Avinash Kaushik on Failing Fast (Win A Copy of Web Analytics 2.0)

Over two years ago, I made a screencast about Web Analytics for Nonprofits that covered the basics of using google analytics, web metrics, and some nonprofit case studies featuring Laura White and the Idealist.  That's just about when I discovered Avinash Kaushik's blog, Occam's Razor and his first book on Web analytics.

I reached out to Avinash and he was very generous with his time, helping us understand traditional web metrics as well as Google Analytics.   Through our conversation, we also touched on the metrics for blogs. I've learned a lot about metrics from Avinash.

Avinash has just published his second book, Web Analytics 2.0.  It's a desktop bible for anyone who has to gather web analytics data as part of their job.   What I like best is that it takes the mystery out of social media metrics.   It gets even better:  Avinash is donates all proceeds from his books to two charities:  The Smile Train and The Ekai Vidyalaya Foundation.

Harry and Sara say "Thank You Avinash" for the Google Schwag!

Avinash Kaushik sent me a copy of his new book and it's so good, I'm keeping it.  But, I'm purchasing a copy to giveaway to the reader from a nonprofit who leaves a comment about how they might best use this book.  (Don't forget to fill out the comment form completely, so I can track you down if you win.) 

I  had the pleasure having lunch with Avinash over at the Googleplex.    The chapter that caught my curiosity was Chapter 7:  Failing Faster - Unleashing the Power of Testing and Experimentation and we discussed it in the video above.   He explains why experimentation is critical for success in using the web, particularly social media.

Avinash feels that in a world of finite resources, it is very important to experiment and fail fast.   With social media and on the web, experiments are fast, cheap, and scalable.  The learning that results is what brings your more success.   Experimentation also helps an organization make decisions based on audience feedback and analytics data, not your own hunches.  This try it, fix it approach leads to incremental improvements which in turn leads to better outcomes.

The F-word chapter (Failure) offers some really useful tips about creating and nurturing a "experiment culture."   I was thrilled to discover this part of the book because I'm designing a learning community/technical project that is based on valuing experimentation.   So, been working on a methodology for social media experiments.

While the advice in the book is geared for tests to improve a web site, these are translatable to social media experiments.   I've summarized a couple of the tips he offers about methods for testing.

(1)  The First Test: KISS:   The first experiment should be simple from an idea, execution, and measurement and use A/B method.   This is a technique for testing two or more versions.

(2)  Just Get Started:   Avoid spending so much time trying to design the perfect experiment with the perfect measurement tool that you don't actually implement.  Learning means implementation - even if you fail.

(3) Test to Learn, Not Validate Your Gut:  Don't think about testing as a way to support a decision that you're making based on your gut.  Do it to learn what works or doesn't. 

(4) Start with a Hypothesis:   Your hypothesis should embed a success metric.  For example, "My hypothesis is that our Facebook Fans are more likely to engage with us when we post links that have a question in the title."

(5) Make Goals Evaluation Criteria and Up-Front Decisions:   It is important to not only identify your success metric, but also establish the criteria to judge a victory.  

(6)  Design Tests That Solve A Pain Point for Your Audience:  Design your experiments so they address a point of pain for a customer or audience.

(7)  Learn, Learn, Learn:   If you're going to experiment, you need to analyze your data and learn from it.  Even if your social media experiment was a miserable flop, there is a lot of valuable learning.

(8) Evangelism and Expertise:    It is important to have someone who can preach and share why testing is important and someone who has the expertise in metrics and data. 

Finally, Avinash suggests that testing should be fun!

Comments

[Craig Weinrich]

Wow, sounds like a good book! I would read it to help figure out good metrics to track not only for my organization, but for the member organizations that I help as well. There could be some powerful aggregated numbers to report on to our funders, should they be reported on in a meaningful way like: "an increase in the number of conversations about such-and-such program." It would help to have an outside perspective to help me think through these types of metrics. Thanks for the post!

[Wfrick]

Social media metrics... can't live with 'em; can't live without 'em.

