YouTube Videos Analytics

Have you ever uploaded a video on YouTube and wanna know its statistics? YouTube has its own statistic program inside your Google Account. You don't need to connect it to Google Analytics account if you don' want, but of course GA would do a better job tracking down users. 

Okay, so in order to upload a video, you must create an account, which will be your "Creator's Studio" for YouTube videos. Once you have done that, visit YouTube and you will notice this on the top right corner.

The little circle is to direct you to your YouTube profile and your current videos. Once you are there, you will see your Creator's Studio panel on your left. Click on Analytics

Just like GA, it also has the Real-Time feature that allows you to see the activity live. It also has a section for demographics that will track down gender, age, and other characteristics of it. Your analytics over view will look something like this.

Because I don't have any videos uploaded, you can see that everything in at zero. No movement.

Something that would be cool to do, would be to post a video on your Weebly site and set that as an event on Google Analytics account. Therefore, you upload a video to your YouTube account, you post it on your Weebly site, and you track it down as an event on your GA account. The YouTube analytics will tell you how many views and demographics your video has while the event will allow you to see how many people viewed the video from your website. You see, you can identify the engagement of your users from many sources. The point is, your source is more accurate. And it is pretty fun too.

Using Real-Time in Google Analytics.

Real-Time is a feature of GA that allows you to view a certain website's traffic live. Each movement done by users can be tracked and analyze in the same moments as it happens. One of the things I enjoy of it is tracking down the Events in Real-Time. An event can be a certain video you want your users to watch. It shows you how many people are watching it right now, and the statistics of how many events you are reaching per minute or per second.

For big companies, specially in the music industry, they wanna know how often is that music video being played in a certain YouTube channel, what times a day, and how many times by the same user. This helps you define the success of the video on your target audience a little bit better.

Another feature that I enjoy is the 'Conversion'. Exactly the same job as 'Event', helps you track how many conversions you are getting per minute or second. For business websites that sell products, lets take Amazon for example, they will track how well their AmazonProducts will sell this holiday. Specially on the past few weeks from Black Friday, with conversions, the tracked how many times was one of their products bought by time. This can help them know their target a little bit better and in the future make new promotion strategies depending on time of the day, gender of customer, age, etc.

Custom URL for LinkedIn.

LinkedIn has become the top social media for job hunters. It doesnt only help get jobs, but also be found by companies for potential and unlimited job opportunities. It gives a more complete view of a person both as a professional and as a human being. That is why many job hunters today add their LinkedIn to their information segment of their Resume. Today I will show you a few quick steps to customize your LinkedIn profile URL, so it fits perfectly on your Resume.

Head to your profile and click on 'Edit your Profile'. You will see beneath your profile picture that there is a link. Click on the settings icon that will appear next to it by moving your mouse on it.

On your right you will see a small box that looks like this.

Click on the pencil icon and, what you can do is basically choose how to show your name after the '.com/in/'

As you can see there, the shaded area is the available area for customization. Choose to shorten your name or the other way around. Make it as big as your resume needs it. AND THAT IS IT!

Taking the Google Analytics Test!

Google Analytics is not something that you can learn to use from night a day. It takes a few days to get a hang of it, understand it, and finally master it. I am no master in GA, but I can help you study to take the test so you can get certified sooner. First, create a Google Partners account. After you have done it, your home page will have a panel to the left with some options. 

Click on Analytics. Then, you will see on your right the option to take the exam with the instructions of it. It's a 90 minute limit test of 70 questions, which you pass it by getting an 80%. That means that you have a 15 question margen of error. Anyways, I have a few links that will help you study. Check them all out before taking them. Study AS MANY hours you may need before taking the test.

• https://viget.com/advance/how-to-pass-the-google-analytics-iq-test-in-two-days-zero-to-hero
• http://digitalmarketing.ctp.com/blog/gaiq-test-2015-sample-questions-and-tips
• http://www.ppchero.com/the-2015-google-analytics-exam-what-you-need-to-know/
• http://www.yocazo.com/google-analytics-test-answers

GOOD LUCK!!

