"We get what we measure and we are measuring the wrong things... old, mass-media metrics of reach and frequency — translated into their digital equivalents: unique users and pageviews — turn out to be profoundly corrupting... attention is a much more productive measure of media value than traffic.... There is a richer set of metrics that matter…

"Context is always key in reporting, and engaged time adds context. Pageviews are ubiquitous, but by no means do they provide a complete picture of success. Rather than attempt to replace the pageview metric, maybe we just need to focus more on where it fits alongside engagement time in our reporting strategies." - Pageviews vs. Engaged Time in w…

"I constantly get asked the question “how are we doing?” and “how can we measure the success of our startup community.”... ... a great first crack at this with a paper that I think will be viewed as the starting point for a real discussion about long-term growth and measurement of the health of startup communities..." - Startup Revolution | Meas…

An article aimed at companies, so just substitute "government communicators" for "corporate marketers", and "citizens" for "consumers", as you read: "Technology changes fast ... but consumer behavior changes more slowly. As a result, people tend to overhype new technologies and misallocate resources, especially marketers. "posts from top brands …

"There is a danger in asking the wrong question ... you’ll probably get the right answer for the question you’re asking, but it’s not going to be the right answer for the question you really needed to ask. " - A Beginner's Guide to Social Media Analytics | Amy Vernon | Ochen

"reach is an easy-to-see vanity metric and not what you should be focusing on.... Facebook Insights provides some handy numbers, but the most useful ones are somewhat hidden." - 6 tips on Facebook analytics and going beyond...

"Considering these difficulties it is, at best, disingenuous and at worst, fraudulent to claim that findings of such social media analyses are what “people think” " - Representation and the true value of social media data in an election | Gareth Ham | LinkedIn

"Here’s a brief summary of a few questions we like to ask ourselves when testing. - Which one thing will you be testing? - What metric will be my best measurement of success? - Do I have enough data to assume this result will be true and repeatable for everyone?" Provides 10 top tests for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and G+.

Begins with a beautiful rant on technology's tyranny in individual and collective life: "Journalistic institutions slowly transform themselves into silent sweatshops in which words cannot wait for thoughts, and first responses are promoted into best responses, and patience is a professional liability... Digital expectations of alacrity and ters…

Before you obsess over your next analytics report, read the recent article by Ev Williams (Twitter and Medium cofounder) on measuring what matters.

"One byproduct of all the recent articles about the growth of email newsletter that aim to “cut through the daily clutter” is an amazing amount of clutter about email newsletters. Here’s what you need to know today." Actually it's really just a bunch of stats, but this can be helpful when setting targets. - Email Newsletter Success Metrics: What…

"AB Tasty, the French A/B testing specialist, has published this guide for the benefit of those who are implementing A/B testing and would like to know how to conduct truly effective tests."

Sonar Solo allows you to search any topic to find trends and influencers about any subject, in real time. Sonar Solo visualizes what’s on people's minds right now, by combining data mining, trend intelligence and advanced sentiment analysis on the world's social media chatter.

A beautiful, HTML5 exploration of the HEART methodology: Happiness, Engagement, Adoption, Retention, Task Success. " different members of your team have different ideas about the goals of your project. This process provides an opportunity to build consensus about where you're headed." - How to Choose the Right UX Metrics for Your Product

"the Insights module will show you several metrics relating to your competition’s Facebook activity, including the number of posts by page admins, number of fan interactions and a leaderboard of the five top-performing posts across all watched pages." - How 'Pages to Watch' from Facebook Can be a Source of Competitive Insight | Social Media Exami…

oor-er, they animated it. That makes it better.

There'll be different answers from different organisations, but most of the time it is, but shouldn't be, 'reach' (pageviews, shares, etc.). Lot of useful thoughts and links here: "Sites like Upworthy ... choose to focus on metrics that measure something approaching “engagement” — so not only whether a page was loaded but how long the reader sp…

New post on LinkedIn

Excellent overview of a complex topic. Makes me think that a lot of EU communications could benefit hugely from reframing itself as "non-profit news", and considering these questions in depth. Alas, the only interesting debate in this field seems to be limited to the US. "The value of online and offline audience engagement is a question that bot…

Great advice for web data analysis everywhere: "We don’t live in a perfect world. Vague requests are going to get floated. ... that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t recognize and strive to minimize how often that happens. Here’s how: - Condition yourself to go to full alert whenever the word “interesting” is used ... - probe for clarification as much …

"The rise of content marketing, despite well-publicised scepticism, continues — as illustrated by a new report ... - almost two out of five marketers (38%) still question whether content marketing can deliver measurable ROI. - 70% believe that content marketing helps drive sales leads more effectively. The metrics that are being used suggest a …

"This is the first course in Google's newly launched Analytics Academy -- which will feature a variety of self-paced video lessons. The course includes 22 video lessons, each 3-10 minutes long, and provides learning activities. Google estimates this course will take a total of 4-6 hours to complete. The first three units of this course cover indu…

"That’s why today we’re excited to announce Analytics Academy -- a new hub for you and your colleagues to participate in free, online, community-based video courses about digital analytics and Google Analytics. With Analytics Academy, we aim to provide you with a guided learning experience to become an analytics expert in no time. Our first cours…

"A comprehensive 360 view of what you can measure in Google+, including: -Measuring Activity Within Google Plus -Measuring Activity Surrounding Your Website in Google Plus -Measuring Activity On Your Website Driven by Google Plus 14 Activities You Can Measure from Google Plus 26 Metrics You Need to Pay Attention To 10 KPIs That You Can Use for Yo…

"The Beginner's Guide to Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) is an in-depth tutorial designed to help you convert more passive website visitors into active users that engage with your content or purchase your products."

A great article on preventing the data tail wagging the editorial dog. " It turns out that what loyal audiences care about is what good editorial teams care about too: great articles that capture time and attention."