In the least you should have more than one analytics application that you are integrating. The numbers are really VOODOO science if anything and it really helps for you to have more than one to come to a greater conclusion for your clients. I believe and absolutely love analytics, its like opening presents at Christmas time, or in some cases a hangover but integrate and used correctly and have your overall campaign ( Web, Mobile, Social, Email and Traditional) well thought out and you can’t lose.
Over the past eight months, Google has steadily released one revolutionary new feature after another. On March 17, the company announced a new version of Google Analytics. Up until this point, users could decide whether they preferred to stick with the old interface or switch to the new one. However, Google recently announced that the old version of GA will be turned off in January 2012.
If you’re not already familiar with the new version, take the next few weeks to get comfortable with it. To help you get started, let’s review the top 10 features of the new Google Analytics.
1. Dashboards
Dashboards got a much needed overhaul in the new GA. Users can now create up to 20 personalized dashboards, developing widgets and formats that make the most sense for them or their company. For instance, each company department could develop its own distinct dashboard to quickly access site performance statistics that relate to department goals. Keep in mind: Dashboards can only be shared by users on the same login.
At a minimum, these four widgets would benefit the average user.
Visits – Timeline (can also include Metric)
Goal Completions and/or Transactions – Timeline
Source/Medium – Table
Bounce Rate – Timeline
2. Keyword Clouds
Rather than viewing a long list of keywords to spot trends, users can now evaluate a keyword cloud. This cloud makes it easy to visualize top keywords based on different user-selected criteria, including visits, bounce rates and pages per visit.
3. Real-Time Data
In the past, Google Analytics data was typically delayed up to 24 hours after the visit. For the first time, GA offers a real-time data solution. With its real-time reports, users can view the activity on the site as it happens, drilling into the top active pages, top referrals, keywords and geographic locations driving the traffic. In addition to monitoring current activity on the site, these reports can also be used to test campaign tracking prior to launching campaigns.
4. Site Speed
When Google released this report several months ago, it required additional code to be added to sites. Now speed reporting is standard on GA, and doesn’t need extra code. Use the site speed reports to get information about average page load time.
Why is this important? A slow site can have a negative effect on quality score for paid search, so visits can cost more to a slower site. Google has also indicated that site speed may be an important factor in organic search rankings. Additionally, a one-second delay can result in a 7% reduction in conversions. Use this report to monitor site speed and avoid these issues.
5. Search Simplifies Navigation
GA has activated menu search, a phenomenal usability update. The tool makes it easier for users to quickly navigate to the proper report. Google also created an account search that lets users directly access the correct profile, rather than scrolling through hundreds to locate the right one.
GA also introduced the ability to switch between multiple profiles while staying with and maintaining the settings of the same report. Previously this could only be done using a Firefox plugin.
6. Webmaster Tools
The new integration incorporates Google Webmaster Tools data into Google Analytics. Using this tool, users can get a better sense of which Google property (web, image, local) drove site traffic. Similar to statistics provided to paid search advertisers, Webmaster Tools provides impressions, average position and CTR data for GA.
Although the numbers are not 100% accurate, they can be used to evaluate relative trends and to provide insight into data lost due to Google’s search update. Although the Webmaster Tools report is in Google Analytics, it’s limited to a single part of GA.
7. Social Engagement
Use Google Analytics to track how visitors interact socially with your site. A 2010 study showed 54% of small and medium-sized businesses said they already use or plan to use social media, and 17% planned to increase their social budget again from 2010 to 2011. With more companies making a push for social, it makes sense to analyze social site interactions.
GA’s new social reports break down how many of a site’s visitors are socially engaged with the site, itemizing which social source and action occurred. That way you can determine how many of your visitors +1′d site content vs. how many Liked it, as well as the pages that prompted this social action. Social plugins ShareThis and AddThis easily integrate with Google Analytics, passing information on social interactions back to GA with minimal changes.
8. Visitor Flow & Goal Flow Visualization
Flow Visualization was announced in October, but only recently started rolling out to most users. Flow Visualization consists of two reports: Visitors Flow and Goal Flow. The Visitors Flow report can be used to visualize the “flow” of visitors through the site, while the Goal Flow is an improvement on the original Funnel Visualization reports.
The Goal Flow report is especially valuable, as it simplifies evaluating a conversion funnel. Have a checkout process six pages long? Now you can determine at which page people are abandoning their carts. Then improve the process and save the sales.
9. Event Tracking
Prior to this new feature, any goal interaction with a site that didn’t result in a new URL needed to be tracked using special code to create a virtual pageview, which resulted in inflated numbers in GA. For the first time, Events can be used as goals. Want to find out how many people downloaded a PDF? Interested in knowing how many visitors viewed more than 30 seconds of a video on your site? Now users can easily track these events without affecting other metrics.
10. Multi-Channel Funnels
The Multi-Channel Funnels are a series of reports intended to help provide attribution information. For example, a person visits your site first from a paid search ad, then from an organic search listing, then from a link in Twitter, and finally from an email link. Therefore, which channel should get credit for the conversion? With many analytics platforms, the credit goes to the final funnel, thus, the email marketing campaign.
Multiple reports in the new Multi-Channel Funnels allow users to view further back than the final channel. Now GA shows every interaction a user had with the site in the 30 days prior to conversion. Using these reports, departments can take credit for their assists to conversions, and companies can make more informed decisions about which marketing activities have the highest ROI.
These are just a few of the many great advancements made to Google Analytics with the new rollout. While there are still several features missing (such as the PDF and email export functionalities, percent comparisons, missing graph by week option, etc.), Google is constantly striving to correct these with future iterations of the platform.