My Thoughts on Google Analytic.

For the past 3 months that I have been learning about GA, besides the first impressions and struggles to understand what the hell its talking about, I came to have a very unique appreciation for everything I learned about it. Despite the hard times I went through studying from the most basic things to the top hardest ones, I feel like I have achived something that can help me or other people in the future.

At the beginning of the semester, my professor told me that "Google Analytics is like using magic for modern businesses"; I didn't see it first but now I think I understand it. You can see what nobody else can't. Example: A woman who's online site isn't selling as much as she wanted to, doesn't know what she is doing wrong. This could make her think that her product is not good and probably quit. But with GA you can find the sources of the problem, and see that she had a poor landing page. How do we know that? By looking at the Bounce Rate (the amount of users that come to your website and leave right away without visiting other pages of it). These small things can boost up the approach of a company towards its client and make them a returning visitor.

I have practiced GA by connecting this blog to my GA account, and it is very interesting to see and analyze its traffic. The visitors: where are they from? How many and at what times of the day? Their ages and from what devices they are visiting the blog... All the information in one statistical database ready to be used for monetary reasons, or whatever you choose.

After taking the GA test three times (You can take it by creating an account in Google/Partners) and failed (you must get an 80% to be certified), at the fourth try I finally made it with a 91%. So, now I am officially Google Analytics Certified.

It is a sweet prize for so much hours that I put into it, but it is all worth it.

Set a Goal to Your Google Analytics Account.

So, after creating the "Thank You" page for your user's contact info submission, the next step is to connect this achievement to Google Analytics. Why? The purpose of your website is to share with your users any type of information, product, or service that your site promotes, and you want them to be engaged in it. Consequently, if they buy a product, or a service, or register to your database, that is a win for your business. And those specific actions that we want our users to make are called Goals. Let's set it up!

Visit your website and land on the Thank You page. Copy the URL and head to GA. Once, you are in GA, select the account that you use to manage your weebly site. In your left panel, go to "Conversions" and choose Goals, then overview. Click on "Set Up a Goal". Then, click on the red button that says "+ New Goal". You are gonna see something like this.

Give any name in your goal description and choose destination, because we are giving a link. Press "Continue". The second step is to paste the URL of your weebly site Thank You page where it says destination. Click Save.

THERE IT IS! Your first Goal from your weebly site. This will help us see the conversion rates, which are useful to see how engaged are users to your site.

Collecting Data Inside Your Weebly Page.

Back to talking about weebly. This time we are creating a new page inside your site that is gonna serve for collecting data and engaging more people into your site.

First, lets build up your website a little bit more. Stay in the "Build" section and choose "Contact Form" under Elements. Drag it to wherever you want it to be. This is a form of information receptor. Basically, you put both your name and email to be part of the website's database. People usually do this so in the future you can receive emails with notifications of news from the website. 

Once you have done that, Go to the top and select Pages. Create a new page and name it "Thank You". Drag a text box from the Elements to the middle of the page and also write "Thank You". This part is important. Every time a user goes into your website, registers their info and submits it, they will be directed to the "Thank You" page. How? Go back to your home page and click on the button from the contact form that says "Submit". When you click it, a box will appear with everything that the buttom has. Add your email to it, and below it click "confirmation" and then "link". You will see something like this.

Drop down the "Standard Page" and select your "Thank You" page. This means, that every time someone submits their info, you will receive a notification to your regitered email, and they will be directed to the Thank You page.

Intro to HOOTSUITE

After connecting the Weebly website to the Google Analytics account with the purpose to track its movement, now we got to make it move. To be honest, it is a bit annoying to be hopping from social media to social media sharing your website on one at a time. Well, Hootsuite is gonna make it simple for us.

Basically Hootsuite is a free website where you can register and use its tools to publish any type of content in all of your social media pages that you choose, at the same time. When you first register, Hootsuite is gonna guide you through the steps to learn how to use the basic features of it. It will teach you how to connect your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, etc., to it. (You can only add two social media pages for free. The third one will request you to get Hootsuite PRO for some $$$). Anyways, once you have added them, it will look something like this..

