Put A Cat Video On It

Second City knows how to market to us millennials. Their digital marketing insights are spot on.  And Canadian Marketing Association's  Digital Day Conference 2012 looks really interesting. 

This infographic, created by Online Graduate Programs, is really interesting. I am really surprised by the "Green" section. Looks like US millennials do not recycle or buy organic as much as Gen X does. 

Created by: OnlineGraduatePrograms.com

A Metric is the Measure of all Visits

For me, one of the most exciting aspects of marketing is that building successful campaigns involves investigation and research. It’s really amazing how much you can learn examining data, numbers, and trends. The fact that marketers are always learning and always asking questions is what I love most about marketing.

To make researching and investigating more fun, there are really cool tools available to work with! One of the tools I’ve started to use is Google Analytics. Google Analytics (http://www.google.com/analytics/) is a web analytics program that allows site owners to view how people found and used their site. This information becomes extremely valuable when the site owner looks into the metrics and dimensions of the data collected.

A metric is a measurement of activity on a website. A metric can be a measurement of how many visits there are to your website, a measurement of number of pages viewed while visiting, average time spent viewing a page on your website, and a measure of many other useful things.

Dimensions describe attributes of visitors to a site. These dimensions can tell us what city the website’s visitors are from, what browser they are using while visiting the page, and what language they speak. If I was concerned about how engaging my website’s content is, I could track the metrics and dimensions of my visitors to see what my visitors like, what they don’t like, and where they are viewing from. Based on this information, I could alter my content to fit the needs and preferences of my visitors.  

With all the things that can be measured on a webpage, for a beginner it can be a little overwhelming. It’s also easy to get lost in perusing information that is interesting rather than focusing on the useful information. Rob Petersen’s recently complied list of 9 Google Analytics Metrics Every Marketer Should Know (http://www.biznology.com/2012/09/9-google-analytics-metrics-every-marketer-should-know/) is great for initially determining which metrics will provide marketers with important (and useful) information.

Google Analytics is not the only tool that will measure activity on your website. Good marketers should always be aware of the advantages and disadvantages of many web analytics programs and other research tools available. In his blog, Jonathon Balogh compared Google Analytics to Mixpanel (http://jonathonbalogh.com/2012/07/07/how-does-mixpanel-compare-to-google-analytics/) and had a good argument for using Mixpanel. However, he writes to start with Google Analytics, and then bring in more web analytics tools if you need it.

From Clenton Farquharson's website.

A Society of Blogs

The liberal arts are not always so different from marketing. Despite that many of the most compelling texts were written by a single author, the arguments found within were typically created from previous discussions or engaging with other texts. Marketing could never be as powerful as it can be without collaborating with others and engaging with their ideas. 

I always love to be exposed to talented individuals in my field. Top SEOer (http://katetopseoer.blogspot.ca) will be a fabulous blog to follow. SEO is a very important tool for effective online marketing and I am excited to learn more from following this blog.

Not many of us are capable of saying there’s no such thing as a great ad! In Ad We Trust (http://inadwetrust.blogspot.ca) will highlight the great (and the not-so-great) ads. 

I hope that Make Your Data Make Sense (http://alexdbm.blogspot.ca) will not only provide great insights into clarifying data, but also excite readers of the power of data. 

BBeventmarketing (http://barborakrsiakova.blogspot.ca) recently wrote about IIDEX 2012, an upcoming conference for industry designers. Attending conferences, trade shows, and events are excellent ways to meet others and network. Following this blog will be important for hearing about upcoming opportunities for networking. 

Keeping up with marketing trends and what brands are doing is as important as learning initial marking concepts. I’m glad Vincent Wu’s (http://vincentthemarketer.blogspot.ca/) blog is here to keep me informed of what’s going on.    

Marketing can differentiate itself from the liberal arts in its embrace of online communication. We marketers can engage and collaborate quickly and efficiently online – rather than a society of letters, we are a society of blogs.

Socrates to Statistics

I am a post-graduate student studying Strategic Relationship Marketing. My background is in Humanities and Philosophy. When I started studying marketing I was nervous that my previous education in the liberal arts had left me unprepared for the challenges that come with marketing and business. However, facing these challenges has been the most rewarding aspect of my post-graduate education.