millions of unique new, refurbished, and used items in categories such as books; movies; music & games; digital downloads; electronics & computers; home & garden; toys; kids & baby; grocery; apparel; shoes & jewelry; health & beauty; sports & outdoor; and tools, auto & industrial. Additionally, in 2007 Amazon entered the e-book industry and produced its own e-reader, the Kindle, as well as compatible e-books. Since then, Amazon has expanded the Kindle family to include the Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE Wireless, with HD display, Dolby Digital Plus, and 4G connectivity; and Kindle Paperwhite, the world’s most advanced e-reader. Lastly, Amazon more recently launched its Amazon Web Services (AWS) to provide customers with access to in-the-cloud infrastructure services, which can be used to enable virtually any type of business. (Amazon, n.d.).

Data Collection

As Amazon works to offer customers more types of products, more conveniently and at lower prices, it continues to keep its mission in mind - “to be Earth’s most customer-centric company, where customers can find and discover anything they might want to buy online, and endeavors to offer its customers the lowest possible prices,” (Amazon, n.d.). In order to remain a consumer-centric company, Amazon has put forth a great deal of effort into developing a ‘Culture of Metrics’. Even since its beginning, every decision and strategy outlined from Amazon is based heavily on big data. (Chaffey, 2014).

According to Amazonia: Five Years at the Epicenter of the Dot.Com Juggernaut, a book that charts Amazon's early growth from an employee’s perspective, James Marcus (2004) described an occasion at a corporate 'boot-camp' in January 1997 when Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos 'saw the light' and stated that the company will have a ‘Culture of Metrics'. Bezos believed that it would provide the company with an ‘amazing window into human behavior’. In the book, Marcus provided a great recap of one ‘boot-camp’ discussion about the beginning ideas of incorporating big data into their business strategy: (Chaffey, 2014).

Gone were the fuzzy approximations of focus groups, the anecdotal fudging and smoke blowing from the marketing department. A company like Amazon could (and did) record every move a visitor made, every last click and twitch of the mouse.

As the data piled up into virtual heaps, hummocks and mountain ranges, you could draw all sorts of conclusions about their chimerical nature, the consumer. In this sense, Amazon was not merely a store, but an immense repository of facts. All we needed were the right equations to plug into them.

The book also included insight into breakout group discussions of how Amazon could better use measures to improve its performance, especially customer-centric metrics. Since then, Amazon has developed internal tools to support its ‘Culture of Metrics’. One analytics tool that has provided Amazon with great success is its ability to run A/B testing experiments. Instead of having arguments about what should go on the home page or category pages, etc. Amazon utilized real-time experimentation tests to answer those questions, since actual customer behavior was the best way to decide upon tactics. However, it became apparent that consumers’ online experience evolves over time, which means that Amazon has to consistently test and tweak its features to match. ‘Automation replaces intuition’ became the philosophy around business decisions.  (Chaffey, 2014).

User Recommendations

With a glimpse into how powerful data can be, it became known as “King” around Amazon. The company collects nearly every piece of data available on consumers visiting the website. Every purchase, every page viewed and every search is recorded. Amazon relies on acquiring and then crunching a massive amount of data to make strategic business decisions including providing customer channel preferences; managing the way content is displayed to different user types such as new releases and top-sellers, merchandising and recommendation (showing related products and promotions). (Chaffey, 2014).  

User recommendations have become a signature feature for Amazon. In order to provide meaningful recommendations, Amazon uses its “item-to-item collaborative filtering” algorithm to customize the browsing experience for returning customers. The algorithm takes what a user has bought in the past, which items they have in their virtual shopping cart, items they’ve rated and liked, and what other customers have viewed and purchased into consideration when suggesting recommendations. When looking at Amazon.com, it’s clear that the company has integrated recommendations into the majority of the purchasing process because multiple panes of product suggestions are visible including “Frequently Bought Together”, “New for You”, “More Items to Consider”, and “Related to Items You’ve Viewed”. (Mangalindan, 2012).

David A. Steinberg, the founder of XL Marketing, a digital marketing company, states, “Amazon's algorithm is a recommendation engine, and the company runs in such a way as to help the consumer. Amazon is employing behavioral targeting and recommendation engines to help create a transaction with the consumer. The megaretailer wants to drive the most meaningful offers to its users, so the more information it compiles, the more accurate Amazon's recommendations based on psychographics, demographics, or spending habits are,” (Carlozo, 2013).