In there you can see, I have chosen to see my current tweets and my Facebook timeline. If you see closely, you will notice I have shared my blog in my last Hootsuite session. I will show you how to do it.

Go to the top where you'll find a small box on the left corner that says "send to...". By passing your mouse on it, a box will drop with the different social media accounts you have your Hootsuite connected to. 

Select which ones you want to share stuff to. After you have selected them, right next to it is gonna be the message box. Type whatever attractive title will bring attention to your content, and at the bottom, add the link of the website you are sharing... in my case, I shared the link of my last blog post.

Click send, and automatically you will see how your content is being shared on your social media timelines... which you can see in the columns of your Hootsuite main page. Pretty easy to use and it really comes in a handy when working on Digital Marketing. 

How To Connect Your Weebly Site To Your Google Analytics Account.

Last week we talked about this great site where you can create you own websites with unlimited customization help. After creating a few pages and making it look decent for the online world, now it is time to track the movement of it. Here is where Google Analytics comes in a handy.

Just like we did with our blog's promotion week on Facebook- tracking every session, we will do the same for the site. Follow up a few simple steps.

First, go to your GA account to "Admin". There you will see the list of your current websites that you are already tracking. Where it says "Property" drop down that button and create select "Create New Property". You are gonna see something like this.

Second, give a name to your website so you will identify it every time you go into GA. Next, copy your websites link into the "Website URL", which you can find in the section of "Settings" under "General Settings". Click on "Get Tracking ID" on the bottom of the page.

Third, copy the "Website Tracking" script- that will be the one with the "script" at the top, followed by a bunch of random alien numbers and letters. Copy it and go to your Weebly site in the "Setting" section. Click SEO and paste your tracking script into the "Fooster Code" box.

AND THERE IT IS! Share it and give it 24 hours until it starts working.

What Color Is Your Parachute?: Chapter 8 (Review)

Chapter 8 talks about a big truth for the desperate job-hunters out there, a truth that may give you happiness for your professional life. "You Get To Choose Where You Work" is the title of the 8th chapter, and it gives you simple steps on how to do it. I'm going to explain the first step, which is in my consideration the most important one.

FIRST, YOU NEED TO FIND OUT WHAT CAREERS OR JOBS YOUR (SKILLS) POINTS TO.

1. Choose the top three of your favorite Knowledge or Field of Interest: e.g. Music, Management, and Marketing.

2. Then, choose your top five Transferable Skills, or in other words, remind yourself how skillful you are in your three Field of Interest options.

3. This step is very important for the continuation of the process. Take what you have done so far and show it to at least five friends, family members, or professionals whom you may know. Ask them what jobs or works this page suggests them . Ask them, "What career fields do these suggest to you?" Write down whatever suggestion they make and do the following:

EXAMPLE: Lets use the three Field of Interest options from above, and put those three favorite Knowledges on a series of overlapping circles.

Your mission is to find the center point where you can find a job that has all three your favorite skills included. Next step, recognize which one of the three is the one you have worked the most to and have more experience. Let's choose Marketing. So you go visit a marketing professional that you know (or set appointment with one. Pay them if necessary), and ask them how you can combine those three fields of interest in one.

Lets analyze the three of them so we can come to a conclusion for an imaginary situation. As, a marketing professional, you can create events that involve music, choose to promote musicians for certain label company, take care of the social media for musicians or bands that need promotions,etc. If you wanna include Management, then think about managing a musicians career, or create your own business where you give management assistance to different bands that may want to rise in the music industry.

4. Write down every little thing the marketing professional may tell you. You will need it for your job search.

5. After a week of doing this. Sit down and revise your notes. Find out what you like the most and see if that is a career path you are willing to choose. If it is, in the end it will be worth it.

