Doing Web Evaluations the “Trinity” Way
This post is part of our “tools and tips” series that focuses on the many online options available to bolster your communications activities and ensure they support your overall strategies. In his second column on web evaluations, Louie Herr, a consultant based in Portland, Ore., discusses the “trinity” approach.
Guest Post: Louie Herr
In my first post on this topic, I wrote about how following a methodology called “Trinity,” developed by Avinash Kaushik, author of the leading web analytics and research blog Occam’s Razor, can help you track and monitor your website usage, and also analyze behavior of visitors to make adjustments that will help support your organization’s strategic communications goals. This post provides some tips on how to put Kaushik’s approach to work for you.
Moving From Web Analytics To Web Evaluation
With this post, we’re introducing a series focused on “tools and tips” that can help you navigate the many online options available to bolster your communications activities and ensure they support your overall strategies. In the first of a two-part series, Louie Herr, a consultant based in Portland, Ore., discusses the “trinity” approach to web evaluations.
Guest Post: Louie Herr
Like many people, I used to think that web measurements primarily revolved around getting a fix on how much time people spend on site, what they clicked to read, the last page they viewed before exiting, etc., and then using those findings to make improvements to hold on to visitors longer. Then I read Avinash Kaushik’s Web Analytics: An Hour A Day and it completely changed my attitude about evaluating websites.
Are Grantees Using Foundations’ Social Media? (VIDEO)
Social media is increasingly ubiquitous, but it can be hard to know what impact your efforts are having on your followers. With survey responses from more than 6,000 grantees about their experiences with one of 34 foundations, the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP) set out to address a very basic question: Are grantees using their foundation funders’ social media?
Only 16% of grantees surveyed report using social media created by funders or their staff.
We’re Talking. Who’s Listening?
(A version of this post also appears on The Center For Effective Philanthropy Blog.)
In a perfect world, our ideal audiences would read every one of our tweets, consume every blog post and make sure not a day goes by they don’t check Facebook for our latest updates.
But we know it’s not a perfect world, and for proof we have the results of a Center for Effective Philanthropy survey that examined grantees’ engagement with foundations’ social media. For any tweeting, blogging, or Facebook-using foundation that presumes their grantees are paying routine attention to what they’re writing, posting and featuring through social media channels, this study may surprise, but I don’t think it should disappoint.
What’s Not On Grantees’ Reading Lists
When the Communications Network released its survey last summer of foundation communications practices, one of the key findings it trumpeted was the increasing reliance on all forms digital communications, especially social media, for reaching target audiences. Yet, a report just released by the Center for Effective Philanthropy (CEP)–based on a survey of leaders and senior managers at 6,000 nonprofits–may give some foundations pause for thought if they are similarly relying on social media to keep grantees informed about their organizations’ work.
