Download this webinar for free: http://mstnr.me/2hPUamd Technology is one of five essential components of the digital story. Analytics provide us with vital information to track and measure audience behavior, so we can extend the reach and impact of our storytelling efforts across all of our communications channels. What do you measure, and how do you use that data to refine your story? Join us for this webinar to get your analytics game on! What You Will Learn • Learn about the most important metrics for digital stories, and how analytics relate to the four other essential components of a digital story. • Discover techniques for measuring those metrics on your sites and social media accounts, including testing different versions of content. • Gain a framework for analyzing information and making smart, data-driven decisions about content and design.

1. Analytics and Storytelling
Wednesday
September 28, 2016

2. • 45 minute webinar + 15 minutes for questions and answers
• Ask questions through the Zoom Control Panel
• Tweet during the webinar with #mStonerNow
• Please fill out the post-webinar evaluation
• Check your inbox on Friday for the webinar recording and slide deck
The Plan

3. Voltaire Santos Miran
Co-FounderandCEO
@vsantosmiran
Greg Zguta
TechnicalLead
@gzguta

4. I’ll take Origins
for
two books,
please.

5. The Question:
WhatwasthenameoftheproductGooglegobbledupin
ordertomakewhatwenowknowasGoogleAnalytics?

6. The Goal
Wewanttoequipyoutousemeasurementandanalysis
toolstomakesmartdecisionsabouthowyoutellyour
stories.

7. Agenda
1. Components of a Digital Story
2. The Principles
3. Tools and Techniques
4. The Punchline
5. Questions

8. The Components

9. Visual
Design
Structured
Content
Integrated
Media
Engagement
Opportunities
Technology
Infrastructure
Five Components of Digital Stories

10. Visual Design
• Beautiful interfaces that encourage reading
• Thoughtful consideration of layout flexibility in regard to
viewport size and content load times
• Touch-optimized content interactions
• Micro-interactions
• Sufficient clear space to allow focus on the text
Component 1:

11. Structured Content
• Atomic units of information
• Metadata and keyword plan to support search
engine optimization (SEO)
• Tagging and taxonomy
• Associated social posts and promotions
Component 2:

12. Integrated Media
• Photography
• Video
• Audio
• Data visualization (infographics)
Component 3:

13. Engagement Opportunities
• Calls-to-action (CTA)
• Commenting/reader contributions
• Ability to share and amplify through social media
• Opportunities to follow the story through mobile push
alerts and email updates
• Subscription opportunities (podcasts, playlists)
Component 4:

14. Technology
• Content management system (CMS)
• Cloud-based collaboration tools
• Experimentation capability to optimize content based on
audience behavior
• Analytics framework
Component 5:

15. “Far too often for writers and editors
the story is done when you hit publish.
At The Huffington Post, the article
begins its life when you hit publish.”
Paul Berry, TheHuffingtonPost

16. The Principles

17. Begin at the beginning.
Analytics planning begins when the story planning begins, not when the
story goes live.

18. Involve your team.
Analytics is a team sport. Your team will want to know how the story
performed as a whole, and members will want to find out how well their
particular contributions performed. Who’s “the team?”
• Strategist
• Writer
• Editor
• Designer
• Photographer
• Videographer
• Social Media Specialist
• Developer
• Analytics Specialist
• Project Manager

19. Experiment.
Don’t be afraid to try new things. Often, there’s no “right” answer and
several “great” options.

20. Measure everything.
With every facet of the story you produce, ask yourself how you’ll be
able to get feedback to refine and improve your efforts.

21. Turn data into insights.
Too often, we end our analytics efforts at data collection. Improvement
depends on actually examining the data, drawing conclusions,
generating additional questions, refining, and testing. Rinse. Repeat.