After reading the other steps, you can strengthen your attitude toward the future you want and it will create expectations and motivate yourself to achieve it. This process is only one step closer to your dream job. 

Week 8 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 7 (Review)

Chapter 7 talks about 6 different ways that you can learn to describe yourself. The purpose of the chapter is to make the person who seeks for jobs to understand more fully who he is, therefore he can approach multiple job-markets. You must understand that you are a person who has different set of skills besides the one you use to find jobs. Understanding this can help you be open for other job positions that you never thought would be profitable; plus, you would perfomr your job with more energy because you are doing something that you really enjoy. 

The chapter goes down by describing yourself with a self-made question "I Am a Person Who..."

- Has had these experiences.
- Is skilled at doing this or that.
- Knows a lot about this or that.
- Is unusual in this way or that.

A different set of exercises inside the chapter will help you go through this questions easily and efficiently, so that by the end of your reading you would have found the truth of your prefered type of job, work environment, and co-workers.

Week 7 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 6 (Review)

"It's common sense to take a method and try it. If it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something new." - Franklin D. Roosevelt. 

I start this blog with former president of the U.S. quote telling us to not give up, but to find some new way to reach your goals. It is perfect for this chapter that is titled "What to Do When Your Job-Hunt Just isn't Working" and a few little rules that I found here are:

- Never Give Up
- Never Give Up
- Never Give Up

In this chapter, the author explains that there are two ways to hunt for a job: The "Traditional Way" in which the job seeker behaves like a "job-beggar", thinking only what to do to impress them and only worry about their satisfaction in order to get the job. Then, there is the "Parachute Way", a method where your mind is more

selfish but for the good of your future. This method wants you to "figure out what kind of job you would die to do, before you go out hunting", and after getting a second or third interview, it wants you to be honest to yourself instead of desperate and answer the question, "do I like them? Do I enjoy this work environment?". And of course, end the interviews with a thank-you note.

According to the book, the "Traditional Way" fails between 50-86% of the times, while the "Parachute Way" has a success probability of 86% of the time. 

Apparently, this book has a secret recipe to find yourself a job... your dream job.

Week 7 - Weebly Experience

If you've ever thought on creating a website but don't know how to start or design it, then you must try weebly.com. Very user-friendly plus it gives you a wide variety of themes and background pictures for the type of environment you want to give to your website.

Last week I began creating my own website. The first step was to create a domain, or in other words create a name or URL. Then, you begin to choose the layout you want with the different options weebly has for you. Mine ended up something like this:

After you have done these two steps, the next one is to construct what goes in it. You notice that in the picture above I added a big "Welcome" and a quote from Lauren Fishburn about marketing. I did all these things by using the Build section. 

Beneath the Basic panel you will also find a Structure panel, which allows you to move things around your page, a Media panel that allows you to add HD videos, audio files, documents, etc. If your page is for business you also have a panel called Commerce. This gives you the option to tag things a product or Google Adsense.

Weebly's main page has a section calles 'Inspiration Center' where it gives you different articles on how to improve your website so you can experiment all of its features as full percent.

Although I am still trying to figure out what is the real purpose of my website, I don't feel in a rush to do so, therefore in the meantime I will keep experimenting with it. Once Im finished, I will connect it with my Google Analytics page so I can track it's movement. 

Week 6 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 5 (Review)

This chapter talks about how to negotiate a salary during an interview. It is an interesting chapter because, as a freshly graduated student from college, I didn't think I was in a position to negotiate salary (maybe I am not), but it is always important to acknowledge the fact that it is very possible to negotiate a higher salary than the one the employer thought you would take. The book shares 6 secrets which I have chosen a few to explain and make a short summary.

Secret #1.- NEVER DISCUSS SALARY UNTIL THE END OF THE WHOLE INTERVIEWING PROCESS... That means that when they have decided you that they need you and they are going to make an offer, then it is the time to discuss figures. Before, it would just give them the wrong idea that you are just here for the money and don't really care about the organization's mission and goals.