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Thursday, March 11, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer: "Analyzing Analytics"
Analyzing Analytics? No... I'm not going to get that deep, this is just an overview of what is important for the Interactive Producer to be familiar with, besides, quite a bit of writing would be involved to Analyze Analytics... Let's begin with a simple definition:
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.
This can mean so so many things but we are going to stick to the basics and some of the tools/tactics one can use to get very interesting results from such usage. There are two forms: on-site and off-site analyzation these are defined pretty much as they sound, today we will lean more to on-site analytics. But to quickly define off- site: In a nutshell its the measurement of the websites visibility away from the site out on the internet i.e. blogs, possible traffic that "may" come etc. On-site? Once the user hits your website even in the situation as a referral from another website every move they make can be tracked and thus analyzed against every other "unique" user to get some great quantifiable data that can optimize your site to be the best it can be for your target audience or evolve along with your audience.
Although it is very important to track your goals and keep an eye on analytics as a whole, goals previously planned I might add, I normally like to look at 30 day intervals unless I have a marketing campaign I'm tracking or another reason that may involve an outside push of traffic to the site over a period of time. I think the important thing to express here is you are not just going to log in run some reports and hand them in to someone especially the client. This process can go smoothly, or it can be a 5 day long journey down some rabbit holes you will have to ponder deep into the night in continuing to analyze in your own psyche to even make sense as to why something is happening.
Marketing Campaigns are certainly a necessity in our world today, and they need to be tracked to be able to calculate ROI, or simply to see if they were worth a damn. Ad Units (IAB, check it out... learn about online advertising and GET IAB CERTIFIED) are a different story and can have a whole separate platform to track the individual ad unit itself form the publisher but one can still see referrals from the site to which the ad was placed etc... Some key indicators to keep a look out for when analyzing the campaign is what is working and what is not. Example: are you users visiting a photo montage below the fold much more than they are the information that is above the fold? Is it UGC?, hmmm wonder why THIS is happening...LOL, well, one may want to consider moving this option above the fold so users can get to what they are interested in users absolutely love "real" user generated content. You will find users love to make their own choices on the internet. I always try to keep this in mind..." A User is a "lone" individual in front of a single computer, its very easy to get caught up in the masses of users and think that way, don't do it... think about that "lone user" and what you are doing for them, you overall analytics will show you and you'll be surprised that folks are just about like cattle. In IA, having the foreknowledge to try to predict a users movement to keep them "funneled" towards a "goal" on you site is the key. Analytics help you to see if this is working, see what the users are "trending" to, and allow you to make small changes to appease the audience or to get them to go back to the "funnel" to ROI you were planing on. Kinda like herding cattle. I don't know what I'm talking about its just a stupid analogy?
Goal Funnelization? The process of forecasting a trend to lead a user to a goal i.e. a sale, or to sign up for a sweepstakes, gathering data etc. Along this user interaction path there will be key milestones, as each one is reached via the hopefully thousands of visitors more data can be derived especially if they are "bouncing" i.e. exiting... at a certain milestone not completing to the goal. This is great example of why to do analytics, this can be analyzed and corrected quite quickly as to not lose precious time and money.
I wont lean on anyone tool to use (Google) but the smart person always, or at least the sites I've worked on has two methods of tracking. Seeing as Google Analytics is free??? I like to use the two methods, "log files" and "page code insertion", whatever you do, it will be rare to have two sources of analytics software usage and get the same results. So, in having two sources you get a comparison of the data and there are advantages from the different methods. Google has a plethora of other webtools that integrate all into a nice little package and it's too simple and useful not to integrate into your site, besides... its FREE. A couple of other are Urchin (Google owned), Webtrends and Omniture as well as others, but they all work along the same principles and can be quite scalable, I like em all! But with Google at 85% of the search market? Hmmm they are doing something right, we better make sure we in the least, seeing as its FREE, utilize some of their FREE tools.
In closing lets talk quickly about some external sources of data gathering that has become quite important... pay close attention especially if you are a publisher or even trying to get your brand on a substantial site. It is so very important to follow IAB standards, it is also very important to get "Quantified"! Quantcast... in today's market it is very cut throat to put it lightly, a potential advertiser looking to buy ad space on the HP above the fold of your website needs data aside from you provide to make a business decision on his investment. If you're "Quantified" via Quantcast the advertiser can check your numbers without even speaking with you, and if your proposal numbers are correct it would seem you are off to a good start into a negotiation. Get Quatified. You can also get this same service via Alexa. These services basically offer valid data from your site via a piece of code you inserted and can grab analytics on uniques, geographical and demo graphical data... very important as a publisher to provide to a prospective advertiser.
Well... I could go on for pages on this topic, but it is well-defined in other areas quite well here. Please, as an Interactive Producer Analytics are an important piece of knowledge in your arsenal and don't be surprised if this entire process of proving the numbers does not land on your shoulders to analyze and then even present to the client. Don't worry its fun, build the site right, and the numbers will be like opening presents at Christmas time! ( ;
Just my two cents...
Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage.
This can mean so so many things but we are going to stick to the basics and some of the tools/tactics one can use to get very interesting results from such usage. There are two forms: on-site and off-site analyzation these are defined pretty much as they sound, today we will lean more to on-site analytics. But to quickly define off- site: In a nutshell its the measurement of the websites visibility away from the site out on the internet i.e. blogs, possible traffic that "may" come etc. On-site? Once the user hits your website even in the situation as a referral from another website every move they make can be tracked and thus analyzed against every other "unique" user to get some great quantifiable data that can optimize your site to be the best it can be for your target audience or evolve along with your audience.
