There is a whole bunch of great things going on in my world right now leading me to be pretty busy, but I came across something that was too good to pass up so a new post was warranted. Web analytics are probably one of the most useful tools for folks that make their living on the web, regardless of whether you are directly working for an association or simply providing services to them. Sure, you could use the high-power pay for services like WebTrends, Omniture, or CoreMetrics, and in some cases they may provide additional features, functions and ease of use that warrant the price. However, for many of us Google Analytics is the tool of choice – and for good reason it’s free, it’s feature-rich, and it’s pretty easy to integrate and use.

Regardless of how good it is and how easy it is to use, it’s still a pretty complicated tool to use effectively. To use a metaphor, in the hands of a regular person a hammer is a hammer and a saw is a saw. In the hands of a craftsman those two tools can build houses and furniture. Unfortunately in order to become a true craftsman you have to put in time to gain the experience necessary to earn that respected designation. Using analytics packages aren’t too much different. It’s easy enough to sign-up for an account an copy-and-paste some code to paste into a template. It’s even easier to check-in on the results periodically. But those two attributes don’t make you an analytics expert and also don’t make your website, marketing campaigns or product sales any more effective. What’s needed is more knowledge.

Enter Google Conversion University, and more specifically an online course in web analytics techniques and Google Analytics implementation, administration, and analysis tools that was very recently introduced. Now you can not only implement Google Analytics but also gain a much better understanding on how to use both it and the results to make some lasting and impactful changes to your web initiatives. In addition, if you are a really passionate user and want to prove your “Googleness” you can even use the learning to prepare you for the Google Analytics IQ (individual qualification) test.

The online presentations are a pretty good example of solid online learning. Granted they lack any sort of job aids or formative assessments – to assess per lesson knowledge transfer, but they include reasonable learning objectives and a modicum of interactivity. Overall, they are well executed, pretty effective and definitely worth a look especially if you user or responsible for or interested in web analytics.

How is your association doing with its adoption / implementation of social media tools? Individuals like myself, Jeff De Cagna, and many others have spent a lot of time researching, discussing and blogging about the use of social media by associations. The basic conclusion is the fact that embracing Web 2.0-type technologies that encourage participation and collaboration simply isn’t happening in associations, at least in comparison to other professions. While it is a bit of a criticism, I see it as more of a statement of opportunity for associations to innovate and increase member value.

As with any type of new initiative, project or program, you need to know where you are in order to determine how to get to where you are going. The one challenge with the whole social media phenomenon is the fact that there is no logical beginning or end. It really depends on what your goals and objectives are and how much time you have to commit on a regular basis as to what type of path you pursue. For some it may be as simple as having your CEO or one of your senior leaders publishing a few blog posts a week and making these posts available via a RSS feed. For others it may be adding the use of a Wiki to encourage collaboration or the dissemination of knowledge among project teams. Still others may jump in feet first and decide to implement blogs, wiki’s, RSS feeds, as well as podcasts/vodcasts, and other highly interactive features.

What is important, however, is that your use of social media not only correlate to some aspect of your associations strategic plan but also add value to your members. If you have a membership base that is highly mobile forcing them to be connected to their computer is not only impractical, it is also unfair. Similarly, if you have a membership base that has only started to adopt and use more advanced technologies on a regular basis, hitting them with a lot of fancy features on your website may only serve to overwhelm them.

This invariably leads one to ask a number of questions including: what type of social media is best suited for achieving my associations strategic goals and objectives and further more how can I/we use it to create more value for our stakeholders? Additionally, if my association has already implemented some aspects of social media how can we tell how we compare with others and how far can we go in terms of furthering our use and adoption. The first question is a bit challenging to answer and is definitely a topic for a future post. However, the second question may be slightly easier to answer thanks to a great web application that I stumbled upon a few days ago.

I was reading an entry on the Digital Influence Mapping Project blog that is written by John Bell from Ogilvy PR. In a recent posting he was basically announcing that there was going to be an event titled: Measuring Social Media in DC a gathering of top brands in DC coming together to share insights from measuring the performance of social media programs.

In the announcement I saw that John mentioned another Ogilvy website: Your Social Media Score that allows organizations to self-assess themselves on a variety of social media related topics as shown below:

After completing the questions and submitting the form, you are provided with a numerical score and a verbal interpretation of your score:

Perhaps the nicest part of the entire tool is the fact that they provide you with additional information to help your organization/association improve at all levels of their continuum.

Curious but Cautious

Hungry to Hear

Excited to Engage

Granted it is not highly analytic or scientific, but at the same time it’s a starting point! I like the fact that it provides guidance without being overly prescriptive. So how is your association doing? I know mine isn’t fairing that well, then again we are in the midst of a pretty large enterprise architecture project that should resolve much of our shortcomings. Even so there is definitely room to improve.