Moving Forward

Driven by technological innovation, Amazon continues to amaze by taking steps forward in creating the Earth’s most customer-centric company. With the success of the collaborative filtering algorithm, Amazon is now taking its analytics development up a notch and focusing on predictive analytics. In this latest business move, Amazon has acquired a patent for its new venture - Anticipatory Shipping, “a shipping system designed to cut delivery times by predicting what buyers are going to buy before they buy it — and shipping products in their general direction, or even right to their door, before the sales click even (or ever) falls,” (Lomas, 2014).

This system is purely based on Amazon’s predictive big data analytics, which the company trusts enough to accurately predict what a consumer will order next, and when. Even though Amazon offers two-day shipping, next day air, and Sunday deliveries, cost is a huge concern and having to wait even a day can cause some consumers to visit a physical store to purchase the item. Amazon hopes that Anticipatory Shipping will encourage them to shop online and avoid brick-and-mortar retailers. (Marr, 2014).

So how will Anticipatory Shipping really work? According to the patent, this algorithm uses data from a consumer’s prior Amazon activity, including time on the site, duration of product views, what links were clicked and hovered over, shopping cart activity, and what items were added to a wish list. When available, the predictive algorithm will also include data from real-world information collected from customer telephone inquiries, responses to marketing messaging, as well as other factors. (Ulanoff, 2014).  In its patent, Amazon included a basic flowchart to help demonstrate how the process might work.

In addition to reducing shipping time, this system could also help to increase sales and potentially reduce shipping, inventory and supply chain costs. “Supply chain and logistics optimization is neither easy nor cheap, but it is the biggest opportunity for most companies to significantly reduce their cost and improve their performance,” wrote H. Donald Ratliff, Ph.D., executive director of the Supply Chain and Logistics Institute (Ulanoff, 2014).  Ratliff continued by saying, “For most…operations, there is an opportunity to reduce cost by 10% to 40% by making better decisions.” For a company the size of Amazon, a 10% to 40% in annual savings would be huge, but it would require the company to get it right each time. If the big data algorithms get it wrong, the company could end up losing the money spent on shipping the product out and also returning it. “The way Amazon proposes to deal with cheaper unwanted items is to either heavily discount them or give them away as a free gift to build customer ‘good will’,” (Marr, 2014).

Additional Tools and Strategies

While it seems like Amazon already has everything under control, there’s always room to grow and improve. As a Prime member, I enjoy all of the benefits that come with the membership including Amazon Instant Video, which is an Internet video-on-demand service. The service offers television series and films for rent or purchase, however the service is free to customers with an Amazon Prime subscription. I don’t think its recommendations are quite on par with Netflix, but I enjoy not having to pay extra to use the service. In addition to Prime, I’m also an Audible member, which is an audiobook-on-demand service and owned by Amazon.  This service provides access to over 150,000 titles and is the world’s largest provider of audiobooks and spoken word content.

Amazon Instant Video is a great service, but it does not receive as much attention as other Amazon services when it comes to cross-selling. One way that analytics can help improve its awareness is for Audible to suggest videos to purchase or rent to users based on what audiobooks they are looking at or buying – especially when the book was made into a movie. When searching audiobooks on Amazon.com, Audible shows up as a purchase option, which gives awareness to that service. I think Amazon Instant Video would benefit significantly from the same situation on Audible. Additionally, Amazon.com only offers Instant Video suggestions when searching for a book from the homepage. When searching for a particular book under the “book” category, Instant Video suggestions are removed. This would be another great place to cross-sell and bring awareness to Instant Video based on suggestions related to the books that are being searched.  

The lucky one searched on Audible could include a link to the video on Instant Video and suggestions for other Nicholas Sparks videos:

  

The Lucky One searched on Amazon in the “book” category included a link to Audible as a purchase option. It could also include a link to Instant Video and suggestions for other Nicholas Sparks videos:

The Lucky One was only suggested on Instant video when searching for The Lucky One from the home page:

References:

Amazon. (n.d.). About Amazon. Retrieved from: http://www.amazon.com/Careers-Homepage/b?ie=UTF8&node=239364011

Chaffey, D. (2014, June 30). Amazon's business strategy and revenue model: A history and 2014 update. Retrieved from: http://www.smartinsights.com/digital-marketing-strategy/online-business-revenue-models/amazon-case-study/

