Do you measure up?

June 24, 2010

When I was a kid, my best friend’s name was Emily. Every time I went to Emily’s house, I always noticed this one wall that had a bunch of horizontal lines on it. One day, I asked Emily, “Why are all these lines here?” Emily responded, “Every couple of months, my mom likes to measure how tall I am, so I stand up here and she measures me with a pencil.” “Oh, I see…” not thinking much of it (I just thought it was cool her parents wrote on the wall).

At six, this information didn’t mean anything to me. But at 22—it’s crystal clear. Measurement is measurement regardless of what you are measuring. Whether it’s human height or Web traffic, measurement is about capturing data and tracking progress.

In her book, Measuring Public Relationships (2007), Katie Paine says, “Public relations measurement is a circular, reiterative process in which information is acquired and then changes are made based on that information, and then more information is acquired and more changes are made, and so on again and again” (p. 2). Granted, this is a very broad description, but honestly it’s measurement in a nutshell. People cannot improve what they cannot measure, so measurement is absolutely necessary to see how your efforts are holding up to reach your objectives.

With measurement in mind, I decided to check out the WordPress statistics of this blog to see what was provided to me and how I was doing ‘numbers wise’. To my surprise, listed right there before my very eyes was my ‘total views’, ‘busiest day’, ‘average views per day’, ‘referrers’ (where people clicked links from to get to my blog, ‘most popular posts’ and much more. To someone who has been blogging for a long time, my numbers would be unimpressive. But to me, I’m happy that strangers and friends are willing to even look at my blog to begin with. And the fact that people click-through to my blog from different sites is very…very cool.

I wouldn’t have known any of this without my WordPress measurement data. If some posts aren’t being read, I will have an idea of what content should leave. On the other hand, data and comments give me insight on what content should stay.  Not including my mother (yeah…I know), some comments I’ve received have been so thoughtful and encouraging that I’m even more determined to write valuable posts to intrigue my visitors.

Just like the horizontal lines on the wall helped Emily’s mom track her height progress, my WordPress stats give me the data I need to track my own blog evolution. Regardless of where you stand (literally and figuratively), it’s important to keep tabs on growth and development to track performance and decide a future plan of action.

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Posted by Jackie

SE-O’…you better believe it!

June 15, 2010

The ROI of Search Engine Optimization (SEO) is one that isn’t noticeable right away but valuable in the long run. In fact, increasing a site’s SEO is one of the smartest things an individual or business can do to improve its Web visibility. Of course, having a Web presence via a website is great and all, but what’s the point of having a website if no one can find it? Enter SEO and the conspicuous improvement of site interaction with users and search engines.

This week  my professor shared a fantastic video called Talking Tech that features USA Today’s Jefferson Graham interviewing Google engineer, Matt Cutts. Now, I’ve read numerous articles, book chapters and blogs about increasing SEO, but Cutts sums it up pretty blatantly. The following highlights Cutts’ advice on increasing your SEO.

“How do I get my website so people can find it?”

  1. Content is king. Think about what users are going to type to want to find your site. Make sure those keywords are on your Web pages.
  2. Include multiple tags. Include tags (keywords) in the title, description and content of your website—enabling it to show up better in searches and portraying what your site is all about.
  3. Use links. Be sure to include links on your website. For example, say you start a blog and start posting content that is interesting to you. Well, this same content may be interesting to other readers or sites that have some correlation to your content. If you include those related sites as links on your blog, there is a good chance they will reciprocate. In turn, if search engines see 25 other websites linking back to yours as a resource, that’s SEO at its best! In essence—good content + popularity = more links.
  4. Save your $$. A common misconception is that Web users have to pay Google to have their site found or buy advertising on Google to rank higher. This is not the case. Google crawls all sites for free and tries to rank everyone the same way. Just make sure Google can find your site and it does the rest.
  5. Give Google your URL. Another myth is that it could take 3-6 months for your site to be found on Google. Wrong! Google is quick about crawling websites and refreshes its entire index every month or so. A trick you can do to help Google find your site is to go to www.google.com/addurl and submit your site’s URL. In addition, you can go to www.google.com/webmasters and submit your site map to help Google find new URLs on your site.

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Posted by Jackie

The Eight Commandments of Web Pages

June 10, 2010

I’ve never been interested in Web design or how it even worked. In my undergrad career at Butler I became acquainted with Adobe Photoshop, Flash and InDesign.  Right now, I’m currently learning the basics of Dreamweaver. However, you would never want to leave that task to me. Thank goodness there are talented specialists in those areas. Without them, what Web presence would your organization or business have?

I’m amazed by Web software and the power it holds to create and promote a brand and its products and services. Although I may not be the mastermind behind the design, in the PR industry it is crucial for practitioners to know what constitutes a good Web blueprint and how to provide the guidance to maintain a site. Part of doing business with clients is being able to determine what goals and objectives should be communicated through the site. But then you have to relay that same message to the Web designer. After all, what good is a website if it’s not useful to visitors?

With that said, I introduce the eight commandments of Web pages, courtesy of The Social Media Bible (Safko & Brake, 2009, p. 141). If your website follows these guidelines—you simply can’t go wrong. 

  1. Thou shalt understand your prospect/customer.
  2. Thou shalt understand the different sales funnel phases.
  3. Thou shalt implement metrics.
  4. Thou shalt understand the different conversion definitions.
  5. Thou shalt set specific measurable goals.
  6. Thou shalt remember that content is king.
  7. Thou shalt not use serif fonts.
  8. Thou shalt use frames and Flash cautiously.

Though I may never be a proficient website designer, it is certainly beneficial for me to learn and understand how they should be constructed. Websites are a staple in any organization or business regardless the size. And in the end, a well-designed web page is probably the smartest and greatest ROI an organization can do for itself.

1 Comment | WWW | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jackie

RSS 101

June 8, 2010

As a PR professional and individual who just prefers to receive news via the Web, I’ve gradually learned more and more about RSS feeds. However, I’ve had to learn about it on my own. No one ever taught or showed me how a feed works or what it even was. That is… until graduate school.  Luckily, I had a general understanding of RSS feeds prior to my Masters class, but I continue to learn more as the weeks progress. For those who want to know more, here are answers I wish I knew a long time ago about using RSS feeds.

What is a feed? A feed, aka RSS feed (RSS: Really Simple Syndication) is frequently updated content published by a website. It is usually used for news and blog websites, but can also be used for distributing other types of digital content, including pictures, audio or video. According to the Social Media Bible, an RSS feed is a one-click solution that allows content to be sent to followers the moment it’s published. The reverse is also the case; preferred blogs and news stories can be sent to subscribers automatically. This saves individuals loads of time as they won’t have to search their favorite websites every day for new content and updates (p. 343).

How do I know if a website offers feeds? When you first view a website, you will know if feeds are available if this button is located somewhere on the page .  The color may not always be orange; as you can see, mine is pink!

How do I subscribe to a feed? To subscribe to a feed, follow these steps:

  1. Go to the web page that has the feed to which you want to subscribe.
  2. Click the feeds button  to discover feeds on the web page.
  3. Choose a feed (if more than one is available). If only one feed is available, you will go directly to that page.
  4. Click “subscribe to this feed”.
  5. Type a name for the feed and select the folder to create the feed in.
  6. Click subscribe.

How can I automatically get updated content? You just do! With an RSS feed, you receive content automatically as it is published with the most up-to-date information.

Does a feed subscription cost money? Nope, it’s usually free to subscribe to a feed!

Learn more about RSS feeds and how to receive content in my next blog post about News Aggregators.

1 Comment | WWW | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by Jackie

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