22. Tools and Techniques

23. Simo Ahava, seniordataadvocateatReaktor,GoogledeveloperexpertforGoogleAnalytics
“Data quality is directly proportional
to how well the data collection
mechanism is understood.”
http://www.simoahava.com

24. John Muir, Naturalist
“Over-civilized people are
beginning to find out that going
to the mountains is going home.”

25. 25

26. 26
Case Study - REI
• #OptOutside
• EncouragedpeopletogooutdoorsonBlackFriday2015
• Touchedallthebases:
• Usedphotos,video,social,interactivity
• Goals:reinforcebrandidentityandencouragemore
peopletoshopatREIinthelong-term
• REIplanstolauncha2016versionofthecampaign
http://optoutside.rei.com

27. Four steps to storytelling analytics:
Plan
1
Implement
2
Promote
3
Assess
4

28. Plan
1
Who is the audience? What is the technology?What to measure?
2 3
28
Step 1:

29. 29
Google Analytics Goals
GoalsarecreatedwithintheGoogleAnalyticsadminarea.Eachviewmayhaveitsown
goals.Goaltypesareasfollows:
• Destination (URL)
• Duration (time on site)
• Pages/Screens per session
• Event
• Smart Goals (new, for AdWords users)
Themostusefulgoaltypesaredestinationandeventgoals.
Step 1: Plan

30. 30
Possible Conversions
• Businessgoals
• Attendevent
• Inquire
• Give
• Storytellinggoals
• Share
• Interact(comment,contribute)
• Engage
• DeterminehowtomeasurewithGoogleAnalyticsgoals(conversions)
Step 1: Plan

31. 31
Engagement Metrics
Typical:
• Timeonpage
• Sessionduration
• Pages/session
• Bouncerate
• Pageviews
• Socialsharing
Additional:
• Eventtracking
• CTA
• Referralsornextsteps
• Commenting
Step 1: Plan

32. 32
Interactive Features
• Slideshows
• Video
• Filters
• Forms
• Scrolling
• CTAbuttons
• Infographics
• Datavisualizations
Step 1: Plan

33. 33
URL Strategy
• Redirects
• SEO
• VanityURLs
• GoogleAnalyticscampaigns
Step 1: Plan

34. 34
Tagging and Taxonomy
• SEOMetadata
• OpenGraphtags
• Taggingcontentforre-use
Step 1: Plan

35. 35
Promotion Strategy
• Social
• GoogleAnalyticsCampaigns
• Publishing
• Syndication
Step 1: Plan

36. 36
Tools
1. GoogleAnalytics
2. A/BTesting(GoogleOptimize,Optimizely,Unbounce,andmore)
3. Heatmaps(CrazyEgg,Hotjar,andmore)
4. Social(Hootsuite,SproutSocial,Facebook,Twitter,andYouTubeanalytics)
Step 1: Plan

37. Implement
1
Enable event tracking. Test.Install tracking code.
2 3
37
Step 2:

38. Install Tracking Code
• Place tracking code on pages
• Create goals
• Plan for subdomain tracking
• Create views and segments
• Google Tag Manager configuration (if applicable)
Step 2: Implement

39. 39
Event Tracking: Overview
Step 2: Implement
EventTrackingrequiresadditionalconfigurationinyourwebsitetrackingcodeusingJavascript
orGoogleTagManager.Youprovidethefollowingforeachevent.Thetermsyouusebecome
partofthereporting.
• Category-example:“Map”
• Action-example:“Datapointview”or“Filter”
• Label-example:titleofthedatapointdisplayedormapfilterselected
• Value-anumericvalue(either$$$orsimplyaweightedmeasureoftherelativevalueofthis
event)
Note:Bydefault,eventscountasinteractionswhichwillservetodecreasebouncerate.

40. 40
Event Tracking: Common Uses
• Carouselinteractions
• Expanding/collapsingaccordion
content
• Tabbedcontentsections
• Interactive,in-pagefeatureslikeamap
• Socialsharing
• Filedownloads
• Scrollreach
• Videoplay
• Lightboxcontent
Step 2: Implement

41. 41

42. 42

43. 43

44. Test in Google Analytics

45. Promote
1
Experiment. Report and analyze.Deploy campaigns.
2 3
45
Step 3:

46. 46
Campaigns: Overview
For most stories:
• Emailnewsletters
• Socialmediasharing
Other opportunities:
• Print
• Billboards
• Onlineadvertising
• VanityURLs
• Anymarketingeffortforwhichyoushare
URLsandwishtoisolateresults
Step 3: Promote