Lomas, N. (2014, January 18). Amazon Patents “Anticipatory” Shipping — To Start Sending Stuff Before You’ve Bought It. Retrieved from: http://techcrunch.com/2014/01/18/amazon-pre-ships/

Mangalindan, J. (2012, July 30). Amazon's recommendation secret. Retrieved from: http://fortune.com/2012/07/30/amazons-recommendation-secret/

Marr, B. (2014, February 5).  Amazon: Using Big Data Analytics to Read Your Mind. Retrieved from: http://smartdatacollective.com/bernardmarr/182796/amazon-using-big-data-analytics-read-your-mind/

Ulanoff, L. (2014, January 27). Amazon Knows What You Want Before You Buy It. Retrieved from: http://www.predictiveanalyticsworld.com/patimes/amazon-knows-what-you-want-before-you-buy-it/

Is Google Worth It?

Like many others, I find myself constantly depending on Google to answer my questions and provide me with (mostly) free services that make my life easier. Google is my browser homepage and it’s my first choice when it comes to search engines. My primary email is through Gmail and I’m a big fan of Google Drive. The calendar keeps all my events in order and I would always be lost without easy access to Google Maps. Additionally, I frequently use YouTube for Adobe Creative Suite program tutorials and my daily dose of cat videos. It’s exciting to have access to all of Google’s amazing products, even ones that I do not use regularly, but I often forget that my data is being collected and stored 24/7. 

What does that mean for my privacy? Should I be concerned?

According to Google’s privacy policy, the company collects information to provide better services to all of its users – from figuring out basic stuff like which language you speak, to more complex things like which ads you’ll find most useful or the people who matter most to you online. Google collects information in two ways (n.d.):

1.   Information you give them.  For example, in order to use the majority of Google’s products you are required to sign up for a Google account, which requests information such as your name, address, telephone number, etc. (Google, n.d.).

2.    Information Google gets from your use of their services.  Google may collect information about the services that you use and how you use them, like when you visit a website that uses their advertising services or you view and interact with their ads and content. This can include specific phone model, log information, location information, unique application numbers, local storage, and cookies and anonymous identifiers (Google, n.d.).

This doesn’t sound too bad, right? Well, even though it seems like Google has good intentions; the company has found itself in quite a few predicaments over the years when dealing with privacy.

According to Steven Rosenfeld of Alternet and Salon, there are four methods through which Google is destroying privacy and collecting users data (Rosenfeld, 2014):

• Street View: not just street mapping - After being sued by 38 states, Google admitted that its mapping cars were taking more than pictures. The company was collecting data from computers inside homes and structures, including passwords, e-mails and other personal information. (Rosenfeld, 2014). In agreeing to settle the case, Google paid a $7 million fine and is required to police its own employees on privacy issues and openly tell the public how to fend off privacy violations like this one. Niki Fenwick, a Google spokeswoman, said that “we work hard to get privacy right at Google, but in this case we didn’t, which is why we quickly tightened up our systems to address the issue,” (Streitfeld, 2013). Many applauded Google’s actions, but some didn’t think it would be enough to really change the company’s unethical ways. Consumer Watchdog, another privacy monitor and frequent Google critic, said that “asking Google to educate consumers about privacy is like asking the fox to teach the chickens how to ensure the security of their coop,” (Streitfeld, 2013).

• Gmail: prying and spying – In 2013, a potential class-action lawsuit was filed against Google by Gmail users who objected to its practice of analyzing the content of email messages to create detailed profiles and sell the data to advertisers because they felt it violated federal wiretap laws. When the case began, U.S. District Court Judge Lucy Koh rejected Google's effort to dismiss the lawsuits on the ground that users implicitly consented to its activity, recognizing it as part of the email delivery process. However, in March 2014, Koh decided that Google would not face a class-action lawsuit because there are a wide variety of sources from which Gmail users could have learned of Google’s interceptions and realized that they were consenting by using the service. Matt Kallman, a Google spokesman, said, "We're glad the court agreed that we have been upfront about Gmail's automated processing" (Stempel, 2014).
  
  
• Google Safari: not just hunting WiFi - The Wall Street Journal broke the story that Google’s software was bypassing security settings for Apple devices using the Safari browser, exposing millions of users to tracking without them even knowing about it. Google claimed that its actions were unintentional and were brought on by a change in Safari that it was unaware of. When the issue was called to the company’s attention, Google said it stopped tracking Safari users and showing them personalized ads. The result for this “accident” was a $22.5 million fine from the Federal Trade Commission. (Miller, 2012). “The fine is the largest civil penalty ever levied by the commission, which has been cracking down on tech companies for privacy violations and is also investigating Google for antitrust violations,” (Miller, 2012).

