intelligent measurement

Further to my earlier post on measuring online behaviour, I would recommend this article in Brandweek. The article (which I read about on K D Paine’s blog), explains well the current practices of many companies in tracking online behaviour (particularly linked to online campaigns). It goes in the direction that I think - that is, in the online environment, we can measure behaviour of publics to supplement “offline” measurement.

I encourage companies to focus on performance indicators, that moves away from looking at visit statistics and more into what actions are undertaken by a user when visiting a website, for example: referral (referring a page/issue to a friend), commitment (signing-up or endorsing a given activity) or task completion (completing an action online - e.g. playing a game, requesting information, etc.).

Some point of interest I noted from this article:

-  Time spent looking at a web feature is an important measure for some campaigns

- IBM looks at registrations and opt-ins as success measures for campaigns

- The Pharmaceutical industry is increasingly turning to online measurement as more and more patients seek medical information online.

Glenn 

A lot has already been written about how we can measure online behavior through looking at indicators from web site statistics or “web metrics”. As part of PR measurement, web metrics can provide an interesting complement to other measures being taken. For example, in campaigning, online behaviour such as signing a petition, referring a page to a friend or uploading a message of support can be measures of behavior change and supplement “offline” measures. In advertising, the use of web metrics is making advertising more “measurable” and impacting the business model in general. This article in The Economist sums up well this change.  

I found this explanation from a Google representative quoted in the article of interest:

Old way of “offline” advertising:
“Advertisers are always trying to block the stream of information to the user in order to blast their message to him.”

New way of ”online” advertising:
“On the internet, by contrast, advertisers have no choice but to go with the user, the information coming back from the users is more important than the messages going out.The interactive nature of the Internet makes this possible; the medium more measurable and a two-way symmetrical approach to communications feasible.  

Glenn