Social Media Metrics For Dummies

Metrics of Travel

Whether you need to track geolocation data of your travels, fuel expenses, meals, other expenses, transportation type, or more, there is a way to do it. Some people use simple log books they keep in their car, some save receipts and write notes in them, and some use Evernote to take a snap and note of expenses or locations. Whatever your tool, tracking travel is incredibly useful (and in the case of the IRS in the United States, essential).

If you religiously track your miles and gas purchases, for example, you can see over time which gas providers offer better fuel by correlating data by brand over time. For example, if you consistently log more miles per gallon after every fill up from your local cash-only gas station but find that your mileage declines after a fill up from a national provider and no outlying data, such as city versus highway or old tires or other missed repairs, to change the outcome, then you now know to maximize your gas budget by avoiding those stations.

A trend lately is to use a tracking application on a mobile phone to track driving data and car repair data over time and then export it to (you guessed it) a spreadsheet for more analysis. Some apps that do that include GasBuddy, FuelFrog, and Road Trip, to name a few (see Figure 20-9).

As you begin to accumulate travel and travel expense data to analyze, you’ll discover endless business applications. You can use those metrics and make your workforce more efficient, schedule fewer meetings ...