Secret #3.- DURING A SALARY DISCUSSION, NEVER BE THE FIRST ONE TO MENTION A SALARY FIGURE: Similar to secret number one, always wait for the interviewer to initiate the recompensation talk.If they ask you first "what kind of salary are you looking for?" try to get away from the question by responding with something like "well, you created this position, so you must have some figure in mind, and I'd be interested in first hearing what that figure is". This strategy is for you to know from where to start going up.

Secret #4.- BEFORE YOU GO TO THE INTERVIEW, DO SOME CAREFUL RESEARCH ON TYPICAL SALARIES FOR YOUR FIELD... So, let's say you got a call to interview for the position of "XYZ", and after a few interviews the employer offers you a certain amount of salary for the job- let's say $30,000 a year. Now, you remembered that you searched online, e.g. "average salary for the position XYZ in (your city, or state)", and the results showed you that the average ranges between $35,000 to $45,000. Now that you know this, you are in a total position to negotiate your salary with the interviewer. Why is it worth it? Because by the end of the year you will be making $15,000 more than you would have if you hadn't done some research online.

Of course, all of this negotiating would be useless if by the end of the interview, once both parties had made a deal, you didn't suggested to sign a "letter of agreement". Why? because this document is a promise that all your effort and achievement in negotiating a salary won't be changed. You usually do this because the employer can forget, regret, or simply back off from what was agreed. And that is Secret #6.

Week 6 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 4 (Review)

Before the day of a big job interview everybody wonders what can they do to nail it, and with chapter 4 "Sixteen Tips About Interviewing for a Job" there is a good chance that you can walk in to the employers office feeling confident. After reading the chapter, I came up with a few short tips that I found to be the most relevant from my standard point of view:

Tip #2.- AN INTERVIEW SHOULD BE PREPARED FOR, BEFORE YOU EVER GO: This means that your first step after being invited to a job interview is to google the company and find out what they do in the "About Us" page. After you know what they do, prepare yourself by analyzing your strongest skills that you believe the employer is looking for on the person who can fill the job position.

Tip #4.- AN INTERVIEW FOR A JOB IS A LOT LIKE DATING: It all comes down to "do I like you?".Do not think for a minute that the only person allowed to ask that question is the employer, because after all, you are looking for a job that you will feel comfortable in years to come. Exactly like dating...

Tip #5.- QUESTIONS TO EXPECT FROM THEM, THEN QUESTIONS YOU CAN ASK: This one caught my mind, mainly because I have experienced it and can put you through HELL if you don't know how to answer it. Most of the times, the first question they ask is "Tell me about yourself"... and God as my witness, I hate that question. The only thing to do here is to take 15 minutes of your time before attending to the interview, sit down with a pencil and paper, and write down what you think about yourself, professionaly-speaking. After you have come up with a short but clear answer, now it is time to memorize it. This is the only perfect way to nail that question. But, what can I ask? Something that it can catch the employer's attention that demonstrate your involvement for the job position: "What do you seek in a person who holds the postion?" or something similar to that. That way, you are letting them know that you are very interested in them.

Tip #7.- THE TWENTY-SECOND TO TWO-MINUTE RULE: Even if you are an introvert or a never-in-silence extrovert, it is highly recomended that the answer to their question stay in between 20 seconds and two minutes.

Tip #16.- THANK YOU NOTES MUST BE SENT AFTER EVERY INTERVIEW: It is as simple as it sounds like, ignored by most of job-hunters out there, and as succesfull as ever. It shows courtesy and respect, and it will be a plus that can help you get a second interview. You don't believe it? Last month, my girlfriend was about to head for a job interview when I came up with the last tip before she left. I mentioned it to her and she was skeptical. After the interview, she decided to send a thank you note, and wished for the best outcome of a situation that she felt there was a low chance on getting a second interview. Long story short, after 3 weeks of suspense, she recieved another call from the employer saying that they had received the thank you note and that they wanted her to come back for a second interview. It is like you'd have never thought it could work, but it does.