Although it is very important to track your goals and keep an eye on analytics as a whole, goals previously planned I might add, I normally like to look at 30 day intervals unless I have a marketing campaign I'm tracking or another reason that may involve an outside push of traffic to the site over a period of time. I think the important thing to express here is you are not just going to log in run some reports and hand them in to someone especially the client. This process can go smoothly, or it can be a 5 day long journey down some rabbit holes you will have to ponder deep into the night in continuing to analyze in your own psyche to even make sense as to why something is happening.
Marketing Campaigns are certainly a necessity in our world today, and they need to be tracked to be able to calculate ROI, or simply to see if they were worth a damn. Ad Units (IAB, check it out... learn about online advertising and GET IAB CERTIFIED) are a different story and can have a whole separate platform to track the individual ad unit itself form the publisher but one can still see referrals from the site to which the ad was placed etc... Some key indicators to keep a look out for when analyzing the campaign is what is working and what is not. Example: are you users visiting a photo montage below the fold much more than they are the information that is above the fold? Is it UGC?, hmmm wonder why THIS is happening...LOL, well, one may want to consider moving this option above the fold so users can get to what they are interested in users absolutely love "real" user generated content. You will find users love to make their own choices on the internet. I always try to keep this in mind..." A User is a "lone" individual in front of a single computer, its very easy to get caught up in the masses of users and think that way, don't do it... think about that "lone user" and what you are doing for them, you overall analytics will show you and you'll be surprised that folks are just about like cattle. In IA, having the foreknowledge to try to predict a users movement to keep them "funneled" towards a "goal" on you site is the key. Analytics help you to see if this is working, see what the users are "trending" to, and allow you to make small changes to appease the audience or to get them to go back to the "funnel" to ROI you were planing on. Kinda like herding cattle. I don't know what I'm talking about its just a stupid analogy?
Goal Funnelization? The process of forecasting a trend to lead a user to a goal i.e. a sale, or to sign up for a sweepstakes, gathering data etc. Along this user interaction path there will be key milestones, as each one is reached via the hopefully thousands of visitors more data can be derived especially if they are "bouncing" i.e. exiting... at a certain milestone not completing to the goal. This is great example of why to do analytics, this can be analyzed and corrected quite quickly as to not lose precious time and money.
I wont lean on anyone tool to use (Google) but the smart person always, or at least the sites I've worked on has two methods of tracking. Seeing as Google Analytics is free??? I like to use the two methods, "log files" and "page code insertion", whatever you do, it will be rare to have two sources of analytics software usage and get the same results. So, in having two sources you get a comparison of the data and there are advantages from the different methods. Google has a plethora of other webtools that integrate all into a nice little package and it's too simple and useful not to integrate into your site, besides... its FREE. A couple of other are Urchin (Google owned), Webtrends and Omniture as well as others, but they all work along the same principles and can be quite scalable, I like em all! But with Google at 85% of the search market? Hmmm they are doing something right, we better make sure we in the least, seeing as its FREE, utilize some of their FREE tools.
In closing lets talk quickly about some external sources of data gathering that has become quite important... pay close attention especially if you are a publisher or even trying to get your brand on a substantial site. It is so very important to follow IAB standards, it is also very important to get "Quantified"! Quantcast... in today's market it is very cut throat to put it lightly, a potential advertiser looking to buy ad space on the HP above the fold of your website needs data aside from you provide to make a business decision on his investment. If you're "Quantified" via Quantcast the advertiser can check your numbers without even speaking with you, and if your proposal numbers are correct it would seem you are off to a good start into a negotiation. Get Quatified. You can also get this same service via Alexa. These services basically offer valid data from your site via a piece of code you inserted and can grab analytics on uniques, geographical and demo graphical data... very important as a publisher to provide to a prospective advertiser.
Well... I could go on for pages on this topic, but it is well-defined in other areas quite well here. Please, as an Interactive Producer Analytics are an important piece of knowledge in your arsenal and don't be surprised if this entire process of proving the numbers does not land on your shoulders to analyze and then even present to the client. Don't worry its fun, build the site right, and the numbers will be like opening presents at Christmas time! ( ;
Just my two cents...
Monday, March 8, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer Suggestion: " KNOW Social Networking!"
As usual let us define as "you" the people of the internet would define " Social Media" by visiting Wiki...
"Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers."
For any brand or even for myself, its imperative today and even more in the future to completely engage you or your brand into the social media networking angle to get in the loop of what is "fresh" and to draw especially a younger audience. Folks lets face it, what used to sell does not work as well as it used to, the numbers are proving it and some don't even have any numbers... they guess???. But... Neilson has integrated itself in our world with research to prove that users (unique) are spending on the internet one angle is an immense ( 7 hours a month! click here) amount of time on simple networking sites like Facebook. Not simple in the degree of structure and code, but in idea of how to converse and stay engaged with people thus with your brand.
Now that we live in a world that a user can reach a plethora of information within a few seconds, it is worth the time to set up as many social media sites as possible, set blogs, tweet, get your information/Brand out there! As I've said before social media is a HUGE add-on to the future of SEO tactics and can easily overwhelm the standardized dinosaur tactics of the past, but please still do them.
Want to learn more to benefit your knowledge in your workplace and how you approach projects, get caught up on the research. The Neilson links above will blow your mind on research, they have an interactive/digital angle called @plan, you can learn allot from the research they provide that is free. Another great resource is comScore, you can gain great research on the internet from multiple angles here as well. Research is a good start at a social media strategy, remember, there are dangers, you must be careful and do things such as moderate etc... some blogs and forums scenarios, NOT CENSOR... moderate. There are many social platforms that I suggest you check out, add your content/brand, skin it and add your content, daily... even hourly if you can, connect with the users as much as possible:
Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, MySpace, Linkdin, Migente, BlackPlanet ... just to name a few or you can go here and look till your heart is content and see the site user base = Social Sites
Engage your brand in front of all these social networking eyeballs, utilize the social platforms to your advantage to advertise and to converse with like-minded and interesting people of the "world" for a just a little time a day, no print cost, no network fee's, hmmm sounds like we are on to something, actually we have been for a while. ( ;
Just my two cents...