• Android: another data gateway – ComputerWorld.com’s Michael Horowitz claimed that Google knows nearly every WiFi password in the world as a result of backdoor access to hundreds of millions of Android phones and devices. “Sounds great. Backing up your data/settings makes moving to a new Android device much easier,” Horowitz wrote, citing how the company sold this feature to consumers. “It lets Google configure your new Android device very much like your old one. What is not said, is that Google can read the WiFi passwords,” (Rosenfeld, 2014). This feature can easily be turned off, but Google can still be compelled by agencies of the U.S. government to silently provide access to that information. ComputerWorld called out a few other companies for essentially doing the same thing, such as Dropbox and Skype, but focused on Google because of its business is based on analyzing user’s data and selling its insights to advertisers (Rosenfeld, 2014).
  

Even with all of the negative attention, Google claims their goal is to be clear about what information they are collecting, so that users can make choices about what they use and do not sure. (n.d.).  Google list the five following ways you can take control of your information:

• Review and control certain types of information tied to your Google Account by using Google Dashboard.
• View and edit your preferences about the ads shown to you on Google and across the web, such as which categories might interest you, using Ads Settings.  You can also opt out of certain Google advertising services here.
• Use Google’s editor to see and adjust how your Google Profile appears to particular individuals.
• Control who you share information with.
• Take information out of many of Google’s services.
• Choose whether your Profile name and Profile photo appear in shared endorsements that appear in ads.

So, there are ways for users to at least attempt to protect their privacy. However, many are still not happy about Google collecting their data to create more personalized ads. Last year, consumer feedback service, Servata asked over 2500 Internet users how they felt about the National Security Agency (NSA) collecting user data, and then about Google.  According to the survey, “Internet users are more afraid of their personal data being used by Google than the NSA” (Smith, 2014). In the survey, “Google” scored an average of 7.39 points (with 10 being the score for ‘most upset’) followed by the “NSA” (7.06 points), “your boss” (6.86 points), “your parents” (5.93) and “your spouse or significant other” (4.55 points) (Smith, 2014). While the margin between the top two entities isn’t that large, it does exist. 

I think the problem is that people have to be proactive about researching and understanding how to protect their information. Google clearly provides a way to limit its access to users’ information, but doesn’t put much effort in to making anyone actually read the privacy policy. Additionally, I think its important for users to understand that the services provided by Google really aren’t free no matter how they look at it – they all pay with their data if they choose to use the service. As a consumer, I prefer to receive online ads, emails, direct mail, etc. targeted to me because a new product or brand could be introduced that I might actually enjoy. As long as Google doesn’t provide sensitive personal information, like credit card numbers or my social security number, to advertisers or anyone else, my concern over privacy will stay relatively low because I enjoy Google’s services too much to quit. 

However, I do think Google should stop hiding behind creating “better services” as its reason to collect data and tell the truth – it just wants to make money on advertising. Google’s business model is “exquisitely simple and sublimely deceptive: We give you free services that you are likely to use dozens of times a day while we invisibly track and record everything you do. Based on what we have learned about you, we then charge advertisers premium fees to reach exactly the right buyers for their products and services,” (Epstein, 2014). To most users, Google appears to be an information provider and an endless array of free services, but it could really just be considered a glorified advertising firm, with 97% of its revenue coming from advertisers (Epstein, 2014). If users could see past the mask, maybe they would take a little more time in reading the fine print and taking the necessary steps to protect their privacy.

References:

Epstein, R. (2014, May 9). Google’s Snoops: Mining Our Data for Profit and Pleasure. Retrieved from: http://www.dissentmagazine.org/online_articles/googles-snoops-mining-our-data-for-profit-and-pleasure/

Google. (n.d.). Privacy policy – privacy & terms. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/policies/privacy/

Miller, C. (2012, August 9). F.T.C. Fines Google $22.5 Million for Safari Privacy Violations. Retrieved from: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2012/08/09/f-t-c-fines-google-22-5-million-for-safari-privacy-violations/

Rosenfeld, S. (2014, February 5). 4 Ways Google is Destroying Privacy and Collecting Your Data. Retrieved from: http://www.salon.com/2014/02/05/4_ways_google_is_destroying_privacy_and_collecting_your_data_partner/

Smith, C. (2014, October 28). Google vs. NSA: Personal data collection survey. Retrieved November 29, 2014, from http://bgr.com/2014/10/28/google-vs-nsa-personal-data/

Stempel, J. (2014, March 19). Google won't face email privacy class action. Retrieved from: http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/03/19/us-google-gmail-lawsuit-idUSBREA2I13G20140319

Can Clicky Compare?

