Tag Archives: Data

October 7, 2015 · 9:09 am

Blinded By The Light

Yesterday I wrote about using data as a flashlight. There is, of course, a problem inherent in flashlights that is also true about data. If you look at a flashlight the wrong way, you become temporarily blinded. Let someone shine one into your eyes in a dark room and you’ll understand. Data can be blinding too.  

For example, it’s great to have big ears and to listen carefully to what is transpiring with respect to your company or brand in the social sphere. The problem is that we all know those with the loudest mouths tend to be the least satisfied. Some are just chronic complainers; others are trying to get something for nothing. Taking their buzz as gospel can drive you insane as well as point you in the wrong direction. Obviously they can’t be ignored, but that’s a beam of light we need to be sure is aiming in the right direction.

Ratings and reviews are other sources of excellent information, but be sure that as you’re researching (both those of your own brand and those of your competitors) that you’re not falling prey to fake information. There are companies that hire scammers to write them, as this piece explains in detail.  Place what’s out there publicly in the context of your own customer service data and support emails.  Are there large differences?  Complaints that are never made privately but seem to be a steady drumbeat publicly?

I like this quote:

The paradigm has historically been to do some qualitative studies to develop hypotheses for testing, then validate and measure through quantitative studies. The only difference now is that, in addition to intimate panel-based research, we also have the ability to get much more input from a panel of millions.

So as you’re using those million beams of light, don’t forget context and source.  Make your data set as comprehensive as possible before drawing conclusions.  Failing to do so means blindness rather than illumination.

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March 10, 2015 · 10:48 am

Dark Social

I will admit upfront that today’s screed is a little wonky.  You might want to stay with me though – you might just figure something out about your business as we go.  Ready?

The topic today is what’s been called “dark social” traffic.  No, these are not teenagers cruising Main Street late at night.  It refers to people coming to your website based on a link that’s been shared to them socially.  In other words, when I see an article I like and share it with a friend via email or messaging, most web analytic systems don’t really get how the recipient got to the website (although some are beginning to).  Since they clicked on a URL and went directly to the site (not from another website), it’s reported as direct traffic which is a big dumping bin of mostly unknown sources (even though it’s supposed to be users who came by typing the URL or via bookmark).  With me so far?

I did a little exercise on one of my client’s site traffic.  I looked at direct traffic which didn’t enter the site on the home page, an indicator to me of dark social traffic since people don’t generally type in long URL’s.  11% of their traffic was dark social.  With another client it was 34%.  I did some research and it turns out that those numbers are pretty typical – The Atlantic Monthly, which receives 5M monthly uniques, reports 60% of traffic from dark social.  Smithsonian Magazine realized it was 82% of their shares. Why is this important to you?

If you’re spending time analyzing your data to make better marketing decisions – which audiences to target through which channels, which content is socially relevant, etc – knowing what’s being shared and by whom is important.  The client I checked usually has a somewhat older skew and we use that in marketing.  The dark social traffic, however, demonstrates not only a higher rate of sharing of content among younger (18-24) people but also a higher conversion rate.  Very interesting and actionable data point.

The broader point is one you’ve heard before.  We need to spend time thinking about how our customers and potential customers come to and interact with our brand.  We need to formulate good questions and try to answer them with the data.  Data for data’s sake is useless.  Using data to drive actionable business decisions is where we are right now in marketing and business, at least where I and my clients are.  You?

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February 10, 2015 · 12:23 pm

Creepy Or Helpful?

Have you heard that your car is spying on you? Maybe you’re willing to write it off to “oh, so is my phone, my smart TV, my thermostat, etc.” Maybe you’re concerned. If you don’t know anything about it, you can read this piece and learn a little but in a nutshell many late-model cars collect and transmit a lot of information. As the article states:

The information collected includes where drivers have been, like physical location recorded at regular intervals, the last location they were parked, distances and times traveled, and previous destinations entered into navigation systems. A host of diagnostic data on the car is also captured.

This may be a serious issue or it may be just the latest soapbox onto which politicians and others will vault.  Oddly, the concern many people have is less about the cars’ gathering and disseminating data and more about the fact that bad guys could hack into the car and take control from afar.  Nevertheless, I think it raises a good business thought for all of us.  Think this through with me.

  • You get an email from your car manufacturer.  It tells you that based on thousands of other cars  just like yours there is data collected in the past two weeks that says your fuel injection system is failing and to go to the dealer.  You have seen no evidence of problems.  Creepy or helpful?
  • You receive an envelope in the mail from your insurance company notifying you that your premiums are dropping because you have a history of driving near the speed limit and you maintain safe distances from cars around you.  Creepy or helpful?

I think you get the point.  Engineers design these cars, they love data, and what works from an engineering perspective might creep out civilians. We face that issue in marketing with all kids of data gathering.  I think we realize that the data we gather from shoppers – hopefully with their permission and knowledge – are something  shoppers are becoming more willing to offer as long as they reap some benefits.  I think many of us who frequent the web for shopping are long over the creepy factor of personalization although I suspect it’s still pretty prevalent when data from off the web drives marketing messages.

So the answer in my mind is this.  It’s never been easier to track someone and what they are doing.  What we buy, where we drive, with whom we communicate and just about everything else are all readily available data points.  People want promotions and they want emails that are relevant to them.  We can’t, however, allow our desires to be helpful (and to sell something) cross that line into creepy.  We do that when consumers are unaware of what we gather and how it’s going to be used.  I may love my lower insurance rate but I might not be happy when my rates go up if I don’t know the car is sending data to the manufacture who is collecting money from the insurers for the data.

Where do you stand?  Creepy or helpful?

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