Slides for the Knight Community Information Challenge - the "Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Project: A Primer for Practitioners and Funders" whitepaper on web analytics for news and nonprofit organizations is available at http://www.knightfoundation.org/research_publications/detail.dot?id=370646

1. Measuring the Online Impact of
Your Information Project
Knight Community Information Challenge
Boot Camp - October 2010
Dana Chinn

2. • What is web analytics?
• Tracking overall site traffic
• Mapping metrics to goals
• Setting up a site for the right metrics
• Using data for decisions
Slides: www.slideshare.net/danachinn
Twitter: @danachinn
“Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Project: A Primer for
Practitioners and Funders” can be downloaded
from the Knight Foundation Community Information Challenge site at
http://www.infoneeds.org

3. Our site has 5,000 monthly unique visitors….
It was a big news week last week. Our site got
up to 20,000 page views….
We like our site. I think we’re doing well.
So what.
So what.
So what!
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4. 4
Where’s
the insight
in all of
this data?

5. Carol
Nancy
Christina
Clare
John
Tracy
5

6. Tell a story
with metrics mapped to your goals
6
There are 10,000 adult residents who live
in Cyberton. We decided to first focus on
East Cyberton because….
Tell people what your site
does have, and how this
compares to your goals.
If there’s a problem, use
data to help hypothesize
why.
Revise your goals,
develop an action plan.
Lather, rinse, repeat.
In the three months since we launched, about
500 have registered. Most are from NW
Cyberton. Only about 50 are from East
Cyberton! This is only 5 percent of EC - our goal
was 10 percent. We think it’s because we have
fewer stories about EC than the other areas.
So we’re going to shift some reporting resources,
do a town hall event in East Cyberton and use
about a third of our house ads asking them to
register.
Educate your staff, board,
Knight, sponsors, etc. on
what your market is, and
your priorities.

7. Evaluating a site’s impact starts
with setting program goals
7
Start here
not here

8. What people say they did
what they think
and
why
as captured by
surveys, focus groups, social media, usability studies
Two types of web analytics data
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Behavioral research
What people did
when they came to your site,
as captured by
an action taken on a keyboard or mouse
Attitudinal research

9. Key Performance Indicator #1: Visits
9
A visit is counted
-- Unique visitors
-- Page views
every time
someone comes to a site
An increase in visits? Always good.
A decrease in visits? Always bad.
These metrics are useful
when put in ratios with visits, other metrics

10. A unique visitor is really a unique computer.
Unique visitors are either over-counted…
10

11. …or under-counted.
You don’t know when or by how much.*
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* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did
people do what you wanted?) than the number of people who came to
your site.
library
?

12. An increase in page views can be good -
or bad.*
12
* It doesn’t matter anyway….better to measure outcomes (did
people do what you wanted?) than the number of pages people went
to when they came to your site.
Bad design, navigation, site architecture?
Lots of page views, annoyed users
A redesign improved usability?
Fewer page views, happier users
Content that should be there but isn’t?
Lots of page views, annoyed users
Dynamic content?
Fewer page views, happier users (probably)
?

13. MEASURE
OUTCOMES
Use strong, dependable metrics that
Outcomes are…
The short and/or long term changes, results, and impacts from
implementing a project, program, or initiative
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14. Generally, is your site engaging visitors?
14
Page views per visit
Visits per unique visitor
Key Performance Indicator #2
Key Performance Indicator #3

15. Are you attracting new audiences?
15
Visits from new visitors
Visits from returning
visitors
Key Performance Indicator #4
vs.

16. When audiences - new and
returning - come, are they
staying?
16A bounce: a visit with only one page view
Bounce rate percent
of the page where
most visits start
Key Performance Indicator #5

17. William Penn Foundation: TheNotebook.org
KCIC Cohort 1
17

18. 18

19. 19

20. 20

21. Community news sites need to go beyond
overall site trends to assess whether they’re
reaching their goals
21
1. Reach
Is your site reaching the audiences you want?
How do your stakeholders group themselves?
2. Penetration
How much of your
audience are you
reaching?
3. Engagement
Are your targeted audiences coming back
repeatedly?
Are they interacting with you?
How much?
Is it due to your actions or inactions?