With Google’s reputation, it’s no surprise that the 2013 Econsultancy/Lynchpin Online Measurement and Strategy Report found that 56% of businesses were using Google Analytics (GA) exclusively for web analytics (Moth, 2013). It’s free, user-friendly by providing data in easy to understand charts, and it’s customizable so users can create reports that accurately portray their data to meet their specific needs (Google, 2014). However, with the vast amount of web analytic tools available, it’s important to make an informed decision on which tool will successfully contribute to improving a brand’s marketing strategy. Just because GA is well-known, doesn’t mean that it is the only tool you should use to get the most out of your data. There could be other programs that help supplement what GA cannot offer, such as Clicky.  

Clicky is a full-featured web analytic tool with 817,932 web sites depending on it to monitor, analyze, and react to their traffic in real time. This tool provides its users with a simple, easy-to-use dashboard interface, which contains all web traffic data so they do not have to do much researching to find the information they are looking for. Like Google Analytics, Clicky offers a free plan for those looking for all of the basics, such as content, search, and referral reports, but also offers a variety of premium plans that provide additional in-depth information. When signing up, all new accounts automatically receive a free 21 day trial of its premium plan for up to three sites and 1,000,000 daily page views (total, across all sites). After the trail, Clicky will downgrade to the free plan, unless otherwise noted, which provides analytics without charge for one site with under 3000 daily page views. (Clicky, 2015).

Prominent features of Clicky:

Real-time Data

During class discussion and while researching, many touched on the delay, typically 24-hours, Google Analytic reports have and their frustration related to not being able to see more recent data. GA has worked to address this issue by creating Real Time Reports, which include six reports - Overview, Locations, Traffic Sources, Content (or Screens, for Mobile App properties), Events, and Conversions. Each report displays (Google, n.d.):

• the number of active users,
• the number of hits during each of the most recent 30 minutes
• the number of hits during each of the most recent 60 seconds

While this is a great improvement from the 24-hour day delay for GA, Clicky can still consider its real-time data feature unique because all of its data is up-to-the-minute real time, not just a few reports. Users can almost immediately begin to see data flow in the dashboard after pasting their specific tracking code into the website template. Furthermore, users have the opportunity to add another piece of code to the website to have quick access

to the Onsite Analytics Widget. This widget will show up as a button at the bottom of the page and allows the users to view how many total people are on the website and how many are on the page they are currently viewing. The button is only visible to users when they are logged in to Clicky, no one else can see it but the user. (Clicky, 2015).

 

Clicky’s dashboard is far more insightful compared to Google Analytics because most of the important data used is presented in a detailed summary upfront and can be modified for a more deeper analysis of the data, rather than having to navigate the site for visitor information, keywords, links, etc. Additionally, the dashboard provides a comparison with data of the previous period, shown via red or green percentage numbers to the right of each widget. The dashboard summary and comparison help to give the users a complete picture of what’s happening on the site and how the metrics are changing. With this information, users can make strategic business decisions to further enhance campaigns, popular content, etc. (Hall, 2014).

 

Visitor Information and Actions

From the dashboard, Clicky lets users see every visitor and every action they take on the website, including where they come from, searches they made to arrive there, their referral sites and their search path through their site’s content. This may not seem like a unique feature because Google Analytics also has access to individual user data, such as its Acquisition and Behavior reports, but Clicky takes visitor information a step further. “Unlike Google Analytics, Clicky lets you view detailed information on each individual user, such as IP addresses, Internet service provider (ISP), location, operating system, Web browser, referrer, visit length, sessions and actions during a specific visit, and more,” (Angeles, 2014). Additionally, users have the option to attach custom data to visitors, such as their usernames or e-mail addresses, and can view each visitor individually to see and analyze their full history. When it comes to viewing and exporting this data, both tools offer easy-to-read graphs and charts, in addition to being able to download the raw data. (Angeles, 2014).

