Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
I don’t know about you, but I often wonder if what I’m doing online is accomplishing my goals. Here are a few ways you can measure your effectiveness.
- Record your Klout Score, True Reach (how many people you influence), Amplification (how much you influence people) and Network Impact (how influential your audience is) on a spreadsheet each month. (All available through Klout.) As you announce a new book or try to get people to move from Facebook to your blog, you can track how well your “campaign” worked. For example, one writer found that increasing tweets from 2 to 5 each day and guest blogging made the biggest difference in her Klout scores. Note: Klout measures your external social media presence, not your revenue stream.
- Be aware of your website traffic. Google Analytics is the best way to measure how effectively you’re driving people to your site via social media. (The reason you want to increase traffic is because people can’t read your blog, find out about your books, or interact with your brand without coming to your website.)
- Open a Google Analytics account.
- Click on the Traffic Sources tab.
- From the Social drop down menu, select the Overview page.
- Record on a spreadsheet visits and Visits via Social Referral.
3. Know your conversion rates. One of your prime goals should be to engage visitors to your website to such a degree that they will sign up to regularly receive your blog posts or to receive your e-newsletter. Gathering this data is very important to building your lists. Publishers are impressed if you have 30,000 individuals receiving your e-newsletter, but the only way to get to that number is to start building.
Once again, this information is available through Google Analytics.
- Open your Google Analytics account.
- Select the Traffic Sources tab.
- From the Social drop down menu, select the Conversion page.
Record Conversions and Conversions Value into your spreadsheet. At first the numbers are likely to be low, but remember this is a building process.
All of these measurements allow you to understand how your social media efforts are working–or not working. It’s hard to measure marketing efforts, as any publisher will tell you, but these methods are great ways to figure out what your social media contacts respond to.
Have you tried any of these measurements before?
Does this seem like a good plan or just something to complicate an already overloaded schedule? (Be honest! Okay, I’ll go first. I hate doing this sort of thing, but the insights are invaluable.)
Jennifer Major
Good morning Janet.
I mean, Ma’am.
Good morning, Ma’am.
I’m not sure I like this class. Can I transfer to something less stressful, like ‘Genetic variations of DNA in alligators during hands on field study’ or even ‘Decoding radioactivity on the surface of the sun while only wearing gas station sunglasses’?
Those sound soooo much easier than “Record Conversions and Conversions Value into your spreadsheet”.
Ugh, why do I feel like I’m in high school, at a dance, and wearing Crocs and sweats while all the other girls are wearing mini skirts and teetering on 4 inch heels?
I’ll go check all this stuff out, but I have to confess to being *slightly* intimidated. But hey, I made it through at full body pat-down at a South American airport, complete with underwire…umm… exploration…I can handle this.
Lisa
Love the party comparison. I totally feel ‘uncool’ in social media 🙂 You will not find me dancing around twitter and facebook confidently in 4-inch heels!
Jeanne T
Me neither. 😉 I do well to walk on 2″ heels. 🙂
Linda
I am right there with you, Jennifer! This is way over my head. But first thing I can do is increase my tweets. The other? Yeah, Greek.
Sarah Thomas
I have a confession. I LOVE analytics. And I love to see if I can move the needle. (When I was a kid, I tried drinking water while using the bathroom to see if it would make me go longer. Any difference was negligible.)
But I hven’t gotten too much into Google Analytics or Klout because I just have a blog–no website. Is it too soon to do these things? Or am I building a baseline?
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Sarah, are you on Twitter, Facebook or G+? Klout measures those. It also is tracking a number of other things now (such as Pinterest and Tumblr).
Good luck 🙂
Sarah Thomas
Yup, I have everything I’ve ventured into registered on Klout, I just don’t find it’s personality all that warm and fuzzy!
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Agreed, especially since they’ve revamped it.
Natasha Crain
Sarah – Analytics can be huge for blogs! I explained how I use it for my blog in a comment below.
Lindsay Harrel
Great information, Janet.
Now for the big question: In your opinion, how much should we pre-pubbed, pre-agented authors focus on this stuff? I’ve heard so many different viewpoints (from “focus on your writing” to “build a platform now”), and I’d like to hear yours. Thanks. 🙂
Jeanne T
I am wondering this too. I keep hearing different things about when to begin a blog, when to set up a website. I’m looking forward to your answer. 🙂
Jennifer Major
Great question, Lindsay!
Larry
I would say it is good to have data like this available to put into your query letter, to be able to show the agent that you are quite aware of the nature of the industry and the current publishing environment in regards to what responsibilities the author has, but also to show that you have a platform / established potential customer base, which is probably the more important part, at least in regards to what the agent knows potential publishers will want to know about.
