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. 

Register now!

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

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.

eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and Web Analytics Wednesday (WAW) will be held in Stockholm, Sweden, at the end of September.

At eMetrics you’ll be able to listen to speakers like Vicky Brock, Brian Clifton, Steve Jackson, Erick Barney, Kristoffer Ewald, and Oliver Schiffers. There will be nearly 20 speakers during the two days the conference lasts. Yes, I will speak too. Have a look at the rest of the agenda.

On the evening of the first day of eMetrics there will also be a Web Analytics Wednesday.

Both events are part of Digital Days Stockholm.

Use the discount code WEBANALYSTS010 when registering for eMetrics Stockholm to get a 15% discount.

You can also become a blog partner if you’d like a link to your blog from the eMetrics website. If you’re lucky you might also get some free tickets.

What made you write the book “Social Media Metrics: How to Measure and Optimize Your Marketing Investment”?

Social media is all the rage. It’s the Shiny New Thing and everybody is jumping up and down, saying, “It’s the most important development of the decade!” I happen to agree, but once the excitement is over, once one understands the principals of being sociable online, the question remains: How do I measure the value that my social media efforts bring to the organization?

For the individual, the payback is clear: Ego pumping, respect building and friendship embellishment. But for a brand, a product or a company, we need to focus on how to measure the results of a business investment.

Who’s your target audience?

Marketing people. Social media experts will look at this book and think, “Yeah, that makes sense. I knew that.” For the other 99.99% of marketing people on the planet, this is an introduction to the business logic of social media. For those who are excited about social media, this book gives them the ammunition they need to explain their desire to spend money to others in their organizations.

Isn’t social media just a buzz phrase created by consultants? Others just call everything “Internet”. I mean, why is it important to talk about social media measurement specifically now that it’s is such an integrated part of the web?

The “World Wide Web” is just that piece of the Internet where websites live. Email is separate from the Web. Newsgroups and discussion forums are different animals. Blogs, video sharing, tweeting and more are all on the Internet but are not of the Web. So why not just talk about Internet measurement? I prefer to talk about marketing measurement.

We used to talk about marketing as being Above The Line (advertising, branding, positioning, etc.) and Below The Line (marketing brochures, seminars, face-to-face sales calls, etc.). Both of those still happen on the Internet. Social media is a new animal. So while we have the old metrics of reach, frequency and attitude above the line, and various measures of engagement in the sales pipeline and business outcomes below the line, we now have a means of listening to people talk about us out there. Measuring overheard public opinion is different from “market research” which is measuring what people tell us directly.

Can you name the three best success stories of data-driven social media initiatives that you are aware of?

This is all evolving so fast that examples are old before the end of the sentence. Amazon succeeded so well because they invited people to write and post book reviews in their online store. That was social media before we knew to call it social media.

Companies have been asking for feedback from the start. But when Dell (Idea Storm), Starbucks (My Starbucks Idea) and Pepsi (Pepsi Refresh Project) turned over the ranking of that feedback to their customers that things really took off.

What’s the best social initiative? Depends on what the organization’s goals are. What’s the best data-driven initiative? Any program that actively monitors their result and adjusts their strategy and tactics in response.

Every time something new and fresh comes around there’s a risk that we enter geek mode and start measuring things that don’t really matter—do you think many organizations have lost themselves in pointless metrics rather than what drives revenue up, costs down, and increases satisfaction?

I think early adopters are guilty of getting lost in pointless metrics just because there’s data.

“Oh look! There were only 3 “u”s in the previous sentence but more than 10 “e”s. How does that compare to writings from all our other customers?! What might that tell us about Jim’s propensity to buy??”

But these are early days. Many companies are taking their time and deciding what counts rather than simply look at what can be counted.

What would you say to those who have number of followers on Twitter as a KPI?

I’d say, “Gee, you must be the most popular kid in school.”

Engagement: metric or excuse? Final verdict?

Engagement is a very real metric but it’s not a standard. A kilometer is a standard. Effort, drive, ambition are all critical and relative, but they are not numerically comparable.

You can find Jim’s book on Amazon or through your other reseller of choice.