I decided to ask web analytics authors Jim Sterne, Brian Clifton, and Steve Jackson three questions about their upcoming presentations at eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Stockholm, September 19–20.

What are you going to talk about?

Jim Sterne: Social media metrics are the mechanistic tabulation of online activity in a realm that is more social than it is media. Not only are we trying to capture numbers about human interactions, we then have to present those numbers to other people in a meaningful way. Both of sides of this equation requires a great deal of human understanding.

Brian Clifton: A couple of areas this time: “What GA can and cannot do”, and “Measuring Success in Social Media” (with Google Analytics). I am also interested in discussing the issues raised by the new EU Privacy law that came into effect on May 25th. This has a huge impact on how website owners handle visitor privacy, yet many are either unaware or confused with the poorly worded guidance issued so far by the privacy bodies of the EU member states.

Steve Jackson: What I’ve learned over the past 2–3 years and about how my role has changed since 2000. In the early days it was about improving the campaign funnel from acquisition to sales. Now it’s about learning about the whole customer life cycle and the variety of touchpoints (social, search, display, e-mail, SMS, MMS) in order to predict what the best channel is to attract the most loyal customers. I am now either developing or utilizing RF & RFM models on a daily basis across customer data as well as applying predictive analysis to plan marketing activities. It’s not about any single tool (like web analytics) anymore, it’s about being able to adapt and integrate a wide variety of tools and present information that works for the business.

Who should listen to your presentation?

Jim Sterne: Anybody who is engaged in social media for business and everybody who is trying to quantify the results of their social media marketing efforts.

Brian Clifton: Clearly my focus is on Google Analytics, though my methodologies for social media tracking are applicable to any web analytics tool. Historically, there have always been two types of people involved in web measurement—implementers (webmasters, developers) and end-users (marketers, PR professionals, content creators). What I attempt to do is bridge that gap by getting end-users to provide the direction for the implementors, i.e. work with them so each can make informed decisions. Not as easy as it sounds. Essentially, I am saying both types should come along and listen in!

Steve Jackson: Anyone who is struggling to make sense of multi channel and wants to answer the question “where is my marketing effective and why?” 

What role does eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit play in the field of web analytics and testing?

Jim Sterne: While social media lets us all engage from all over the world, meeting face to face is the heart and soul of human interaction. For many years, the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit has been the gathering place of people interested in improving their online marketing—and now all of their marketing—through measurement. It’s the marketing analytics watering hole of record.

Brian Clifton: The key for any conference series in this field, is education. People, including myself, want to learn and grow their knowledge. From best practice tips and tricks, to learning by other people’s mistakes (showing mistakes as a learning aid, something that is often underrated by speakers, perhaps for fear of looking dumb—but it shouldn’t be). For new people to the web measurement industry, it’s often about being able to understand and set their own expectations. For example, what does a tool cost, how long does it take to install, what training do I need, when can I start getting insights, can I do this by myself or do I need a team? So it’s all about the learning..

Steve Jackson: For me it is the only event I regularly learn from in the industry. New ideas are presented here. New perspectives from strong practitioners who understand what they’re talking about. I have yet to see a presenter at the eMetrics flap over or avoid a question, there is always some form of answer, and if it’s not right there from the podium it is discussed in depth from the networking. Other events in my mind don’t hold the same form of prestige from a speaking perspective. From a learning perspective I would say the summit has a major influence worldwide on what is adopted and what goes by the wayside in terms of analytics and testing. 

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The entire conference will be held in English. Are you interested in web analytics, testing, conversion optimization, and increasing the ROI of your marketing efforts and website? Then this is the conference for you, no matter where you’re from. Why not combine the conference with some days off to explore the beautiful city of Stockholm?

Register now!

(the discount code INUSEINSIGHTS011 will get you a 15% discount)

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit will be taking place in Stockholm September 19–20, together with Search Marketing Expo (SMX) and Internet Marketing Conference (IMC).

The agenda for eMetrics Stockholm has been released and you can get the super early bird rate until July 15.

Read about pricing or register. You can buy a combined ticket if you want to attend more than one conference.

Expect presentations from the following people on this year’s agenda:

• Jim Sterne
• Brian Clifton
• Steve Jackson
• Jiri Brazda
• Mia Jung
• Predrag Nikolic
• and many more

You’ll also find case studies from Hurtigruten, FINN.no, SoundCloud, Yle.fi, Hi3G, Operation Smile, Doctors Without Borders, Web Guide Partner, and more.

eMetrics Stockholm is held entirely in English and is focused around web analytics, testing, marketing optimization, and continuous digital improvements. Its target audience consists of web analysts, CMOs, marketing managers, sales managers, CEOs, etc.