"Social media is media designed to be disseminated through social interaction, created using highly accessible and scalable publishing techniques. Social media uses Internet and web-based technologies to transform broadcast media monologues (one to many) into social media dialogues (many to many). It supports the democratization of knowledge and information, transforming people from content consumers into content producers."
For any brand or even for myself, its imperative today and even more in the future to completely engage you or your brand into the social media networking angle to get in the loop of what is "fresh" and to draw especially a younger audience. Folks lets face it, what used to sell does not work as well as it used to, the numbers are proving it and some don't even have any numbers... they guess???. But... Neilson has integrated itself in our world with research to prove that users (unique) are spending on the internet one angle is an immense ( 7 hours a month! click here) amount of time on simple networking sites like Facebook. Not simple in the degree of structure and code, but in idea of how to converse and stay engaged with people thus with your brand.
Now that we live in a world that a user can reach a plethora of information within a few seconds, it is worth the time to set up as many social media sites as possible, set blogs, tweet, get your information/Brand out there! As I've said before social media is a HUGE add-on to the future of SEO tactics and can easily overwhelm the standardized dinosaur tactics of the past, but please still do them.
Want to learn more to benefit your knowledge in your workplace and how you approach projects, get caught up on the research. The Neilson links above will blow your mind on research, they have an interactive/digital angle called @plan, you can learn allot from the research they provide that is free. Another great resource is comScore, you can gain great research on the internet from multiple angles here as well. Research is a good start at a social media strategy, remember, there are dangers, you must be careful and do things such as moderate etc... some blogs and forums scenarios, NOT CENSOR... moderate. There are many social platforms that I suggest you check out, add your content/brand, skin it and add your content, daily... even hourly if you can, connect with the users as much as possible:
Facebook, Twitter, Blogger, Wordpress, MySpace, Linkdin, Migente, BlackPlanet ... just to name a few or you can go here and look till your heart is content and see the site user base = Social Sites
Engage your brand in front of all these social networking eyeballs, utilize the social platforms to your advantage to advertise and to converse with like-minded and interesting people of the "world" for a just a little time a day, no print cost, no network fee's, hmmm sounds like we are on to something, actually we have been for a while. ( ;
Just my two cents...
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer Suggestion: “Rewinding to Producer Revolution”
I wanted to rewind for a moment. In a blog or two ago I mentioned the Topic " Producer : Evolution/Revolution". I went in to the evolution part of the producer angle but really did not give my "opinion" (based on award-winning experiential facts over a decade) on the current revolution. I noticed lately due to being in the job market (hint hint), potential employers, talking to recruiters, reading blogs, social networking, basically interactively branding the name Chance Spann, a few old methods, few weird methods and some just flat-out methods or logic towards a Producer function description or expectation that are just the wrong perspective to take.
It's a natural feeling for me to go into immediately to what an Interactive Producer is not, but I'm going to go against my first thought and speak towards what one needs to expect from an Interactive Producer in 2010 inside the agency world as there is no true Int. Producer on the client side unless they have multiple websites/campaigns and in this case they need experts with versatility to which they are not acquiring thus you get a stale site (s)... taking a breath.... Another client side term I hear of Director of Project Management? On the client side? This cant exist, can it? Weird. The kind of interactive initiatives Int. Producers are involved in require many professionals that form an "interactive team" strictly pro's at the interactive space. This is very important. I've been a Director of over 30 interactive professionals at a national agency on fortune 500 clients over roles from project/ production managers to IA/QA/Creative/Copy/Video/.NET/PHP/HTML/Flash design/developers, but even in the role of Director I was only a glorified Sr. Producer. I still took on medial task at times, and always had my own sites I personally was working on within the agency or doing the IA or doing Analytics or...whatever it takes. Lets get to the point, an Interactive Producer, better be well-rounded and well compensated, as they are a key position in the team of the project, especially being joined at the hip with the lead creative, which is a vital relationship. If you are hiring someone who wants less than 80K then he/she is a Jr., with not enough experience and possibly needs to get more before you hire them. I don't even think one should even be allowed to be an Int. Exec, or Sr. Producer until they are PMI certified have a couple of years of project management under their belt, some creative time as a true (video or online) creative and have worked on the client side with an agency. This equates to experience and most importantly understanding. You get what you pay for, please don't find this out the hard way, it's just not worth it.
Ive heard those compare interactive producers to Broadcast producers. Not the same. One example... An interactive Producer may have to work closely with a Broadcast Producer to gain some video content BUT... once delivered in broadcast quality they then have to jump through 5 more hoops to get it up on the internet. This is not true in the reverse. Actually does not happen in the reverse. Or can it... (Grin)
Ive been a broadcast producer/video editor/ motion graphics artist for many years in my career and it was a joy and its great to have that knowledge now as the video on the internet is only going to EXPLODE ever more! Just another feather under my hat, one you should seriously look to get into as an Int. Producer, especially encoding. i.e. Squeeze, or look into Itunes encoding techniques they are amazing, have the ability to move around Final Cut, and a cherry on top would be After Effects etc...
Learn also to project manage the project manager.... carefully... don't cross boundaries! Realize these guys and gals, God Bless them, may have blinders on to focus completely on the time and money... and please do, but you need that knowledge as well to avoid pitfalls. The producer should be more well rounded and have much more experience from a birds eye view than the PM. One thing you can't always and should not even really expect is a relationship to any degree besides time and money between a PM and a GCD or CD. What more do they have to talk about? In my experience at different agencies, PM's have either been asked to do too much and know what they are doing but to the projects demise due to medial task that are pulling them away from the focus of the time line and the budget, or... they do not have the experience to do anything other than be a PM that focuses on the time and money and that is perfect for me as a Producer, I work with them as a part of team and my experience fills the gaps to which they are lacking.
