Tag Archives: analytics

Dynamic Tag Manager Adventures: Get Percent Page Viewed Plug-in

In the web analytics world, part of understanding how useful or effective your site pages are comes from how far visitors scroll down the page (a.k.a. the percent page viewed). This is particularly interesting for content producers like bloggers, news outlets, or any other text-based vertical. It does not matter how many people visit your blog post if most of them do not scroll far enough to see the call-to-action. How will you know if the content is not engaging enough or the juicy bits are regularly kept below the fold if you don’t understand how your site’s users regularly view the page?

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Digital Media Analytics Presentation: An Introduction

I recently met with a community of social and digital media producers, many of whom had a limited exposure and understanding of web analytics. So, I gave an introductory analytics presentation that tried to focus on social principles to help them realize the incredible opportunities analytics could offer them. Metcalfe’s Law, also known as the Network Effect, is a popular concept that argues the potential value of a network increases exponentially with every incremental increase. Most do not realize the same principle also applies to analytics. The more dimensions of data you collect, the higher potential value of the resulting data set. Since the analytics presentation was so well received, I thought I would share a public and reusable version that might help you in your work. Continue reading

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Principles of Gaming in Industry

It is the nature of all human beings to seek learning through games, a structured paradigm that allows one to grasp new concepts and expand their horizons in a safer environment than the real world. We play house, tag, and create fingerpainting art as children. As we grow, we play sports, more complex games, and create finer works of art. Indeed, from our earliest days we rely on playing as the most effective way to learn about our world and how to live in it. Pondering this topic inevitably led to the question: Why does the playful approach to life stop when we grow up and move into a professional field?

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Punish inaction, not failure

I enjoy volunteering in the local Scout Troop as a Crew Advisor to the young men. That being said, I am not so hardcore that I wear a uniform at every meeting, nor am I so lax that I like to push over rock formations in Goblin Valley just for kicks and giggles. I simply remember all the valuable life lessons I learned in Scouts and wanted to pay it forward by interacting with the local youth, encouraging them to develop responsibility and successful adult traits.

Yet one concerning theme I keep coming across in my interactions with these youth is something I call “Choice-averse” behavior. This goes well beyond the more commonly understood risk-averse nature some people tend to carry. These choice-averse natures don’t even play the game for fear of failure. It’s almost as if general expectations for youth have diminished to the point where society incentivizes inaction over pursuing any sort of serious challenge. But this issue isn’t present only among the younger generation…

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