Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Practicing Bulletproof Metrics for Companies

Making metrics bulletproof for your company is simple: Be detail oriented and think in paths. What I mean by think in paths is to always envision the path your customer would take to and through your site (or store). Then make sure that your content, design, and metrics follows that path. Use metrics to periodically analyze your vision of the path for conversion rate and usefulness.

As you look at actual customer paths and patterns, you’ll find that in most, but not all, cases, your customer doesn’t come to you for your content. Your content may compel them to stay, but more often, they come to you for something entirely different (help or customer service, directions to your store, a phone number, or your hours — things like that).

Metrics help you analyze what your customers and potential customers really want so that you can give it to them first, rather than giving them what you think they should want. Should is a dangerous word in business, and it can hamper your metrics.

Metrics also help bulletproof your site by finding the weak spots quickly, such as the points of your website where you lose the most customers or the forms that most frequently get abandoned. Take a look at why and make changes based on the data you gather in your metrics program, and you’ll see your real ROI (new customers, sales, and so on) increase accordingly.

One thing that can make your metrics soar is incorporating the new social measurement features into ...