As a Int. Producer you are surrounded by many moving parts that funnel to a common goal i.e. a website. You must know something or a good part of every one of these roles, its your responsibility, and trust me if something goes wrong the finger points at you. I'm going to end this with a Quote I've read in another blog. The gentleman's name is "Chris Higgins" ... " It’s interesting that even though the title Interactive Producer has been around for a while, most managers would have a fairly limited understanding of the full breadth of tasks that can fall under this domain." Hear Hear!!!
Just my two cents...
It's a natural feeling for me to go into immediately to what an Interactive Producer is not, but I'm going to go against my first thought and speak towards what one needs to expect from an Interactive Producer in 2010 inside the agency world as there is no true Int. Producer on the client side unless they have multiple websites/campaigns and in this case they need experts with versatility to which they are not acquiring thus you get a stale site (s)... taking a breath.... Another client side term I hear of Director of Project Management? On the client side? This cant exist, can it? Weird. The kind of interactive initiatives Int. Producers are involved in require many professionals that form an "interactive team" strictly pro's at the interactive space. This is very important. I've been a Director of over 30 interactive professionals at a national agency on fortune 500 clients over roles from project/ production managers to IA/QA/Creative/Copy/Video/.NET/PHP/HTML/Flash design/developers, but even in the role of Director I was only a glorified Sr. Producer. I still took on medial task at times, and always had my own sites I personally was working on within the agency or doing the IA or doing Analytics or...whatever it takes. Lets get to the point, an Interactive Producer, better be well-rounded and well compensated, as they are a key position in the team of the project, especially being joined at the hip with the lead creative, which is a vital relationship. If you are hiring someone who wants less than 80K then he/she is a Jr., with not enough experience and possibly needs to get more before you hire them. I don't even think one should even be allowed to be an Int. Exec, or Sr. Producer until they are PMI certified have a couple of years of project management under their belt, some creative time as a true (video or online) creative and have worked on the client side with an agency. This equates to experience and most importantly understanding. You get what you pay for, please don't find this out the hard way, it's just not worth it.
Ive heard those compare interactive producers to Broadcast producers. Not the same. One example... An interactive Producer may have to work closely with a Broadcast Producer to gain some video content BUT... once delivered in broadcast quality they then have to jump through 5 more hoops to get it up on the internet. This is not true in the reverse. Actually does not happen in the reverse. Or can it... (Grin)
Ive been a broadcast producer/video editor/ motion graphics artist for many years in my career and it was a joy and its great to have that knowledge now as the video on the internet is only going to EXPLODE ever more! Just another feather under my hat, one you should seriously look to get into as an Int. Producer, especially encoding. i.e. Squeeze, or look into Itunes encoding techniques they are amazing, have the ability to move around Final Cut, and a cherry on top would be After Effects etc...
Learn also to project manage the project manager.... carefully... don't cross boundaries! Realize these guys and gals, God Bless them, may have blinders on to focus completely on the time and money... and please do, but you need that knowledge as well to avoid pitfalls. The producer should be more well rounded and have much more experience from a birds eye view than the PM. One thing you can't always and should not even really expect is a relationship to any degree besides time and money between a PM and a GCD or CD. What more do they have to talk about? In my experience at different agencies, PM's have either been asked to do too much and know what they are doing but to the projects demise due to medial task that are pulling them away from the focus of the time line and the budget, or... they do not have the experience to do anything other than be a PM that focuses on the time and money and that is perfect for me as a Producer, I work with them as a part of team and my experience fills the gaps to which they are lacking.
As a Int. Producer you are surrounded by many moving parts that funnel to a common goal i.e. a website. You must know something or a good part of every one of these roles, its your responsibility, and trust me if something goes wrong the finger points at you. I'm going to end this with a Quote I've read in another blog. The gentleman's name is "Chris Higgins" ... " It’s interesting that even though the title Interactive Producer has been around for a while, most managers would have a fairly limited understanding of the full breadth of tasks that can fall under this domain." Hear Hear!!!
Just my two cents...
Monday, March 1, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer Suggestion: "Getting to know SEM"
In my last blog I grazed the surface of SEO and the importance of implementing SEO tactics into your overall web development strategy, you can review that article here: Suggestion 2/26/10 “The Acronyms 2”. Today lets just touch another acronym that can be helpful in the world of search engines called SEM (Search Engine Marketing). And let's go to the mecca of UGC... Wikipedia and to the world's definition and go from there: Wiki defines it as:
"Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. "
Let's just say for a good read in this article we will keep it light as once you pay the placement its pretty much done for you especially with Google, I'll just take you through the process so you can have a one stop shop for the understanding and quick implementation strategy of SEM. Lets get started. So once again lets use Google as an example, they have a program called AdWords. Three simple steps can get you started with a simple SEM program with Google AdWords.
1. Create the ads: ( Google has a nice little tool for this). You then choose keywords/tags = words or phrases that associate to your ads initiative, ultimately to be ranked by, then come up in a search under those terms or phases by users who are searching.