Indeed, the importance of social media and ones’ platform / user base cannot be overstated. Many are the authors who have been turned down for representation or a publishing deal due to this.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Thank you so much for asking this, Lindsay. 🙂
Janet Grant
I would have to agree with Larry. Publishers and agents care immensely that you are about the business of building a platform. If you’ve written a stupendous manuscript but none in social media, publishing professionals know they’re going to have to step in and help with the building. If they’re simultaneously looking at another stupendous manuscript from an author with a platform, there’s no doubt which writer will be offered a contract. (I hate that about publishing, by the way. I’m a purist at heart–I care deeply about the writing.)
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Thank you for answering this, Janet. Reality isn’t always fun, but it’s important.
Lindsay Harrel
Thank you for your response, Janet! 🙂
Linda
And yet I had an editor from a large publishing house tell me not to worry about it. And social media does take lots of time. I do the basics–fb, twitter, linkedin, but I am really challenged when I look at other media–and wonder, Can I understand this and will it pay if I take away the time from my writing to do this? Should I try Klout or do Pinterest instead?
Lisa
Thanks for this great information.
Honestly, I know this is all so important, but social media completely drains me. It’s so hard to balance it with your writing. Like Jennifer, sometimes it feels like a big party you don’t quite fit into.
I am learning to just surrender this up to God. I will put my best effort forth, but I can’t completely control how quickly it happens for me compared to others.
Janet Grant
I think most publishers just want to see that you’re exploring social media and working to find your audience there.
But I hear you (and Jennifer) about feeling like you’re at a dance dressed all wrong. Analytics and writers often is an oil-and-vinegar match-up.
Linda
Oh. And 30,000! Wow. Seems unreachable. I do blog, too (with the fb, twitter, linkedin) but am really a novice here.
Jeanne T
Thanks for the suggestions on where to start, Janet. For oe who doesn’t even have a blog (yet), doing the rest sounds daunting. I am definitely going to refer back to this blogpost though, for when I do begin the social media adventure beyond FB and Twitter.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
You might want to check out Klout, Jeanne. It measures how many people you influence through FB and Twitter.
Richard Mabry
Wow, something more to do. Pretty soon, I won’t have time to write because I’m too busy adding the third bedroom with bath to my platform.
I use SiteMeter to monitor visits to my blog. Guess I could tackle Google analytics, though. Why do I feel like I’m drowning?
Sandie Bricker
Richard, I’m out there with you. If I get my hands on a life preserver, I’ll share. Meanwhile, I blissfully use SiteMeter. (No “ignorance is bliss” analogies, please!)
Richard Mabry
Confession time–discovered that I already have a Google analytics account, and had my eyes opened as to the number of people that visit my website. I figured it was a one-and-done sort of thing, and that anyone interested would then follow my blog and sign up for my newsletter. Comparing numbers, discovered that website seems as important as blog. Who’d a thunk it? Thanks, Janet. (Still hunting for that life preserver, though).
Janet Grant
I hear you, Richard, about the life preserver. So skip the spreadsheet and use Google analytics in less complicated ways that are helpful to directing you in how to use social media. I’m glad you gave it a try and came away with some important info.
Meghan Carver
I’ll be honest, Janet. It’s incredibly intimidating but also incredibly important. If a bit of time spent analyzing will help me focus my blogging time on posts that garner more attention, then how could I ignore that opportunity? However, it’s just one more thing in an already overwhelmed schedule. Thanks, though. I think this is just the kick I needed, and your how-to’s make it a gentle kick.
Janet Grant
I know; we’re all feeling like life couldn’t get more stuffed. I hope you’ll use the analytics to good effect without their being too big of a burden. Just play with all this stuff until you’re brain is shouting, “Enough! Just go write something creative!”
Cheryl Malandrinos
I have to admit, Google Analytics has me stumped. I have an account, but I’m sure I set it up wrong and I have no idea how to fix it, because my most highly viewed and subscribed to blog shows up as having no traffic on GA. The coding must be wrong, but I haven’t had time to sit down and really figure it out. It’s frustrating being a technology dummy.
Jill Kemerer
Cheryl, this happened to me after I switched Blog templates (something I do every other year or so). You have to go back to Google Analytics, find your code, and reinsert it in your blog.
Here’s the link to find your code:
http://support.google.com/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&topic=1006226&answer=1008080
Hope that helps!
Cheryl Malandrinos
Thanks. I’ll give it a whirl. I change blog templates four times a year, so this could be interesting. 🙂
Janet Grant
Thanks, Jill, for helping Cheryl (and the rest of us) out.
