Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Preventing Fake Metrics

“They” say 78 percent of statistics are made up on the spot. Metrics can be faked as well. Metrics can also gather data on the wrong thing, giving you poor results that are as good as (or, rather, as bad as) fake.

One way to prevent getting fake metrics from a consultant or your team (or just from bad use of analytics) is to make sure that everyone on the team has at least read-only level access to the analytics program of your choice.

Adding a user to Google Analytics

Having everyone able to access the metrics allows everyone on the team to offer feedback on how the metrics are doing and what they’re measuring. It also gives you a chance to open up talking points about different kinds of metrics and what makes each one valuable to team members who might normally gravitate toward surface metrics instead of meat-and-potatoes measurement.

If Google Analytics is your weapon of choice for metrics, adding a user is fairly easy:

1. Log in to Google Analytics.

2. Choose the URL of the site you want people to have access to.

3. In the window that appears, click the gear in the upper right corner of the orange toolbar.

4. On the next page, click the Users tab.

5. Click the New User button.

The Add User to Profile window, shown in Figure 11-2, appears.

6. Add a completely new user by e-mail address.

7. Give them User level access, not Administrative access.

8. Save your settings.

9. Repeat this process until you’ve added the whole project team.

Figure ...