Hi Ari Tracking downloads with GA is easy - especially if you can modify your CMS slightly.
Here's the info - http://www.google.com/support/analytics/bin/answer.py?hl=en&answer=55529 Basically you need to implement this on everything you actually want to track. Now you might say, "but this excludes people who use Google to arrive directly at the PDF!" . . .to which I'd reply that you probably want to counting the people who actually access your content via the interface/branding of your own site as they are the ones you can 'convert' and interest in your other activities. Seb Sebastian Chan A/g Head of Digital, Social and Emerging Technologies Powerhouse Museum street - 500 Harris St Ultimo, NSW Australia postal - PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238 tel - 61 2 9217 0109 fax - 61 2 9217 0689 mob - 0413 457 126 e - sebc at phm.gov.au w - www.powerhousemuseum.com b - www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog -----Original Message----- From: mcn-l-boun...@mcn.edu on behalf of Ari Davidow Sent: Sun 7/12/2009 1:13 AM To: Museum Computer Network Listserv Subject: Re: [MCN-L] Useful website metrics? Oh, yeah! that's a great article, Seb. Thanks for the reminder. You'll get no argument from me about the difference in credibility between GA and log analysis. It may be my lack of time with the tool, but I haven't found a good way to use GA to track downloads, though. In our specific case, as an online-only institution, geographic segmentation hasn't been of much use, other than when we talk with a funder based in a specific locale, to show that use of our site is local to them. But we could do much more with segmentation in general. For social media, we do use some quantitative measures (followers and fans; comments per post and retweets, referrals back to our home website), but none of those numbers seem terribly significant so far. I usually say that's an accurate reflection of the time we put into using those media. ari On Fri, Jul 10, 2009 at 9:42 PM, Chan, Sebastian<SebC at phm.gov.au> wrote: > Hi Ari > > I'd suggest you want to be segmenting these figures by geography at the very > least. And probably by source and entry point. > > GA will give you much more accurate figures than *any* log analysis tool - > 100% 'accuracy' is not possible (and wouldn't tell you anything in any case!). > > In the social media world you probably want to emphasise qualitative activity > over the quantitative. Again, you'd segment by intention. > > My paper from MW08 is still reasonably valid - > http://www.archimuse.com/mw2008/papers/chan-metrics/chan-metrics.html > > Seb > > Sebastian Chan > A/g Head of Digital, Social and Emerging Technologies > Powerhouse Museum > street - 500 Harris St Ultimo, NSW Australia > postal - PO Box K346, Haymarket, NSW 1238 > tel - 61 2 9217 0109 > fax - 61 2 9217 0689 > mob - 0413 457 126 > e - sebc at phm.gov.au > w - www.powerhousemuseum.com > b - www.powerhousemuseum.com/dmsblog > > > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- > This email and attachments are for the use of the intended recipient(s) only > and may contain confidential or legally privileged information or material > that is copyright of Powerhouse Museum or a third party. If you have received > this email in error, please notify the sender immediately and then delete it. > If you are not the intended recipient, you must not use, disclose or > distribute this e-mail without the author's prior permission. Any views > expressed in this message and attachments are those of the individual sender > and the Powerhouse Museum accepts no liability for the content of this > message. > -----Original Message----- > From: mcn-l-bounces at mcn.edu on behalf of Ari Davidow > Sent: Fri 7/10/2009 4:50 AM > To: Museum Computer Network Listserv > Subject: [MCN-L] Useful website metrics? > > There are lots of things we can track about our websites and about the > ways in which people interact with them. Here are some that matter to > us: > > * Downloads of podcasts > * Downloads of lesson plans and other website PDFs > * New pages posted to the website: our blog posts, new articles > * Ways to measure "engagement" or "interactivity": comments/blog post; > updates posted to our encyclopedia; blog comments/page views > * Number of donations made to the organization online: how much > raised, how many people contribute online, mean and median online > contributrions > * Subscriptions to our e-letters; turnover on the e-letters; % of > e-letters opened; % of e-letters that leads to clicks > * Site visits: unique visits, unique visitors, time on site > * Links to site (google link:); Links to blog posts (technorati) > > External sites (these numbers should get big enough to be worth tracking!) > * Mentions on twitter; RTs on twitter; followers on twitter > * Fans of Facebook page; activity on Facebook > * Fans, activity on Flickr exhibits > > Etc. We are relying on Google Analytics for most numbers (except for > the absolute site visit numbers, where we continue to use older log > analysis software for now--bigger numbers, and not yet comfortable > that we are capturing everything on GA) > > What metrics do other people use? Which provide best info for funders? > What helps you understand best whether or not you are doing a good job > of getting people engaged on the website--or on other relevant social > platforms? > > ari > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > > > > _______________________________________________ > You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer > Network (http://www.mcn.edu) > > To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu > > To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l > > The MCN-L archives can be found at: > http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/ > _______________________________________________ You are currently subscribed to mcn-l, the listserv of the Museum Computer Network (http://www.mcn.edu) To post to this list, send messages to: mcn-l at mcn.edu To unsubscribe or change mcn-l delivery options visit: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/mailman/listinfo/mcn-l The MCN-L archives can be found at: http://toronto.mediatrope.com/pipermail/mcn-l/