Going to job interviews can be very stressful, therefore you want to be ready for the best. Chapter 4 of the book is a set of rules on how to make you confident in front of any employer from any company. Best of luck!

Week 5 - Analysis of the Facebook Ad

Last week, on Oct 1st, I created an ad for my marketing blog on Facebook for the purpose of its promotion through this social media website. I set the ad to run until Oct 6th to see how many people were exposed to it and how many people actually visited my blog. The results are way higher than I had expected.

I think this is really cool. 427 people clicked  to visit my blog, 37 THOUSAND people were reached, and only 20 dollars spent. By saying "People Reached" is meant the amount of people who were exposed to this ad in its time of promotion. Even though I cannot be certain of the amount of people who actually saw it, processed the info, and moved on into their timeline, I know that at least out of the 37,215, a good amount of facebook users have the seed of Giancarlo's Marketing Blog planted in their heads. It's evil but awesome.

Facebook Ad Manager not only gave me the overall numbers, but also it breaks it down to geography, gender, and age. Most of the visitors I got were from my home country Ecuador, followed by the U.S., and only a few numbers from Spain... which I think that one doesnt count because my roommate is Spanish, and because his Facebook indicates he still resides in Spain, then that is probably why I'm getting "visits" from Europe. 

Another interesting result was that more women visited the page than men.

How many variables that can affect directly to this result can we come out with?

- Are women on my timeline more interested in marketing than men?

- Are women more likely to visit blogs than men?

- Am I friends with more women than men on Facebook?

- Does the age average between men and women affect on their interests in blogs?

- Do men visit FB on different hours of the day than women do, therefore exposure to the ad may vary...?

I'm gonna take the last two components and analyze them with the age chart the FB Ad Manager gave me (left is women, right are men, blue is "clicks", and light blue is "people reached").

So, according to the chart, does the age average between men and women affect on their interests in blogs?
The answer is NO. It is clear that most of the visits came from people between the ages of 18-24, therefore their "interest in blogs" does not seem to be much of an influencial variable.

Second component is: Do men visit FB on different hours of the day than women do, therefore exposure to the ad may vary...?
The answer according to the chart is not accurate. You see, men between the ages of 18-24 had a 35% exposure against women's 34%. But you might say, "well it is only one percent difference, no big deal", but that one percent is a difference of 300 people, and for marketers, analyzers, and investors, 300 hundred people count and they might wanna know why is that.

I have come to find that this is actually amazing. I was impressed on the amount of people visiting the blog, the gender, geographics and ages, among other demographic factors.

The next step as a blog owner would be figure out how many of the visitors stayed there and read the blog, the average time they stayed, if they clicked on anything, and how many of those visitors are new or same users returning to the page. Now, it is the time to do so with Google Analytics.

Week 4 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 3 (Review)

Chapter 3 of the book talks about the different angles from where you can see your situation. It tells us that nothing has changed since 2008 (contradiction to chapter 1), but it is true. The amount of jobs available per month hasn't decreased, or if it has, there is still a ridiculous number of job positions out there waiting to be filled.

I like the example that the author shares in the chapter, so I will explain it with my own words. Imagine you have a store that sells dresses, and in your inventory you have currently 100. Now, a friend comes to visit and notices that you have that amount of dresses, then leaves and comes back one month later. He asks, how many dresses do you have? and you say, 95. He mocks you by saying "Haha, you only sold 5 dresses in the last month", but the truth is that you increased your inventory in that month by adding 50 dresses more. Do the math: (100+50)-95= 55. You sold 55 dresses last month. 

You see, it is not that job openings only happen a few times a year, but it happen every month, more and more than you think. And if some of those jobs are taken, the next month more job positions will be open again. It's the way you see trouble, either the glass is half empty, or the glass is half full.

Week 3 - Intro to Google Analytics: Chapter 2 (Review)

At the beginning of the semester I created a blog called Giancarlo's Marketing Blog, and the only proof I had of someone visiting it, or reading anything that I published, were these numbers on my blogger account:

Chapter 2 of the book shares instructions and advice on how to create a blog and a Google Analytics page to track your blog's activity more closely. So I did as followed and had myself a GA account. Now, the book also states that it usually takes to 24 hours for the GA to track the blog's activity, therefore my GA main page looks empty and full of zeros.