Heatmaps

One of Clicky’s most distinguishable features is its heatmapping capabilities, which “give users a holistic view of what visitors are doing” and shows data such as where visitors are clicking on pages. Plus, it can be segmented by goal or visitor sessions. Users can visit any web page and view the heatmaps in real time, right on the page being viewed – which is quite convenient. (Angeles, 2014). In addition to standard per-page heatmaps, Clicky also lets users view heatmaps for individual visitor sessions. For example, users can see where a visitor’s mouse went, which can provide insight into what they might have been thinking. According to Clicky, Google Analytics does not offer heatmapping. However, GA does offer In-page Analytics, which provides users with a visual assessment of how visitors interact with their web pages (Google, 2015).

Bounce Rate

One of the reasons I chose Clicky as a competitor to Google Analytics is because its definition of bounce rate is much different and is very blog-friendly. In general, bounce rate tells users how engaged their visitors were with the site, specifically focusing on who only viewed a single page. Instead of considering a bounce someone who only visits one page and then leaves, Clicky uses time to do decide.

The Bounce definition according to the Clicky website:

“A visitor will only count as a bounce on Clicky if they only view a single page and they were on your web site for less than 30 seconds. We figure, if someone is there for at least 30 seconds, they were at least mildly engaged and should not count as a bounce,” (Clicky, n.d.).

In order to track time spent on the page, Clicky uses its tracking code to continuously ping its servers while a visitor sits on a single page. This provides them with a more accurate picture of how long the visitor was actually on the site. Clicky’s definition of bounce rate is great for bloggers because someone may spend five minutes looking at a single article and find what they need, which shouldn’t be considered a bounce. Here’s a better example:

“Say you have a blog post that you have shared on a few social media networks like Facebook and Reddit, and you get 1000 visitors to it. Chances are that 95% of these visitors will only view the article that is being linked to - one pageview. Maybe half will read the whole article, half will read part of it, and a few will click through to your front page to see more. Any other analytics service would report a 95% bounce rate for these visitors. But a bounce is negative, so it makes it sound like only 5% of these visitors were engaged. But that's not true at all - half of them read the entire stinking article!” (Clicky, 2010).

I prefer Clicky’s definition because if a user is really looking to measure interaction, quality, and stickiness, then they need to take dwell time into account. Here’s a great comparison of bounce rate % on Google Analytics and Clicky.com. You can see a major difference.

I also prefer how Clicky measures the time spent on a website with pingback to get a more accurate count of how long a visitor stays. GA measures the time by looking at the next page view. For example, if a visitor were only to view one page, Google Analytics will show that visitor as a 0:00 visit, regardless of how long he/she spent on that specific page. Furthermore, “if a user visits Page A and then Page B and then leaves, the entire duration of his time spent on Page B will be written off as 0 seconds too.  This is why Analytics users see so many visitors reported under the “0-10s” time duration,” (Grunwerg, 2013). Google did address this issue by stating, “When a page is the last page in a session, there is no way to calculate the time spent on it because there is no subsequent pageview. For this reason, when Page A is the last page in the visitor’s session, its time calculation is not counted for that view. In addition, when that page is the only page viewed in the session, no time on page is calculated” (Google, n.d.). Regardless, having a 0:00 second visit isn’t very helpful.

Additional Features

In addition to these prominent features, Clicky offers Uptime monitoring so users can know when their site goes offline and can react immediately, alerts for special events such as new visitors, goals, campaigns and referrals, it’s mobile-friendly, offers analytics for social media platforms such as YouTube and Twitter, and the list goes on.   

For a complete list of how Clicky compares with Google Analytics, please read a feature-by-feature comparison here: clicky.com/compare/google

Overall, Clickly seems like it would be a great tool to use for a blog because it provides real-time data, a clear overview of the audience, and easy access to additional data that can help make informed strategic business decisions. However, in order to really get the most out of this program, I think users would need to pay for the premium accounts, which range from $9.99 to $19.99 a month (Clicky, n.d.).