47. 47
Campaigns: Implementation
Step 3: Promote
• UseCampaignURLBuildertocreatecampaignURLs
• https://ga-dev-tools.appspot.com/campaign-url-builder/
• Plantermsusedforcampaignname,source,andmedium,andoptionalterm
andcontentfields
• DatalabelswillappearwithinGoogleAnalyticsreports.
• ConsideraspreadsheettotrackcampaignattributesandURLs
• ConsideraURLshortenerorserverredirectstomapfriendlyURLsfor
marketingtotrackablecampaignURLsgeneratedbytheURLBuilder

48. 48
A/B Testing
Testagainstkeymetrics:
• Headlinesthatresultinmoretraffic
• Buttonlabelsthatgeneratemoreconversions
• Imagesthatresultinhigherengagement
*SomeA/Btestingmaybeonpagesthatleadvisitorstoyourstory,or
campaignactivitiesaimedatdrivingtraffic.
Step 3: Promote

49. 49
Report and Analyze
Commonreports:
• Topcontent
• Referrals
• Eventtracking
• Conversions
Areastoexplore:
• Sitesearch
• Segments
• Basedonvisitorstoacampaign
• Appliedtomultiplereports
• Useofsecondarydimensions
• Time-periodcomparisons
Step 3: Promote

50. Assess
1
Recommend changes. Repeat.Analyze and draw
insights.
2 3
50
Step 4:

51. 51
Distribution metrics
How many people interacted with the story?
• Uniquevisitors
• Pageviews
• Referrals
• Event-trackingclicks
Step 4: Assess

52. 52
Engagement Metrics
Did the visitors stay to read the entire story?
• Timeonpage
• Pagespersession
• Sessionduration
• Heatmaps
• Videometrics
• Eventtracking
Step 4: Assess

53. 53
Social Metrics
Do people share the story?
• Email
• Tweets
• Facebooklikes
• Referralsources
Step 4: Assess

54. 54

55. 55
Archive
• EnsurestoryURLsremainvalid
• Allowpeopletokeepsharing
• Keeptracking analytics
• Planforfuturecontentreuse
Step 4: Assess

56. The Punchline

57. 57
The Results
REIreported:
• 6.7billionmediaimpressions
• 1.2billionsocialimpressions
• Morethan1.4millionpeoplespendingthedayoutdoors
• 150additionalcompaniesjoiningREItoclosetheirdoorsonBlackFriday
• Hundredsofstateparksthatopenedupforfree
• 90percentincreaseinretailapplicationsinthefourthquarter
• 9.3percentincreaseinrevenue
• 7percent increaseincomparablestoresales
• 23percentuptickindigitalsales

58. “Part of this job is about storytelling,
but when you can take an action and
show people rather than just telling
them, it can be really powerful.”
Ben Steele, SeniorVPandCCO,REI

59. “REI's decision reflects its fundamental
empathy for its customers, who have
zero desire to stand in line for the best
deal on a gorgeous fall Friday.”
Charles Trevail, CEO,CSpace

60. Your whole story will be greater
than the sum of its parts.

61. “There’s no true way to measure
reputational boost … we are telling
better stories, and we have better
stories to tell.”
True Story

62. Our Storytelling Series Team
Ben Conley
Visual/UXDesigner
ben.conley@mstoner.com
Abby McLean
Visual/UXDesigner
abby.mclean@mstoner.com
Fran Zablocki
InformationArchitect
fran.zablocki@mstoner.com
Soni Oliver
Visual/UXDesigner
soni.oliver@mstoner.com
Joel Pattison
DirectorofStrategy
joel.pattison@mstoner.com
Greg Zguta
Technologist
greg.zguta@mstoner.com

63. Voltaire Santos
Miran
Co-FounderandCEO
@vsantosmiran
312.420.6778
voltaire.miran@mstoner.com
Mallory Wood
DirectorofMarketing
@mallorywood
802.457.9234
mallory.wood@mstoner.com
Resources
• Take a Deep Dive:
Google Analytics and Tag Manager
http://mstnr.me/
AnalyticsSeries2016
• Register:
Accessibility for Digital Storytelling
http://mstnr.me/
AccessibilityWebinar16
Greg Zguta
TechnicalLead
@gzguta
314.884.1803
greg.zguta@mstoner.com

64. Questions & Answers