K'necht-It

2010-01-31

Twitter Training for Business

My company K'nechtology Inc. has just released two more dates in February for our live interactive twitter for business training program. The reviews from the January sessions were fantastic and several people who couldn't attend the sessions in January ask for some more dates.

We hope these sessions will be just as popular as the January ones, so check the website for the new dates and I encourage you to reserve your spot as soon as possible. If these dates don't meet your requirements please let me know.

Here is just one of the many comments we received about hour Twitter sessions:

I was impressed by a thorough and complete introduction to Twitter and it's applications for business. I feel ready to apply the knowledge I gained through his succinct and practical explanations of Twitter and related topics - all in just one hour! If you think you'd like to Tweet, take this course, you will be glad you did.

Dr. Kyra Gerber
Courtyard Chiropractic Clinic
Toronto, Ontario

WebTrends Engage

This week I'm off to New Orleans to participate in Webtrends Engage. I'll be giving a talk/workshop on Tuesday about the importance of tracking phones calls generated by web traffic and tracking it back to their original marketing source.

This address is in partner ship with Mongoose Metrics. I've been working with them since October and have previously address the importance of integrating the data captured by call tracking software into corporate web analytic reports.

I'm really looking forward to this address as the people at Webtrends have also really stepped up to support this talk and have recognized the importance of this type of integration.

As a user of Webtrends since their original version 1, I can't wait for this conference and the opportunity to gather more information and innovation to continue to support my companies Webtrends clients and update our Webtrends training material with the latest product innovations.

2010-01-10

Up Coming Conferences

While the list isn't finalized my list of speaking engagements over the next few months promises to keep me busy. While I've spoken at some of these events in the past it will be the first time for me at the Webtrends engage event and the Fanshawe College's "Turning Clicks Into Customers".

Here's the detailed list with dates. I hope to see you at one of these events and if you're there be sure to introduce yourself.

Webtrends Engage - New Orleans - Feb 1 - 4
Executing Social Media - Toronto - Feb 10
Fanshawe Colledge - London, Ontario - March 1
SMX Toronto - April 8-9

I'm also on the conference board for SMX Toronto. So while the topic of my conference address isn't finalized, I can assure that I'll also be moderating a few sessions as well.

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Twitter Training Program

I'm happy to announce here in my blog that my company K'nechtology Inc. has just launched a 1 hour on-line twitter training seminar.

What separates out our training session from most on-line Twitter training programs is that is live and full interactive. Most others are either recorded video podcasts or a PowerPoint presentation. While these are fine for most people, from our experience not all people can take this form of training and apply it immediately without some trial and error.

By having a live sessions, users can ask specific questions relating to their needs and have them answered in real time.

K'nechtology is offering these courses at the inaugural price of $25 per person with a maximum number of 10 people participating per session. No date has been set when the price will be increased, but you can be sure at this price demand will be high.

While you may feel comfortable using Twitter on a personal level or even for your business, think about recommending this program to others. I know I'm constantly being asked "Why should I being using Twitter" or "How do I use Twitter" or anyone of hundred different questions.

  • Here is a list of just some of the topics covered:
  • Basics of Twitter;
  • Choosing the right Twitter Account ID;
  • Monitoring your Twitter account
  • Twitter terminology;
  • How to develop a following of both existing clients, potential clients; and
  • More effective Tweats through article linking and the use of "hash tags"
Best of all, I will be personally conducting first few of these session. So I know they'll be information packed and those attending will be able to hit the ground running (tweating). If you have any questions of this training seminar, drop me a line.

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2009-11-10

Cookie consent law is breathtakingly stupid

For years I've written about why the public shouldn't be afraid of cookies except for the calories in the ones people eat. Despite my efforts, fear has continued to grow in part spurred on my anti-virus software companies that look for tracking cookies.

What most people don't get is that effective ecommerce web sites need cookies to operate. Web analytics software need cookies to create more accurate statistics of user behavior to conintually improve the sites usability and improve marketing campaigns to better convey message to their target audience.

So I'm shocked, but not surprised that the EU is passing a law that will effectively ban the use of cookies on EU based web sites without specific user permissions.