Jill Kemerer
I do use Google Analytics. It helps me keep track of my blog and web visitors. Without fail, I get more blog visits when I’m active on other people’s blogs. Go figure!
I refuse to use Klout. I didn’t like the premise–to get more “Klout” you have to dump all the people you follow on Twitter and other sites, but you need lots of people to follow you. Oh, and you need to get people to share your stuff. It felt like take/take. I’m more of a ‘give and if you choose to give back, that’s wonderful, but if not, that’s okay too type’ of person. Klout is not good for my soul!
I’ve been blogging since 2008. I’ve embraced Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube, Google+, and Goodreads. As an aspiring author, I can honestly say my name is out there. I like social media. I enjoy interacting on these sites.
But to grow large numbers–large enough to make a difference to a publisher–it’s rarely feasible for an aspiring author to do without cheating the system (and what good does it do anyhow? False numbers to look more popular than you are don’t translate to more readers!)
I know I’m not an expert. I’m sure many other aspiring authors would have a different opinion.
But I would like to tell aspiring authors who are worried about their numbers and their lack of platform to just go slow. Don’t worry about making a huge splash across social media sites. Follow the golden rule. And keep writing. Editors buy books based on the writing. The platform is the pretty frosting on top!
Sarah Thomas
Thanks for making me feel better about not really liking Klout!
Jill Kemerer
I’m glad I’m not alone! I’m sure it provides a valuable service to some, but it goes against my personal platform strategy!
Larry
“But to grow large numbers–large enough to make a difference to a publisher–it’s rarely feasible for an aspiring author to do without cheating the system (and what good does it do anyhow? False numbers to look more popular than you are don’t translate to more readers!)”
Indeed! It’s like someone on Facebook who has half a million “friends.”
I would guess that the reason why such much weight is put towards the importance of online followers is that frankly, the industry is still struggling to understand, adapt, and capitalize on the digital landscape.
So seeing a potential author with 1,000 or 10,000 followers is something that is easy to grasp, is a great talking point in a meeting between author and agent, and agent and publisher, and publisher and marketing department and marketing department to media outlets, and thus more importance is given to that facet of what the potential client can offer agents and publishers than it probably should.
Yet even though such importance is given to this facet of the authors’ platform is great, everyone is still willing to admit that the large number of followers, even those users who are on the RSS feeds, newsletters, etc, do not equal sales. Which makes it all the more frustrating: the industry recognizes that it is a faulty metric, yet still uses it, and weighs it heavily.
Jill Kemerer
Larry, I’ve made many terrific friends through Facebook, Twitter, and Blogging. I’ve been in awe of aspiring authors who have huge followings. There is a popularity factor not to be ignored. “If everyone likes this person, they must be good!” I get it!
Building relationships online can equal sales–especially if other people are generous enough to help promote your books by sharing your blog tour dates or offering to review your books.
I’m very pro-social-media! I just think a lot of aspiring writers can put so much focus on building their platform, they get caught up in the numbers. And the numbers don’t tell the full story…
Janet Grant
Yes, the industry does put too much weight on the numbers, but it does so because it doesn’t know how else to measure social media platforms. Publishers also use Bookspan numbers, which are reported by some retail outlets, even though publishers admit the numbers are wildly inaccurate. Most box stores don’t report to Bookspan (Walmart will begin to soon), and Christian publishers don’t tend to report as well.
So it’s crazy-making when a publisher comes back to an agent and says, “We’ve checked Bookspan, and your author has sold only 15,000 copies of his book, but you state 50,000 in the proposal.” When I point out Bookspan’s inaccuracy, the publisher responds, “Oh, I know, but that’s quite a variance.” Well, duh, if you’re using bad numbers, the numbers are…inaccurate.
Natasha Crain
I agree – it really can be misleading, because a follower doesn’t even mean a loyal reader, much less a book buyer! A fan/follower is just someone who liked *something* they saw that you are doing and is willing to hear more. It means nothing of loyalty. There are all kinds of ways to grow numbers, but only good content drives a quality fan base. It seems to me that publishers would want to ask for specific metrics to get at that loyalty factor (unique return visitors per time period, for example).
Loyal readers will always only be a percent of your total fan base. The question is, what percent is it? That’s where the buyer potential would seemingly lie.
Jan Thompson
Larry says: “…everyone is still willing to admit that the large number of followers, even those users who are on the RSS feeds, newsletters, etc, do not equal sales.”
Sales. You hit the keyword, IMO.
