“You take the blue pill, the story ends, you wake up in your bed and believe whatever you want to believe. You take the the red pill, you stay in Wonderland, and I show you how deep the rabbit hole goes.”Morpheus, The Matrix
I’ve been blogging for almost a year now and I’m ready to step-up my game. I’ve been focused on the front-end items, like content and collaboration, and have been fairly successful. Now I’m starting to dive into some of the back-end items, and I’ll admit, it’s a struggle. In particular, online analytics are confusing for a few reasons:
- There’s no set standard. On Twitter it can be retweets and followers. On Facebook it’s your fans and friends. But this changes constantly (Twitter lists anyone?).
- Different platforms utilize different measurements. Klout says I’m a connector. Twitalyzer says my “signal-to-noise” ratio is “astonishingly high.” Topsy says I’m influential. Which one’s the most helpful?
- Success is (oftentimes) in the eye of the beholder. If my blog was a business it would be easy-am I making a profit? But it isn’t; my measures of success (right now) are increased readership and more comments. How can analytics help me get what I want?
Online analytics-the tools, measurements, and the applications they apply to-are dizzying to me. But I want to see what they can do for me. So, if you’re a blogger and care to share some tips that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!