References:

Angeles, S. (2014, March 19). 3 Google Analytics Alternatives (and Why You Should Use Them): Retrieved from: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/6090-google-analytics-alternatives.html

Clicky. (n.d.). Bounce Rate. Retrieved from: http://clicky.com/help/faq/tips/different/bounce-rate

Clicky. (n.d.). Pricing. Retrieved from: http://clicky.com/help/pricing

Clicky. (2010, April 26). Why Clicky's new bounce rate is the best in the biz. Retrieved from: http://clicky.com/blog/page/24

Grunwerg, A. (2013, May 22). Clicky vs Analytics: Why Google Analytics Reporting is Flawed. Retrieved from: http://www.searchable.co.uk/clicky-vs-analytics-why-google-analytics-reporting-is-flawed/

Google. (n.d.). Real-Time reports. Retrieved from: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1638637

Google. (n.d.). Time on Page. Retrieved from: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/1006924?hl=en

Google. (2014). Why Google Analytics. Retrieved from: http://www.google.com/analytics/why/

Google. (2015). About In-Page Analytics. Retrieved from: https://support.google.com/analytics/answer/2558811?hl=en

Hall, S. (2014, June 3), Analytics Update: Do you Need a Second Analytics Package? Retrieved from: http://blog.crazyegg.com/2014/06/03/clicky-web-analytics/

Moth, D. (2013, July 9). 56% of businesses rely exclusively on Google for web analytics: report. Retrieved from: https://econsultancy.com/blog/63026-56-of-businesses-rely-exclusively-on-google-for-web-analytics-report/

Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Instagram… and the list goes on.

With new platforms emerging and improved features launching every day, social media can become a daunting task for marketers. However, when creating a social media strategy, it’s important to stop and focus on the platforms that are a must-have for your business. But how do you determine which ones to use?

With all of the options available, it’s virtually impossible to take on all of the platforms – or at least do them well. In order to succeed with social media, marketers should focus more on providing quality engagement, instead of how many social media accounts they can create. “Doing two or three channels really well with consistent, highly engaging content that is reaching and interacting with your target audience is what will lead to conversion and customers,” (Clark, 2014). Every industry and type of product or service will have its own dominant channels. Marketers must understand which are dominant for their specific market and focus the organization’s time and money on those targeted channels.

To determine which platforms to use, it’s important to first understand your audience and which platforms they prefer since all social media platforms are not created equal. This way, marketers can expand their efforts on the right platforms. “The more you know your audience, the easier it will be to engage with them on social media and get the results you’re looking for,” (Cohen, 2013). You can begin by understanding their characteristics (Cohen, 2013):

• Understand your target market’s point of view and activities. Think demographics, psychographics and past purchases, as well as interests and priorities.
• Consider influencers, buyers and end users. Most purchase decisions, including consumer purchases, are made with input from more than one person.
• Know where your audience engages on social media. Not everyone is on Facebook.
• Consider your audience’s social media behavior. Does your market lurk, share or create social media content? What incentives will make them act?

After gaining better insight on where your audience engages on social media, you can begin the process of narrowing down which platforms you would like to include in your strategy. Even though social media is low-cost, it’s still important to start out with a small amount of platforms because what you save in dollars, you’ll invest in time. You have to be smart and efficient with the resources you have (time and energy) to achieve the results you need. (Conley, 2014). Keep this set of considerations in mind when selecting the between a few of the most popular social media platforms for your business:

Facebook is right for you... if you are looking to enhance your community presence or what to reach as broad a network as possible. “It is losing some traction among younger users, but with more than 70 percent of online adults actively participating in Facebook, it remains the most popular social media site by far,” (Manafy, 2014). In addition to having the most users, it is also the most-frequently used, which provides marketers with a high level of engagement. (Manafy, 2014).

LinkedIn is right for you... “if you are in B2B or in another industry or role in which you can provide useful insights to people thinking about their work, seeking to make business connections, or looking for their next job,” (Manafy, 2014). Most of these users are in work mode when visiting the site and are looking for peer networking opportunities and industry-specific information. With high income and education levels of the average user, LinkedIn offers a distinct audience worth targeting with the right message. (Manafy, 2014).

Pinterest is right for you... “if you are in a highly visual industry with customers who will naturally seek to express themselves through images,” (Manafy, 2012). However, this platform can also be beneficial for industries that you might not consider visual at first. When thinking about your audience and their interests – consider these questions: Are they likely to collect images that will inform their product or service buying decisions? Are they deeply interested in a subject that can be visually represented? “Given Pinterest's particular popularity among women, it is also the place to be if that is your market target. Inspire and inform them on Pinterest and you can create real engagement,” (Manafy, 2014).

Twitter is right for you... if you want to reach a broad network of users that are interested in a variety of industries. “It is also particularly appealing to ‘information junkies’ so if your business lends itself to the provision of topic-based news or timely insights, Twitter is a great choice,” (Manafy, 2014). Similar to Facebook, marketers can be more successful with Twitter when they create a two-way platform in which they respond to and engage with followers. (Manafy, 2014).