22. 22
Overall site data consists of traffic
from everyone
Northwest Cyberton
Southern Cyberton
Eastern Cyberton
Non-
stakeholders
A name that stakeholders identify with

23. How much site traffic is from Cyberton?
23
NW Cyberton
50
E. Cyberton
25
S. Cyberton
25
Non-stakeholders
5

24. Success is defined by goals, priorities – not totals
24
NW Cyberton E. CybertonS. Cyberton Total
Site
Universe
50 25 25 100
67%
200 50 325
Penetration
75
13% 50% 31%

25. The Notebook’s audiences, universes
25

26. What info do you need from site
registration, donation forms, offline events?
26
-- Name
-- E-mail
-- Zip code
-- Stakeholder type
as granular, specific as needed
based on your priorities
Example: Not just “Parent” but also
year-of-birth of children enrolled in
Philadelphia public schools

27. Social media metrics – focus on influencers
27
Do you know who they are?
Are they following you?
Are they interacting with you?
Not you

28. Content that caters, can be measured
28
• Content
• Design/Usability
• Navigation
• URL
Audience-focused

29. Setting priorities leads to efficient,
easier resource allocation decisions
29
High priority, highest traffic – grow
High priority, medium traffic – grow A LOT
Medium priority, very low traffic - ?
Low priority, low traffic - hold

30. What content will grow traffic in your
highest priority segments?
30
Do you have it?
How much do you
have?
Is it helping you
reach your goals?
Why is/isn’t it
working?

31. Is your site set up…
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….so you can track traffic by topic throughout
your site?
….with navigation that uses terms
that appeal to your audience, improve usability?

32. Using data for decision-making
32
You had to cut one reporter.
How should the others re-
arrange their time?
Will partnering with a journalism school give
you the quantity, quality you need?
You got new funding!
What should be covered
– something new or
something more?
Will you lose
audiences in the
summer?

33. How – and how much –
will your site contribute to sustainability,
on and off-line?
33
…sign up - you capture their info
Stakeholders are lured to your site,
become engaged….
…responding to online, offline campaigns,
they donate and/or buy event tickets

34. Set up your site for advertising
34
Advertise your content
Help out your navigation
Ask users to comment
Other calls to action
Let potential
sponsors know they
could have a place on
your site

35. Sell on reach, penetration, engagement
– not totals
35
NW Cyberton E. CybertonS. Cyberton Total
Site
Universe
50 25 25 100
67%
200 50 325
Penetration
75
13% 50% 31%

36. Know what your site can – and can’t do
36
Selling high-
ticket
sponsorship
packages
requires
in-person
contact

37. So, what’s your story?
What are your goals? Which metrics map to them?
37
In the ????? months since ?????, about ?????
have ?????. Most are from ?????. Only about
????? are from ?????! This is only ????? percent
of ????? - our goal was ?????. We think it’s
because ?????.
There are ??,??? adult residents who live in
?????. We decided to first focus on ?????
because….
Educate your staff, board,
Knight, sponsors, etc. on
what your market is, and
your priorities.
Tell people what your site
does have, and how this
compares to your goals.
If there’s a problem, use
data to determine why.
Revise your goals,
develop an action plan.
Lather, rinse, repeat.So we’re going to ?????, ??????, and ?????.
Will you help us?

38. Your web analytics responsibilities
as a decision-maker
38
1. AUDIENCES / SOCIAL MEDIA
Define
Size
Prioritize
Set goals
2. CONTENT
Assess audience needs, wants
Define your unique value, competitive
advantage
Prioritize based on the resources you have
3. SUSTAINABILITY
Define all revenue sources, current and
potential, small and large
Determine what your site can do
Set goals – on-and offline

39. Your web analytics responsibilities
for implementation
39
1. Know what you need to measure
What are the Key Performance Indicators that
will give you the right data?
2. Communicate what you need to your team
To ensure your site architecture supports
your metrics
So everyone understands how data was used
to make decisions
3. Know enough about Google Analytics
to direct someone to fish out the data
that you need – no more, no less
OR
Do it yourself

40. Dana Chinn
Lecturer
USC Annenberg School for Communications & Journalism
213-821-6259
chinn@usc.edu
http://www.newsnumbers.com
http://www.delicious.com/danachinn
http://www.slideshare.net/danachinn
Twitter: @danachinn
“Measuring the Online Impact of Your Information Project: A Primer for Practitioners and
Funders” can be downloaded from the Knight Foundation Community Information
Challenge site at http://www.infoneeds.org
40