I’ve spoken at eMetrics Stockholm 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. There will be a presentation by my company inUse Insights this year as well, but it’ll be held by Antoaneta Nikolaeva (Web Analyst, inUse Insights) instead. inUse Insights has done some great work for several organizations. It’ll be great!

I’m also Chair of the advisory board, gold sponsor, and blog partner.

You can watch a video from previous eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summits below.

>> Buy your ticket now to get the lowest price possible! <<

(the discount code INUSEINSIGHTS011 will get you a 15% discount)

Don't miss Web Analytics Wednesday after eMetrics.

The rumours about my demise are grossly exaggerated. No, wait, there are no such claims. But maybe there should be? This blog has been painfully dead compared to previous years.

At one point this blog was one of the voices of the industry, now others have surpassed it. This blog was born roughly at the same time as Avinash’s blog. Needless to say his blog has been a resounding success, and maintains its focus to date. Mine has room for improvement!

I would like to apologize to you, dear reader, for the low activity rate on this blog. I still enjoy going back to it though.

This blog is somewhat of a museum of web analytics. You’ll find web analytics memorabilia, old web analytics vendor comparisons (find interviews, screenshots, facts, and comparisons of tools that no longer exist as well as ones that are still going strong—I challenge you to search for any tool on this blog), the first eight Web Analytics Wednesdays in Stockholm (2006-2007), information about web analytics around the world (Australia, China, Korea, Thailand, Singapore, India, Brazil, Japan, etc.), countless of interviews with the CEOs and rock stars of our industry (including Avinash Kaushik, Eric T. Peterson, Dennis Mortensen, Bob Page, Jim Novo, Jim Sterne, and Seth Godin), old predictions (including my own crazy predictions and dubious observations), early mobile analytics, and more.

Other posts have ranged from free KPI development for a specific website to more hardcore GA API stuff to vendor research to broader concepts to comparing you to monkeys and my mom, and a lot more.

I’m particularly fond of some of the podcasts that I’ve made, like Web Analytics in Europe 2007 (widely appreciated), and the Roundtable Podcast on Testing.

If tools like Offermatica, Visual Sciences, ClickTracks, ClientStep, Optimost, and Widemile sound familiar to you, then you’ve probably been around the block for some time as well.

Over the years I’ve been instrumental in the release of a free Google Analytics addin for Excel, and the free code for a GA app for iPhone.

I’ve worked for Satama, started Digital Days Stockholm, and helped organize Internet Marketing Conference in Stockholm, Vancouver, and New York.

I’ve written articles about web analytics for several large Swedish publications as well as for the American Website Magazine (10 Terrific Testing Tips and Evaluate Editorial Impact Using Google Analytics), and been interviewed on WebmasterRadio.FM.

I’ve also spoken at numerous conferences, and helped make the program for eMetrics Stockholm 2010 and 2011. I took Web Analytics Wednesday and Web Analytics Association to Sweden.

What I’m most happy about though is taking the step I did last year. I had been thinking about what to focus on, how great team members are found, and how to build something where I can give something back. Well, in 2010 I was instrumental in founding two new web analytics companies: inUse Insights and Ampliofy. The former is a web analytics services company, and the latter is a product company working on four products based on Google Analytics. Being based in Sweden seemed like a good idea.

I’ve always wanted to build a company the way it should be built. It should consist of skilled, fun, helpful, and innovative people. If you think you can do things better, give it a shot. If you never try to do it, don’t comment on what others do. My goal is not only to grow the business, but to do so with generous employee benefits, and the ability to contribute to the community (both to the web analytics community and to greater good).

Ampliofy’s (the name is a combination of the Latin word amplio and the English word amplify) products will add data to Google Analytics, and show data in new ways. We have also developed a better, more advanced, professional version of Excellent Analytics. It has been coded from scratch to be more efficient. Keep an eye out for it! The open source version will still exist, but the pro version will add more power to businesses and organizations.

inUse Insights has been profitable from day one, we’ve recruited several people, and we have given away hours of work to charities.

If you e-mail me I always try my best to take my time to respond. I have never said no to meeting students interested in web analytics, I’ve found many people work (not only for my own company), and I’ve given plenty of free support for Excellent Analytics. Don’t hesitate to ask anything. I’m very busy, but I try my best to help. Just don’t take advantage of it by trying to get free consulting for your business.

See, I’m not dead. I’m just very busy! Once again, my sincere apologies for this blog being so dead. I hope to find time to change that!

Though I have that book I’ve promised to write too..

In the meanwhile, check out the Swedish blogs I’m a frequent contributor to:
Webbanalys.nu
inUse Insights’s blog