Not everyone following or getting RSS feeds from their favorite authors are actually buying the books. Some check them out of their local libraries. Some borrow them from friends. Some wait for a sale on Kindle ($0.99 or $2.99 per ebook — such low prices for novels that take 6-10 months to write). Some wait, and then get used books on Amazon. The options go on.
Cynthia Herron
Janet, like Sarah, I must confess. I, too, love stats! (Please don’t ask me to take calculus though…):)
I have a stat system built into my website, and the knowledge I glean from “behind the scenes” is very telling. Besides hits/page views, I like seeing what posts are popular, where folks are coming from, browsers they use, time they check in/out, and a world of other nifty info. It’s a tremendous resource to guide me how and where to better connect with people.
I do see the value of Klout, and it definitely shows us the influence of social media. It’s interesting to note our “influential” topics. I always get a kick out of mine because it’s rarely anything I think I’m an expert at.
Stats can seem daunting, but I think the key is to keep an open mind. I love to connect with people so if there are tools to show us our effectiveness and how we can improve, why not jump on board?
Janet Grant
Cynthia, you mentioned something that can be really helpful to know: when people read your blog. If you find lots of early-morning readers, you might experiment with posting your blog earlier to see if you pick up even more readers.
Leah E Good
I love your first paragraph, Cynthia! I too love studying my blog stats but have no desire to repeat the statistics or pre-cal courses I took as part of my college requirements!
Cara Putman
Monitoring my klout score has really helped me see if what I’m doing makes an impact.
Cara Putman
Oh, and I use statcounter and blogger tools to manage my webtraffic numbers. I have Google analytics, but it drives me nuts.
Janet Grant
I guess analytics of any kind are like social media: Some people really connect with FB, while others “get” Twitter, and some find Pinterest the perfect place to be.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
I started on Klout a while back. At first, I really liked it as it not only gave me numbers, but some explanation of what those numbers meant and it gave me another way to connect with people. I made friends on Klout who then followed me on Twitter. THEN Klout decided to do a revamp and I am not crazy about it now. I think it is a lot less helpful. Today is the first time that I’ve heard about Google Analytics, so I will check that out.
My blogs are on Blogger (blogspot.com) and the site really gives great stats. I can find out not only about pageviews and which posts are the most popular, I also get information about entry sites, referring sites and search engines. The stats also tell me where in the world my audience is. It’s rather fun to check on the audience and discover that there are people in China, Poland, Russia and the UK (as well as the U.S. and Canada) reading my writing blog. The stats also tell how many pageviews from each country.
Janet, you wondered aloud in a blog a few months ago what would happen if we “went dark” for a while. I tried a little experiment with it and stopped writing my writing blog for four months (Sept-Dec). I was surprised to find that I still got pageviews on a rather regular basis. A couple of weeks, I powered back up with a blog post about that experiment and the response was great. The blog traffic increased by about a third. Don’t ask me to explain why. I’m surprised. I had thought the audience would just fade away and I’d have to start from scratch. All I can say is it’s interesting–and baffling.
Happy Monday Everyone! 🙂
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
Sorry for the left out words. It should read, “A couple of weeks ago, I powered back up….” *Sigh*
Janet Grant
Christine, thanks for reporting back on what happened after you went dark and then came back. I don’t even know how to interpret the results except that maybe it gives us hope we can take a break. Wouldn’t that be the best news ever!?
I love social media and writing our blog, but taking a vacation sounds pretty blissful, too.
Christine Dorman / @looneyfilberts
When I wrote my blog post about this experiment, I said that people would definitely notice if the Books and Such blog went dark and there would probably be an outcry. BUT taking a break is so important to well-being that I urge each of you to do it when you need to. You have so many valuable posts that you could re-post (for example, I remember a fantastic post you did on what authors need to know about contracts). Thank you for your generosity, but please take good care of yourself too. 🙂
Natasha Crain
I don’t use Klout, but I love numbers and must confess to being addicted to Google Analytics.
It has helped me so much in analyzing my blog content to see what readers love, like, and don’t care about.
The most important things I look at are unique visitors and email conversion rates. I personally don’t like page views as much because they don’t tell you about the growth in readership as directly as actual unique visitors. Growth in return visitors is what I’m shooting for.
I have a spreadsheet where I keep a running report per blog post of two key metrics: unique visitors to that post and total social shares of that post. At the risk of revealing my true geekiness, I’ll share how I look at my blog posts for key insights.
1. Find the total unique visitors to a blog post within 7 days of posting (from Google Analytics). I use 7 days so older posts don’t have an “edge” due to time.