2. Place the Ads: This is very easy as Google has set a step by step process and its easily done. Once users search on Google and type in one of the words or phrases you associated to your ad, your ad may appear next to the search results. ( according to how many have clicked in the past, money you spent etc...) This allows for your ad to be shown to users who are interested in the topics your ads initiative is advertising in hope to get a "click" or 1000's ( ;. It's a good program as they use a PPC methodology, Ohhh an acronym I have yet to mention, "Pay Per Click" we will be getting into this in a later article, but basically you only pay a certain amount if a user clicks your ad. This can also work in reverse as in this case Google is a "Publisher", now Google is HUGE, they almost have to use this method, smaller sites with 1mm or under can utilize a CPM (Cost Per 1000 clicks) methodology and be much more profitable, add a contract to end of the ad at a certain time or at a certain amount of money usage etc... like I said I will get into this another day.
Google has lots of extras to help you to get placement in their rankings and to analyze them. These are very important as well, and might not be found in lesser markets. A couple you should research are " contextual targeting technology" this can automatically match your ads to pages in the Google content network that are most relevant to your ads initiative via the keywords or phrases you use. Also there is a very useful tool to most importantly measure and optimize your results: you can pay close attention daily to multiple ad placements performance on a site-by-site basis to see impressions, clicks, cost, conversion data, and use this data to identify well-performing sites to target more aggressively and low-value placements that require content optimization or need to end due to lack of performance.
Yahoo Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN Microsoft adCenter also have programs for paid ad placement that pretty much work under the same protocol and criteria as mentioned above, but with less eyeballs, and frankly less tools to combine all of the useful methods you will need to maintain your site. But to will want to get into them up to your "EYEBALLS" as well as some user only use these engines and you want their visits. A good read would be "What are Google Webmaster Tools". One may learn allot by typing this into a search engine browser.
Just my two cents.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chancespann
"Search engine marketing, or SEM, is a form of Internet marketing that seeks to promote websites by increasing their visibility in search engine result pages (SERPs) through the use of paid placement, contextual advertising, and paid inclusion. "
Let's just say for a good read in this article we will keep it light as once you pay the placement its pretty much done for you especially with Google, I'll just take you through the process so you can have a one stop shop for the understanding and quick implementation strategy of SEM. Lets get started. So once again lets use Google as an example, they have a program called AdWords. Three simple steps can get you started with a simple SEM program with Google AdWords.
1. Create the ads: ( Google has a nice little tool for this). You then choose keywords/tags = words or phrases that associate to your ads initiative, ultimately to be ranked by, then come up in a search under those terms or phases by users who are searching.
2. Place the Ads: This is very easy as Google has set a step by step process and its easily done. Once users search on Google and type in one of the words or phrases you associated to your ad, your ad may appear next to the search results. ( according to how many have clicked in the past, money you spent etc...) This allows for your ad to be shown to users who are interested in the topics your ads initiative is advertising in hope to get a "click" or 1000's ( ;. It's a good program as they use a PPC methodology, Ohhh an acronym I have yet to mention, "Pay Per Click" we will be getting into this in a later article, but basically you only pay a certain amount if a user clicks your ad. This can also work in reverse as in this case Google is a "Publisher", now Google is HUGE, they almost have to use this method, smaller sites with 1mm or under can utilize a CPM (Cost Per 1000 clicks) methodology and be much more profitable, add a contract to end of the ad at a certain time or at a certain amount of money usage etc... like I said I will get into this another day.
Google has lots of extras to help you to get placement in their rankings and to analyze them. These are very important as well, and might not be found in lesser markets. A couple you should research are " contextual targeting technology" this can automatically match your ads to pages in the Google content network that are most relevant to your ads initiative via the keywords or phrases you use. Also there is a very useful tool to most importantly measure and optimize your results: you can pay close attention daily to multiple ad placements performance on a site-by-site basis to see impressions, clicks, cost, conversion data, and use this data to identify well-performing sites to target more aggressively and low-value placements that require content optimization or need to end due to lack of performance.
Yahoo Yahoo! Search Marketing and MSN Microsoft adCenter also have programs for paid ad placement that pretty much work under the same protocol and criteria as mentioned above, but with less eyeballs, and frankly less tools to combine all of the useful methods you will need to maintain your site. But to will want to get into them up to your "EYEBALLS" as well as some user only use these engines and you want their visits. A good read would be "What are Google Webmaster Tools". One may learn allot by typing this into a search engine browser.
Just my two cents.
http://www.linkedin.com/in/chancespann
Friday, February 26, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer Suggestion 2/26/10 “The Acronyms 2”
The acronyms just seem to fly out of the air in the interactive world but its important to learn their meaning, least you be the only visitor to your site? Two important acronyms in this discussion are SEO and SEM. Quick story, after being in the biz a while I have had different supervisors over me usually in the VP status and truth be told... I've mentioned SEO in my early conversations with only to asked what it meant WHAT?... WOW! So Int. Producer... be sure you can define it and make sure you can assist your team in all the angles of integration. My good friend and UGC mecca Wikipedia defines it as:
"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. "
There are currently industry standards of SEO, these include making the website "search engine friendly" via a few things: optimization of the content and the HTML, the relevance of the descriptions and keywords, including also a sitemap.xml and a robots.txt, site submission etc... these are all common and need to be done as a part of the last stages of development but... they are old news friends. If you want to get ranked these days according to the methodologies that the search engines are using, let just say seeing as Google holds the larger share of the market amongst them all, you need to do a few more things.
Without getting into "deep" detail, after you have done the common industry standard SEO moves, you must flood the "social networking world" with your information i.e. a link back to your site. Let me give you an example and we will use me, Chance Spann, I'm a brand? I'm trying to sell myself on the internet Right?, I'm doing it right now (Grin). I created a base site, I actually use www.linkedin.com/in/chancespann or www.naymz.com as a base site to lead users back to learn more about me, my expertise awards etc. These sites will be the sites I want ranked the highest and will contain the full information I want the user to engage in. Then I use all the other social networks to lead users back like: Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc. insert "tag clouds" and I get it into every one of them I can. My links get Dugg and Tweeted and clicked and passed around by users and it's just wonderful. The bots from the search engines are hitting my link from every source and then ranked and the whole process begins and as content gets updated daily by such methods as what you are reading now it keeps ranking and keeps me at the top of the search rankings. It takes a while for an "indirect" vs "direct" search terms to rank me on the first page of a search or higher, but at this point I'm doing quite well.
