Edgar 1 Alex Edgar Professor Ward MIT 3733 25 March, 2013 Analytics Assignment For the analytic assignment,

I am analyzing my blog for this class, Virtually Social. I am using the Wordpress analytic tools to analyze the number of views the blog receives, followers, shares, likes, and the tags of my posts. Although I would have preferred to use Google analytics to determine the type of devices used and the time a person viewed the blog, Wordpress analytics provides a good summary of information to be able to improve the success of my blog. Goals The goals of my blog are to increase awareness and audience engagement. In addition, I hope to provide interesting and engaging content that makes viewers want to return and view my blog again. I used the additional social media tools including Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest to help increase visibility. By using these tools, my blog will reach a wider and more diverse audience in addition to Wordpress users. My target audience is between the ages of 1822, as the majority of my Twitter followers, Facebook friends and classmates are within this age group. I am also targeting other Wordpress bloggers and people who are interested in topics about social media. By adding many links to additional articles, YouTube videos, and other websites to each blog post I plan to provide engaging content to my audience. I will aim to have 12 followers, at least one like on each blog post, and an increase of views each week. Lastly, the goal of my blog is to decipher which social media topics are most popular and discover a topic that I can continue to blog about. Metrics The goals of driving traffic and engagement of my blog will be measured using the same practical metrics over four weeks. Firstly, to measure awareness of my blog, I will

Edgar 2 analyze the number of blog views (number of unique viewers and location of viewers) and followers. To meet my goal, the number of these metrics will increase over four weeks. The number of likes, comments, and shares of my blog will measure the goal of engagement.

Week One (February 25- March 3) # of Viewers (Week One)

8 6 4 2 0 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat

Figure 1. Number of views per day Overall, the post Google It was viewed 13 times (on average twice a day) and received one comment throughout the week. The number of views was greatest on Monday February 25th because it was the day the post was published (Figure 1.). The post was liked by two bloggers and one of the bloggers that liked the post became a follower. Compared to previous weeks, I attempted to use more tags and embedded links within the post and wrote information about the blog in the about section. Week Two (March 4- March 10) # of Viewers ( Week Two)
40 30 20 10 0 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

Figure 2. Number of viewers per day

Edgar 3
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Week One Week Two

Shares/MT Likes Followers

. Figure 3. Comparison of metrics per week (week two) The post Theres an App for that was liked by two new bloggers. I used Twitter (@alexjedgar) to push my blog to an additional audience and received 34 views and one like over the week. I received one retweet and the blog was shared twice on Facebook. A majority of the views were of that weeks post, but some views were of my blog homepage. Also to increase visibility, I posted my blog url on my Pinterest page and pinned the infographics that were in previous blog posts. Tweeting and pinning about my blog greatly helped to increase views (Figure 2) and the number of likes, shares, and followers (Figure 3). Week Three (March 11- March 17)
3.5 3 2.5 2 1.5 1 0.5 0 Week One Week Two Week Three Shares/MT Likes Followers

Figure 4. Comparison of metrics per week (week three) The blog post Mobile Me only received two views over the entire week. The week three posting was uploaded using a smart phone. Due to the restrictions of the mobile app there were no additional articles and websites linked within the blog, which I believe played a factor into the decrease in views. In addition, the posting was less content compared to the other blog

Edgar 4 postings. Although there were a smaller number of views compared to week two, the blog gained one new follower and received one like on the post (Figure 4). I added a widget, to link my twitter account to the blog to increase my Twitter followers, who would later see a tweet promoting a blog post. Week Four (March 18- March 24)

Figure 5. Location of views

Figure 6. Views per Month

Edgar 5 Figure 7. Referrers

# of Viewers (Week 4)
40 30 20 10 0 Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri Sat Sun

Figure 8. Number of viewers per day

6 5 4 3 2 1 0 Week One Week Two Week Three Week Four Shares/MT Likes Followers

Figure 9. Comparison of metrics per week (week four) On March 18th the posting Dooced was published and the blog received 30 views (Figure 8), two likes, and two new followers. On March 22nd I posted Social Media is here to stay which received 2 likes (one by a previous viewer). On March 24th A New Level of Consumer Engagement was published, gaining two new followers, receiving one like by a follower and 35 views (Figure 8). For the first time, the blog received at least one view everyday and the posting Dooced was mentioned on Twitter. At the beginning of the week the number of views increased from previous weeks and at the end the week these figures were further increased (Figure 8). Other than shares, week four was the most successful in gaining audience awareness and engagement (Figure 9). Using additional social media tools, increasing the frequency of posts and following other blogs increased the awareness of my blog.

Edgar 6 Over four weeks the blog Virtually Social received: 143 views 2 Retweets 1 Mention 2 Facebook Shares 11 likes 11 followers (8 Wordpress users and 3 email) From this process I have learnt that audience engagement and awareness requires content to constantly be produced and monitored. In addition, I learnt that using multiple social media tools greatly increases visibility (number of touches) because new audiences can be reached. The number of followers and views of my blog exceeded my expectations. If I did not use Twitter, the views of my blog and inevitably the number of likes and followers would be much less (Figure 7). Posting more frequently also was a key factor to help increase awareness. I was surprised that people in other countries such as Russia and Italy viewed my blog (Figure 5). The most popular tags within my blog were social media, Twitter, and Facebook. The most viewed page was my homepage and the most viewed post was Theres an App for that. Based on these results, when continuing to write my blog, these topics should be written about and tagged. In the future to improve engagement and the number of comments on my blog, I can post questions and calls to action from my audience. Overall, I managed to meet my goals of increasing awareness and engagement over a span of four weeks.