2. Calculate total combined Facebook likes, tweets and pins for each post.
3. From all your posts, calculate the median of number 1 (visitors) and the median of number 2 (social voices). From this, you can divide all your posts into four segments: high visitors/high sharing, low visitors/low sharing, high visitors/low sharing, and low visitors/high sharing.
Blog posts that get high visitors are “conceptually interesting” – people desire to read about the topic (assuming you consistently use transparent, appealing headlines). Posts that get high sharing are those that drive action – people are willing to share that type of content with others. Low conceptual interest (visitors) with low sharing is a dead zone. But low conceptual interest with high sharing might be an area for growth with a niche audience. High interest/high sharing speaks for itself – the goal! High interest with low sharing could mean an interesting topic that you didn’t deliver on or an interesting topic people just don’t have a desire to socially share.
Yes, I’m a bit numbers crazy, but the insights you can get from doing this are really valuable!
Janet Grant
Natasha, thanks for sharing with us how you use the numbers. I can see how helpful it would be to create the categories you mentioned; it’s so much more detailed than which blog got the most visitors and therefore helps to decide what to do with the numbers.
donnie nelson
. . .yes I am a fanatic when it comes to measurements.
1-cup Kibble
1/2 – cup milk
2 – milk bones
These numbers – keep me happy.
Janet Grant
A simple but soothing equation.
Jennifer Major
Those are some very important numbers!
Peter DeHaan
Several years ago while on a consulting gig (in another industry), a client became fixated on improving a certain metric. Ultimately he was able to do so, but he completely lost sight of why the metric was important. Some the things he did were actually detrimental to his business even though this one metric improved.
I fear that if I checked my Klout Score, I would fall into the same trap.
Janet Grant
Keeping sight of the big picture is more important than any one number, isn’t it?
Navdeep Kaur
Sadly, I check my statistics more often than they change.
However, I set small goals on a monthly basis. This way, the slow and steady process of gaining social media presence is rewarding on a regular basis.
Janet Grant
That seems like a sensible plan, Navdeep. It’s sort of like when you’re trying to lose weight; it makes no sense to weigh yourself several times a day.
Jennifer Major
I did the whole Klout thing, and frankly, I refuse to let it matter, at this time. Once the numbers equal the square root of the amount of freckles on my arm, then I’ll get excited.
Janet Grant
At least you gave it a try and now you can use that as your baseline for your social media growth.
Ninie Hammon
I would rather face down a serial killer with a sinus infection and poison ivy on his privates–to quote one of my characters–than follow all these analytics. If I just magically knew how, it might be different. But the learning curve isn’t some gentle little bend with me. It’s more a hairpin turn with six more switchbacks ahead. On a mountain road. With 500-foot drop-offs. On both sides!
Enough whining. One question. What is a good Klout score? What’s a good bench mark to shoot for? Mine is 59, which seems pretty good to me, but what do I know?
Thanks for the post, Janet. It’s information I need–even if I so very much haaaaaaate it. Ok, that was excessive. Sorry.
Ninie Hammon
Janet Grant
Ninie, I’ve noticed that many of my published clients have Klout scores in the upper 50s to upper 60s. Obama has a score of 99, and Justin Bieber used to have a score of 100, but he dropped a bit and is currently replaced by our president as the highest score.
Leah E Good
Janet, I would love to use Google Analytics, but I’m not sure how. I currently use the blog stats built into my WordPress blog and Google Webmaster Tools. Recently I attended an Author Media webinar and heard that Google Analytics can only be used on WordPress.org sites. Is this true or is there a way I can use it?
Jan Thompson
I thought that G/A can be used on any site, not just WP. If you sign up at G/A they will ask for your site name and web address. They will give you an HTML script code you need to insert into your site so G/A would pick up the stats. That code is prewritten for you by G/A so you just copy and paste into your web site via your editor. I did it in one sweep for all pages, but you can pick and choose which page you want the stats on e.g. blogs, book reviews, etc. HTH.
Having said that, I would like to say don’t lose sleep over it. Eventually it’ll all fall into place. You just write your best books for the Lord (note to myself as well), and all these things will be added unto you.
I might lose sleep over a run-on sentence or a poorly placed gerund, but I don’t lose sleep over web traffic. It’s good to know how to manage social media, but I need to keep it all in perspective. In the end, I still have to write my books! No one else can do that for me. However, I can always outsource social media management to non-writers… 🙂
Leah E Good
Thanks, Jan. Good to know. I’ll check it out.
Thanks for the encouragement and exhortation too. It’s always good to be reminded to write for God first and worry about people second.
Anne Love
Wow. A lot of great info in the post Janet! Working on becoming more GA savvy.