Here are some example search terms to look for me in Google, Yahoo Bing etc this is how is would work in any situation even with a big brand but that brand will probably rank highest simply due to the fact of the user base and competition:
Direct search terms: Chance Spann, Chance Spann Interactive Producer
You notice the page just fills with information on me. Hmmm so what Eh?
This is where the all the SEO work begins to show...
Indirect search terms (Google):
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = ( Im ranking 2nd with this one under a job posting... this is good)
2.Addy awards dallas American airlines = ( with this just random search term the SEO kicks in, and along side a huge brand name like American Airlines and Addy ( Addy Awards) I rank an incredible 9th on the first page in a Google search. This is great!)
Same terms in Bing:
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = ranking 3rd under paid search. Great!
2. Addy awards dallas American airlines = 3rd page in ) : needs work, actually needs clicks ( ;
Same terms in Yahoo!:
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = 2nd page 6 down due to this blog I'm writing now. Getting better but I want on the first page!!! But remember its yahoo and remember I was on the first page on Google the master of the internet. LOL?
2. Addy awards dallas American airlines = not even worth mentioning. LOL hit and miss
All in all my work over the past couple of weeks I feel good about my tactics, just simply due to the Google ranks. Im going to leave with this thought, standard SEO practices are needed and please do them, but we now have the UGC model and Social Networking angles these are imperative and you must incorporate them into your "Organic" SEO strategy. SEM... more to come.
Just my two cents...
"Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume or quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" or un-paid ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results as opposed to search engine marketing (SEM) which deals with paid inclusion. Typically, the earlier (or higher) a site appears in the search results list, the more visitors it will receive from the search engine. "
There are currently industry standards of SEO, these include making the website "search engine friendly" via a few things: optimization of the content and the HTML, the relevance of the descriptions and keywords, including also a sitemap.xml and a robots.txt, site submission etc... these are all common and need to be done as a part of the last stages of development but... they are old news friends. If you want to get ranked these days according to the methodologies that the search engines are using, let just say seeing as Google holds the larger share of the market amongst them all, you need to do a few more things.
Without getting into "deep" detail, after you have done the common industry standard SEO moves, you must flood the "social networking world" with your information i.e. a link back to your site. Let me give you an example and we will use me, Chance Spann, I'm a brand? I'm trying to sell myself on the internet Right?, I'm doing it right now (Grin). I created a base site, I actually use www.linkedin.com/in/chancespann or www.naymz.com as a base site to lead users back to learn more about me, my expertise awards etc. These sites will be the sites I want ranked the highest and will contain the full information I want the user to engage in. Then I use all the other social networks to lead users back like: Digg, Facebook, Twitter, Blogger etc. insert "tag clouds" and I get it into every one of them I can. My links get Dugg and Tweeted and clicked and passed around by users and it's just wonderful. The bots from the search engines are hitting my link from every source and then ranked and the whole process begins and as content gets updated daily by such methods as what you are reading now it keeps ranking and keeps me at the top of the search rankings. It takes a while for an "indirect" vs "direct" search terms to rank me on the first page of a search or higher, but at this point I'm doing quite well.
Here are some example search terms to look for me in Google, Yahoo Bing etc this is how is would work in any situation even with a big brand but that brand will probably rank highest simply due to the fact of the user base and competition:
Direct search terms: Chance Spann, Chance Spann Interactive Producer
You notice the page just fills with information on me. Hmmm so what Eh?
This is where the all the SEO work begins to show...
Indirect search terms (Google):
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = ( Im ranking 2nd with this one under a job posting... this is good)
2.Addy awards dallas American airlines = ( with this just random search term the SEO kicks in, and along side a huge brand name like American Airlines and Addy ( Addy Awards) I rank an incredible 9th on the first page in a Google search. This is great!)
Same terms in Bing:
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = ranking 3rd under paid search. Great!
2. Addy awards dallas American airlines = 3rd page in ) : needs work, actually needs clicks ( ;
Same terms in Yahoo!:
1. Interactive Producer Dallas Texas = 2nd page 6 down due to this blog I'm writing now. Getting better but I want on the first page!!! But remember its yahoo and remember I was on the first page on Google the master of the internet. LOL?
2. Addy awards dallas American airlines = not even worth mentioning. LOL hit and miss
All in all my work over the past couple of weeks I feel good about my tactics, just simply due to the Google ranks. Im going to leave with this thought, standard SEO practices are needed and please do them, but we now have the UGC model and Social Networking angles these are imperative and you must incorporate them into your "Organic" SEO strategy. SEM... more to come.
Just my two cents...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
Chance Spann Interactive Producer Suggestion 2/24/10 "The Acronyms"
The acronyms? What are you talking about Chance? Well, lets see... UGC, UCC, CGM, SEO, SEM and it can goes on and on. Why so many acronyms and what could it all MEAN!!! Unless you are a HUGE brand that generates its own traffic and even still it could mean whether you get the traffic or optimal traffic to your site you need these. So you spent 6 months to a year on the site on a development server, you have ton of video and decided to go with a CDN ( another acronym...LOL) and now you think you will just launch?... and "IF YOU BUILD IT THEY WILL COME!". No, that unfortunately that is not how it works. Some of the coolest most creative and expensive sites I've produced and launched without the full support through the "acronyms", traffic was low even after "Site of The Day" awards on FWA and Communication Arts, the traffic went up and just right back down. You must utilize UGC methods and more to help to have constant flow of traffic, especially in a e comm situation.