For all the details on this new law and all the stupid impacts please read http://www.techradar.com/news/internet/cookie-consent-law-is-breathtakingly-stupid-648740 from TechRadar.com

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2009-11-06

Tracking Phone Calls in WebTrends

About 8 weeks ago I was contacted by Mongoose Metrics.

The purpose of this contact was two fold. First they wanted to demonstrate their product. Mongoose Metrics is an web/marketing analytics tool for tracking and attributing on-line phone calls back to the referring on-line marketing campaign.

The product works simply: by adding some java script to you page and a bit tagging. The result is that everyone who comes to your site sees a different toll-free number. This number is recorded in a cookie along with information about the referrer. If they came directly to your site, the visitor sees the default number.

The cool thing happens when a web site visitor decides to call because they need more information or to place the order over the telephone. The software then very cleanly capatures all the referrer information and displays it to you in a easy to read report format. With a bit of advance set-up you can even break it down by different marketing programs.

Now the exciting part and the second reason Mongoose contacted me. They wanted to see if it was possible to integrate their data automatically into WebTrends. After a bit of trial and error, I developed the framework for the integration and Mongoose quickly developed the code on their end to make it possible.

So what does it mean to the average WebTrends web analytics team. With a bit of effort and creation of some WebTrends Custom Reports, you can now know which campaigns (and any variable within your campaigns translation file) drove people to call in. This conversion point is no longer a mystery.

During our tests we were able to successfully monitor calls generated by a Twitter post (tweat), a link in a Facebook status, traffic from organic and paid search including which keyword phrases generated the calls.

The method was successfully tested with both WebTrends OnDemand and an locally installed version of WebTrends (must be using the SDC feature). Beyond passing a conversion point, the configuration also allows for you to set a dollar value to be assigned to each call. While this value is fix in your configuration right now, plans are being made to develop a way to make the value of call arbitrary and in control of the person who took the call. This feature is still under development and no time line has been provided. However, even with assigning an average call value, better quality ROI calculations can be made to better optimize your campaigns.

Below are some sample reports from WebTrends

Paths to and from the call



Orders By Campaign ID (in this case the order is a phone call)



We are still conducting tests, but I expect this feature to be available to the general public before the end of year. If you'd like more information please let me know and I'll be glad to make the appropriate introductions.

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2009-10-27

Getting Ready for Pubcon

It's hard to believe it's been a year since the last PubCon marketing conference in Las Vegas. To me this is one of the best organized and informative conferences of the year and I start looking forward to it as soon as the last one is finished.

What makes this conference so great, is it the location or the quality of the speakers or something else? As to location, unlike many others, I'm not a fan of Las Vegas for a conference. Yes this year hotel deals are plentiful, but all those neon lights give me a headache.

So it must be the great quality of speakers at the event. Yes over 3 days of presentations the shear number of speakers can be overwhelming. I personally will be speaking during two sessions and the quality of the speakers is a good as anywhere. While you might find all of us at one conference most of the speakers speak at other quality events throughout the years. So what is the big deal?

What I see going between the sessions in the halls at the conference is something you don't usually see. People talking to other people and exchanging ideas, making friends and network connections. It through these new friends and connection that the benefit of the conference continues to grow throughout the year. I attribute this lose/casual/friendly environment to the conference organizers and their ability to get everyone in the right mood.

So with just two weeks before the opening keynote, if you haven't booked your ticket and registered time is running out. To those of you who know you'll be there be sure to tap me on the shoulder in Vegas and say hi.

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2009-08-20

Best Search Engine for Canada

According to Hitwise and reported by Search Engine Watch today, the best quality search engine in Canada is Bing despite being ranked 6th in popularity.

http://www.searchengineland.com/best-search-engine-in-canada-hitwise-says-bing-24208

The primary reason given is that Bing is doing the best job of localizing search results. Through our own tests at K'nechtology, we've seen very little difference in search quality from Toronto office. So is Hitwise's data wrong, are our test wrong or has Hitwise simply assumed something about the results based on user behavior.