In October I started a new job at a small nonprofit in the cleantech sector and I've gotten them up and running with a pretty robust listening platform using free tools that aims not only to track mentions of the org and news from the sector but to track web mentions of the organization's approximately 150 member and sponsor companies.

Yahoo Pipes has been great for this (and Beth was nice enough to pass along some thoughts on Twitter).

I'm putting together a resource based on what I learned doing this with the working title "Advanced Listening for Small Organizations OR Google Alerts R 4 n00bs".

A lot of this will overlap with the TERRIFIC listening resources on WeAreMedia and Beth's Listening Primer.

Anyway, one of the areas I still have to figure out for my org is measurement. And I have a feeling the book would be a terrific resource.

[Jason Inman]

I need this book. Our org was granted $10,000 per month in ad-words and we are not yet using it.

[Matthew Heck]

Sounds awesome. Breaking down analytics and understanding them has always been one of my organization's weakest points. Doing this better could definitely help us, especially considering our entire organization is basically built online.

[Abby Janssen]

Beth, I am the sole marketing person for a regional non-profit that provides mental health services and senior living facilities. In the three years I've been here I've rebuilt the website, started our online donation campaigns and instituted the use of social media. Right now I go before our board and can tell them how many people visit our website and what our bounce rate is, but beyond that I can't give them any great insights as to how our site is performing or if our social media efforts are helping drive web traffic. This book would give me a lifeline and allow me to speak with confidence about web analytics.

[Katie Benston]

I would give this book as a New Year's gift to our Marketing department. They are reluctant to embrace social networking, while here in the Development department, I am ready to jump in. A gift like this would reinforce that we are a unified team, despite having different titles, and help both us feel more comfortable with experimentation in social media.

[Ahansen]

My org has talked a lot about testing but has nothing planned out or any strategy. This book could help plan some strategies to get started and produce valid results.

[Darren Lancaster]

Beth, Avinash's book looks good. At the groupery we're working on providing the right analytics for our groups to understand participation, reach, and engagement. Looking forward to discussing more of these ideas with you on Thursday.

Darren

[Anita Beninger]

In the past six months I have been managing social media for a non-profit in a variety of different ways. The idea of using Twitter, Facebook and Youtube has been a bottom up approach.

Yesterday I gave a formal presentation to the marketing managers on our accounts, use and metrics.

A copy of Web Analytics 2.0. could really help me to grow the business component of our social media plan and to inspire others interested in the channel.

Thanks!

[Wfrick]

OK, how about we apply some measurement to this comment thread?

By my count, as of this moment, my above comment is the leading post by the following metrics:

Word count, character count, number of sentences, number of paragraphs.

At 162 words my post beats out the next lengthiest which clocks in at 111. My character count (including spaces) is 916. Second highest is 622. At 7 sentences and 5 paragraphs it's highest as well.

And if you count this current comment I'm out-commenting all other commenters at a 2:1 ratio!

So what does all this measurement tell us about the quality of my comment? If I win the book I'd be able to find out!

I'm being facetious of course, but the point is that it's easy to come up with metrics for engagement and hard to figure out how they actually relate to an organization's mission.

And I really do hope I win the book to learn more about how to measure conversation and engagement on the web more effectively.

[Zack]

Avinash is the man. Seems like everytime I pay attention to what he says, I learn something!

[Ira Wise]

This book sounds fantastic. Our congregation is just beginning to dig in with analytics after seven years of flying by the seat of our pants. And now that we have two blogs (and hope to begin a "Social Sermon" in the spring, we are beginning to formulate a general strategy and policy for engaging our members, potential members and fellow travelers through social media. Hope to learn more from Avinash!

[Ira Wise]

This book sounds fantastic. Our congregation is just beginning to dig in with analytics after seven years of flying by the seat of our pants. And now that we have two blogs (and hope to begin a "Social Sermon" in the spring, we are beginning to formulate a general strategy and policy for engaging our members, potential members and fellow travelers through social media. Hope to learn more from Avinash!

[web development company]

This is really a great post.. The tips he offers about methods for testing are invaluable. It was good to get his next book and it sounds good.