Prevent data overload by letting your goals select what you measure

If you’re a marketer, you know we live in a data-driven world. The Internet and has unlocked a level of statistical analysis that can tell us a considerable amount about the people who come to visit on the web or on our hosted apps. It’s so much data that we can be easily overwhelmed. How much information is too much?

Then there’s the FOMO (fear of missing out) aspect of data collection. You hear that a competitor is gathering and using data that you are not. Will that give them the leg up? Rather than feeling like you’re in control of all this customer engagement data, it’s easy to feel that it has taken control of you. Here’s how to tame the data beast:

Pick your goals

It doesn’t matter what collection software you use. The options on what to gather probably outnumber what you need. The ones you should pick will depend on how you answer this type of question:

What do you want social media to do for your organization?

If you’re not sure, it’s not even time to be collecting data yet. Often, your goals will turn out to be uncomplicated, such as:

• You want to collect email addresses

• You have digital products that you want to give to people who sign up for them

• You want to increase brand awareness

These are key objectives. Measuring them gives you the metrics you need to gauge successful usage of social media and other online efforts. Goals come first. Tracking data comes after.

Understand that having data doesn’t mean having solutions

Before all these ways to measure engagement came along, marketing was considered a success because people told you they thought it was creative. But following creativity is like falling down a rabbit hole. You might end up with success, but you could also just get a whole bunch of useless compliments.

Yes, creativity can sell. You don’t want to measure it. What should be measured through engagement data is likability and trust. Creativity can’t get you to your goals if users believe you have a bad product or service. And mundane marketing messages won’t prevent you from attaining those goals, either.

The data you decide to collect should give you the ability to challenge or validate what customers think of your brand – not your marketing. It’s your audience and their engagement that generates this data. And speaking of challenges, the way to measure this information keeps splitting into subsets. It can be a full time job just keeping up with what’s new.

It may seem like you’re dragging your feet, but consider taking a wait-and-see attitude about new customer engagement data measurement. At least pause to find out whether it develops from a fad into a bona fide trend.

Take a realistic approach

A billion people have Facebook accounts. Individuals from all over the world can visit your company page. It takes just a single click to like your page and become a fan, and that person may never become a customer. Social media is simply a barometer.

At the macro level, a measurement of likes may not provide much insight, but this ties in nicely with your goal setting. Measure what matters, and know why it matters. Otherwise, what difference does it make if you have tens or hundreds of thousands of likes, but there’s no correlation to sales (meaning you’re not making any)?

A realistic approach also means that you’ll set reachable goals that matter. We all want explosive growth. But first, it’s wise to use data to measure the level of increase needed for growth and then extrapolate where you’d like to be.

It’s just data

Collect as much of it as you want. Amassing customer engagement data is not going to produce your own magic oracle. You’ll need more than just information streams.

This might seem like it contradicts the earlier warning of skirting macro measurements. It’s not. Instead, it’s a reminder that data must be augmented with the insights gained by qualitative and contextual research. The information needs a tool for interpretation.

Respectful collection

Finally, your customers know that you’re collecting their data and you might want to share your insights with them. It’s a courteous and subtle way to show that you’re being an appropriate custodian of the information you collect. TMI goes both ways. You don’t want to be overwhelmed, and they don’t want to be left feeling like their online privacy has been abused.

For more information about how to effectively gather and leverage usage data, contact the online strategy and design experts at Creative Technology Partners.

There’s more to it than simply throwing more money at technology.

Your business is under attack. A competitor is breathing down your neck. They do something better than your company. Maybe they’re just a bit more nimble in one specific area, but it’s enough to tilt the scale in their favor.

“Business as usual” is out of the question if you want to stay successful in business. You need to transform. And because technology is the engine of innovation, we’re told that the transformation we need to make is a digital transformation. What is this? What does it entail?

More than tech

There’s no hardware or a software program to precipitate this transformation. Digital transformation is a shift in thinking.

Your tools are digital. You’ll use social media, mobile devices, and other emerging technologies. And it must start with your leadership, which has to adopt the transformation and push it down.

Digital transformation is the process that closes the gap between what your customers expect and what you deliver. And you won’t be able to offer this if you act like an analog organization.

What does this gap look like?

It’s going to look different for each organization. To define it, you’ll have to ask and provide answers to these questions:

• Does your organization have a digital strategy? It must go beyond a philosophy. It has to be a practice. Everyone in your organization must be able to state the strategy, meaning it must be clear and simple.

• Can you measure the effectiveness of the strategy? Have you laid out a business case for your use of social media? What is the measurable return on your investment, in dollars?

Digital literacy

Digital transformation should make your business better. It starts with increasing the level of digital literacy at the leadership level. One executive might think this means moving everybody over to Office 365 and going paperless. Another might believe there’s nothing they need to do at all, and it’s just about online marketing.

Reimagining your business to create a digital transformation requires rethinking your business model. How do you create value? How do you make money by using technology to reposition your product or service so it’s consumed the way that customers prefer, rather than in the way you initially created it?

In search of the transformation

Many organizations believe they’ll transform by increasing their IT and technology budget. Others decide it’s just a redesign of their website.

These efforts wind up becoming a decorative layer on top of legacy thinking and operations. True digital transformation must accommodate customer behavior. In some respects, modern customers are assuming an operational role within your organization. Their behavior is vastly different than the traditional customers you had before.

The differentiator

Digital transformation puts people and processes above technology. This may seem counterintuitive, because isn’t technology the change agent?

Technology is actually just the tool and people are its consumers. Digital transformation uses digital technologies to connect, enhance, and focus attention where it should be: on the customer.

It’s the intersection where your business and customer value meet. It’s also about responding to the changes that digital technology has caused in our daily lives. We’ve already seen unexpected consequences. Disruption isn’t always such a good thing.

In his book Zero To One: Notes On Startups, Or How To Build The Future, Peter Thiel writes that disruption “attracts attention: disruptors are people who look for trouble and find it. Disruptive kids get sent to the principal’s office. Disruptive companies often pick fights they can’t win.”

Thiel also writes, “The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make them obsolete. But the most valuable companies in the future won’t ask what problems can be solved with computers alone. Instead, they’ll ask: how can computers help humans solve hard problems?”

Where transformation should occur in your organization

It doesn’t really matter.

Answer the gap questions above. You may discover that your focus should be on improving customer interactions. Or, you may determine that you need internal reorganization.

Adopting technology as tool for change makes no sense if you have something that isn’t broken. Transformation, digital or otherwise, requires only that you change what’s needed to improve the bottom line. And remember, the bottom line always connects to your customer. The more difficult the change, the more transformative it will be.

If you’re looking to implement a strategy for digital transformation, starting with an assessment of areas of your digital presence that need to evolve, contact the professionals at Creative Technology Partners. We have the expertise to meet all of your content needs, providing expert software engineering, strategic user experience, and design services.