If you read the article you'll see its based on how many searches a person does before stopping. This assumes that the person found what they wanted when they stopped. Here is where I believe they've made some wrong assumptions.

1. Bing is new and lots of people are checking them out. This means "let me do a search on Bing for something I search on a lot and lets see what the results are." After their initial search or two when they don't see a significant difference between Bing and Google they return to Google as their primary search engine. Hence Bing is ranked number 6 in terms of popularity

2. While Bing may have a slight advantage in localized search, from this article it still doesn't appear that Canadians are doing long query strings and are still sticking to 1-2 word search queries. So if that query includes a geo-location then perhaps Bing is giving better results, but they did not analyze how many people include a city or province in their search. From the various clients data that we've analyzed even when they rank extremely well for an organic search phrase that includes a geo-locations, the vast majority of organic search traffic comes from phrases that don't include a geo-locations. So in my opinion this localization benefit of Bing is marginal at best.

3. Are people simply giving Bing the once over and doing a single or a secondary search and saying "so what, I'll stick to what I've been using".

Ultimately, it is going to be up to users to try Bing, see if they like the results and then to switch their default search engine. For that to happen Bing has to start promoting themselves here in Canada. In the US, I've seen TV commercials, heard radio ads and seen print ad. In Canada, next to nothing except at some industry trade shows. Unfortunately, this holds true for all the major search engines.

Canada's population is comparable to that of California, yet from my observations the amount of money spent by the major search engines here in Canada to promote themselves is a minor fraction of the California spend. Attention all search engines, if you want to take a bite out of Google's market share here in Canada, then start promoting yourselves by something more than word of mouth.

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2009-08-17

WebTrends 9

Two weeks back, WebTrends announced version 9.0. As with all recent upgrades this version is only be released to users of WebTrends on Demand. The good news is they expect by late this quarter or early October to release version 9 for the installed version.

This approach is both good and bad for users of the software version. The bad part is obvious, we don't get our hands on this latest version which holds so much promised and should make all of our reporting that much more completed.

On the other hand, when it is released, we can be assured that it will be relatively bug free and stable.

My clients really do appreciate that reduced frequency of the minor updates, as they can concentrate on the numbers and not a parade of upgrades and batches (unlike other products). I on the other hand feel that in many instances users of the software version are being punished as they do not always get some of the improved reporting. It is one thing not to release the a, b, c of the same version, but not to release intra version releases (i.e. 8.6) makes me wonder. My best guess is that WebTrends is really trying to get all users to migrate to the on-demand version. While I don't have any issues with it and have several clients using it, for many it is simply not an option based on corporate policies and the legal stance of where data is stored.

Either way, I'm looking forward to WebTrends 9 full release.

PubCon and more

If you've been following my near daily tweats (http://twitter.com/aknecht), you'll know that I'm speaking again this year at PubCon. PubCon which will run from November 10 - 13 in Las Vegas is by far the best networking industry conference I've ever attended. The combination of numerous sessions and what seems an endless number of nightly events make it ideal for making industry friends.

PubCon is first and foremost a search marketing conference put on by the people who bring us WebMaster world. This year the response to the conference from what I've heard has been fantastic despite the economy. By the end of July (then end of the first tier of early bird registration) they were well ahead of previous years. Also the number of people submitting proposals to speak at the conference has increased and made the work of conference organizers that much harder. Only over the past few days have some sessions been announced. I'm still waiting to hear what I'll be speaking on. I'm hoping to be on one of the Web Analytics sessions, but might just end up in a SEO and Design session like have been for the past two years. With some luck perhaps all the sessions will be announced by the end of the month.

If you've thought about this conference in the past this may be your best opportunity. Hotel costs in Las Vegas are the lowest they've been in years. This year I'm staying at the same hotel as last year and the room rate is 40% lower.

Beyond PubCon, I've also been book to speak at a Social Network/Web Marketing workshop series in my home city of Toronto called "Executing Social Media". This event is schedule to take place on October 28th and 29th. The details are still being finalized and I expect the their web site and registration system to be ready within the next week or two. More on this event as the details (location, registration, price) are announced.

Either way, if your at either of these events please tab me on the shoulder and say hi.