Instagram is right for you... if visuals play a big role in what what you do and what your customers are interested in, like Pinterest. With sharing capabilities, its users also often overlap with other social media platforms so it can be good as part of a “one-two punch” (Manafy, 2014). “Given Instagram's appeal to specific ethnic segments and its popularity among urbanites, it can be a good choice for certain market targets,” (Manafy, 2014).


For more information on what you need to know about choosing the most effective social media platform, please view the outstanding infographic created by Infographics.sg and Edge.

Once you have decided which platforms will best reach your audience, it’s important to be prepared to share relevant and engaging content, which can transition into conversations that make sense for your customers and your business. But which is “king” when it comes to social media? Content or Conversation? The content vs. conversation debate has become more prominent with the rise of social media.  The adage “content is king” is being challenged by the benefits conversation can provide a business. “Content without conversation is just broadcasting, or advertising.  It goes to the listener, and just stops there (Novak, 2010).”  With this debate in mind, it’s important for marketers to understand that one is not necessarily more important than the other. Each aspect, content and conversation, is enhanced by the other and the result of both working together is more valuable to either aspect alone. “Social marketing efforts need to be driven by content, not vice versa. Without content, there is not a lot to talk about,” (Greenberg, 2009). This statement demonstrates how good content can stimulate a great conversation. 

A great example of this formula for success is Mondelez’s Nilla Wafers. In 2013, Mondelez decided to use Facebook to reinvigorate its Nilla Wafers brand. The goal of the campaign was to increase consumer affinity for the brand and drive sales of its cookies by reaching and connecting with their target audience on Facebook. The creative content used throughout the campaign brought its “Simple Goodness” brand mission to life and targeted Moms and Women 35-54 in southern and coastal states. The brand also targeted buyers of baking and cooking goods. (Facebook, 2013). The content created prompted conversations among the targeted audience about memories of old recipes, childhood snacks and new ways to incorporate Nilla Wafers into their pantry. 

“Through Facebook, we are able to constantly test and optimize Nilla's content and targeting, so we ensure that we're reaching the right potential consumers with messaging that we know will resonate. Since we launched the campaign on Facebook, we've seen significant increases in sales, and continue to explore the opportunity to widen the net and identify currently untapped potential consumers. We are truly approaching a new era in how best to reach customers,” said B. Bonin Bough, Vice President of Global Media and Consumer Engagement at Mondelēz International (Facebook, 2013). 

Nilla’s Facebook campaign drove in-store sales and reignited a long-loved brand. Key results include (Facebook, 2013):

• 5X return on ad spend (Datalogix)
• 9% increase in sales of exposed audience driven by Facebook ads over the 3-month campaign (Datalogix)
• 13% increase in sales for the month of July 2013 alone (Mondelez)
• 76% of impressions delivered on mobile devices
• 11.3 million households reached through 190 million impressions (16.8 impressions on average per household) (Datalogix)
• 98% of people exposed were not fans of Nilla Wafers, yet they generated 100% of the sales lift (Datalogix)

Clark, J. (2014). How to Choose the Right Social Channels to Reach Your Customers. Retrieved from: http://www.convinceandconvert.com/social-media-research/how-to-choose-the-right-social-channels-to-reach-your-customers/

Cohen, H. (2013, June 26). How to Setup a Social Media Business Strategy. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-setup-a-social-media-business-strategy/

Conley, M. (2014, April 24). A Beginner’s Social Media Guide for Small Businesses. Retrieved from: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-guide-small-businesses/

Facebook. (2013). Nilla Wafers. Retrieved from: https://www.facebook.com/business/success/nilla-wafers

Greenberg, M. (2009, October 20). Content is king of social marketing. MultichannelMerchant.com. Retrieved February 4, 2013 from http://multichannelmerchant.com/social-media/1020-content-social-marketing/

Manafy, M. (2014, July 9). How to Choose the Best Social Media Site for Your Business. Retrieved from: http://www.inc.com/michelle-manafy/how-to-choose-the-best-social-media-sites-to-market-your-business.html

Novak, C. (2010, July 27). Why conversation, not content, is king. SocialMediaToday.com. Retrieved February 4, 2013 from http://socialmediatoday.com/wordspring/152636/why-conversation-not-content-king