The book also states that to see "reliable monthly stats" it is necessary to wait a month.

I believe this is a good way to start learning how analytics work, with a fun page that is also user friendly for everyone capable of operating a computer. I am curious to know how my blog stats will look in a month.

Week 3 - What Color Is Your Parachute: Chapter 2 (Review)

¨Google Is Your New Resume¨ is the name of the second chapter. My first thought was ¨that sounds pretty cool¨, afterall, Google has an enormous quantity of data that could help employers see me in different ways. But of course, it all depends on the things I have shared on my social media websites.
Can you actually get hired or fired over your Facebook page?

I don`t believe your Facebook page can get you hired, but i do believe it can get you fired. Facebook is a social media page where people share their beliefs, thoughts, emotions, and innumerable videos, pictures, or songs they could feel identified by. Now, the problem comes when the company`s mission or values go against your personal idealism over life itself. To make it more simple, here are some examples.

SWISS WOMAN CAUGHT SURFING ON FACEBOOK WHILE ¨HOME SICK¨ FROM WORK

The woman claimed to be unable to work ¨in front of a computer ¨ but her boss had lost the employer-employee trust needed to make a business relationship work, so she got canned.

NFL CHEERLEADER FIRED OVER PICTURE

Caitilin Davis, a cheerleader for the New England Patriots got fired at age 18 for sharing a picture on Facebook that shows her next to a man who appears to be blacked out from alcohol. The man had his body covered with vulgar graffitis and a quote that said ¨I am a Jew¨. Fired.

WOMAN BLASTS HER BOSS ON FACEBOOK

I think this pretty much says it all...

After reading this chapter, I think I will think twice before using my social media pages.

Week 2 - Intro to Google Analytics: Chapter 1 (Review)

                

Let me get this right… I can have a record of who visits my website? A geographic location from where the page is being visited? What they are trying to do or searching for? And all for free? Apparently, I can. It is called Google Analytics.

 I have been reading a new book and it is called CASA Marketing: Intro to Google Analytics and it isn’t the type of book that I understood the content and everything that explains, but I think I am catching up as I read by.

 Quick intro to web analytics by Wikipedia: "Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage". So, if you are the owner of a business website, and need some feedback about if your target is visiting your website and what they are looking for in it, web analytics is the perfect way to take the most advantage of it. What GA does (what I am aware as today) is that it gathers data of your website's activity. Who visited this part, or that part; how many times they visited it, and if is the first visit or the 5^th. Google analytics can bring all down to numbers, but what if I am not a “numbers person”?

  Todd Kelsey, the author of the book Intro to Analytics, described himself in the book as someone who saw himself working with numbers. He also shares the story of how he was introduced to analytics for the first time. He claims to have started a website with a friend, and in their curiosity/necessity of knowing who was visiting their website, they searched for a “’tool’ that would help them do that”. And without realizing it, they were introduced to analytics. “And it was fun”.

  People use analytics mainly to track their Organizational Return of Investment. How many people see your product, your online ads, your service ads, and even your social media pages. Lets face it, we don’t need a case study to come to the conclusion that the big majority of your target is on any kind of social media these days. By analyzing these pages –Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, etc, you can get a closer approach to your final consumer reviewing their likes, dislikes, comments, and suggestions on your brand. Now you think anyone can read and manage a social media account, but to analyze it by numbers is where you can get the best out of it for the benefit of your company.

  I have been facing my ups and downs trying to deeply comprehend everything that Website Analytics is about, and to be honest, I have a feeling that it may take me a while to become an expert. But the truth is that the business world is always changing, and now more than ever, in the Era of Information, the market has become more competitive than before. So, I think I will take as many weapons as I can to fight this war, and Google Analytics may just be a perfect one for my future.