Lets start slowly with this and begin with UGC... buzz acronym of the moment and its sidekicks, CGM and UCC...Its hard not to laugh because there are just so many its ridiculous. Ive seen so many weird looks on faces when I so quickly bust out with the "acronyms"... But they are important... So what do they stand for? Lets go to the mecca of UGC and see what they mean... Wikipedia. "User-generated content (UGC), also known as consumer-generated media (CGM) or user-created content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users." Now you can go read the history and such out there later if you like, what does this have to do with my site? UGC is or can be integration with social networking like Blogs, Reviews i.e. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogspot, Wordpress etc... allowing content from those portals via API's, feeds, RSS, XML or the like and serve back to your site creating... User Generated Content. Another way to do this is integrate forum software into your site, (FYI this can be dangerous and can backfire, get knowledgable of this UGC thing... least you end having to turn it off, don't learn this the hard way!) UGC and forums can improve rankings and it's just fun for your users, it will take off quickly if set up and pushed correctly.
Another is to have users upload content like photos or video to your site (Dangerous as well must me monitored!!!). I mentioned CDN earlier, Content Delivery Network, you can stream your video or whole flash site if you want off of 1000's of servers each in the geographical location of the call of the content lets say video from a local server rather than a single server on site to which will possibly overload i.e. crash if too many request are requested. Let me put this into perspective, how many employee's will you have to hire to keep the users of the internet happy with content? What you are doing is reversing the method and letting the user make themselves happy on your site by allowing thm to engage with your brand. You use their content. Good example of how this works? In forums... realize every single topic is ranked by a search engine and then according to certain keywords the post and how many read that topic/post that are associated they are then ranked by the search engines behind that, ultimately leading users back to your forum and to your site. It's wonderful!
With the technical genius to which Google and some of the search engines are heading towards in ranking content, in search or the paid search options they offer UGC methods are a must due to the fact users love to converse with one another. The search engines utilizing new methods allows users to have more influence on websites and ad units more than ever. You must understand and be knowledgable on how to integrate your campaigns and sites into the Search Engines methods. Brands that have been ignoring their users or members have a slow leak... so to speak. You need to get into the mind of your users, allowing them to push UGC onto your site will allow this but you must engage and pay close attention to analytics. Think about what they might be saying about your brand or more importantly your "Clients" brand. Then decide how you want to engage, eventually someone will have to answer, be sure you engage in time to give an answer that allows for knowledge to be spread and not have to try to curve negativity towards the brand in any way. The Search Engines...they are changing... offering more tools and options, evolving as to how we work with the internet. Producer... you must engage, and have the knowledge to evolve as well so you can bring it to the table when needed and support those who surround you and to support the UGC = User= Content methodology this is your content bread and butter.
Just my two cents...
Lets start slowly with this and begin with UGC... buzz acronym of the moment and its sidekicks, CGM and UCC...Its hard not to laugh because there are just so many its ridiculous. Ive seen so many weird looks on faces when I so quickly bust out with the "acronyms"... But they are important... So what do they stand for? Lets go to the mecca of UGC and see what they mean... Wikipedia. "User-generated content (UGC), also known as consumer-generated media (CGM) or user-created content (UCC), refers to various kinds of media content, publicly available, that are produced by end-users." Now you can go read the history and such out there later if you like, what does this have to do with my site? UGC is or can be integration with social networking like Blogs, Reviews i.e. Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, Blogspot, Wordpress etc... allowing content from those portals via API's, feeds, RSS, XML or the like and serve back to your site creating... User Generated Content. Another way to do this is integrate forum software into your site, (FYI this can be dangerous and can backfire, get knowledgable of this UGC thing... least you end having to turn it off, don't learn this the hard way!) UGC and forums can improve rankings and it's just fun for your users, it will take off quickly if set up and pushed correctly.
Another is to have users upload content like photos or video to your site (Dangerous as well must me monitored!!!). I mentioned CDN earlier, Content Delivery Network, you can stream your video or whole flash site if you want off of 1000's of servers each in the geographical location of the call of the content lets say video from a local server rather than a single server on site to which will possibly overload i.e. crash if too many request are requested. Let me put this into perspective, how many employee's will you have to hire to keep the users of the internet happy with content? What you are doing is reversing the method and letting the user make themselves happy on your site by allowing thm to engage with your brand. You use their content. Good example of how this works? In forums... realize every single topic is ranked by a search engine and then according to certain keywords the post and how many read that topic/post that are associated they are then ranked by the search engines behind that, ultimately leading users back to your forum and to your site. It's wonderful!
With the technical genius to which Google and some of the search engines are heading towards in ranking content, in search or the paid search options they offer UGC methods are a must due to the fact users love to converse with one another. The search engines utilizing new methods allows users to have more influence on websites and ad units more than ever. You must understand and be knowledgable on how to integrate your campaigns and sites into the Search Engines methods. Brands that have been ignoring their users or members have a slow leak... so to speak. You need to get into the mind of your users, allowing them to push UGC onto your site will allow this but you must engage and pay close attention to analytics. Think about what they might be saying about your brand or more importantly your "Clients" brand. Then decide how you want to engage, eventually someone will have to answer, be sure you engage in time to give an answer that allows for knowledge to be spread and not have to try to curve negativity towards the brand in any way. The Search Engines...they are changing... offering more tools and options, evolving as to how we work with the internet. Producer... you must engage, and have the knowledge to evolve as well so you can bring it to the table when needed and support those who surround you and to support the UGC = User= Content methodology this is your content bread and butter.
Just my two cents...
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