FREEDyourMind

Eric Peterson on the X Change Conference

I recently talked to Web Analytics Demystified's Eric Peterson about the upcoming X Change conference in San Francisco this September.

Larry: I wasn’t able to make it last year, though I will be going this year. Can you tell us a little bit about the X Change conference and its objectives?

Eric: Sure, and we definitely missed you last year Larry!  The X Change is something that John Lovett at Forrester called the "unconference" for the digital measurement set.  Instead of trapping participants in occasionally boring presentations and thinly-disguised vendor pitches (sorry!) our model is built entirely around 12 to 15 person "huddles" designed to promote participation.  These huddles are led by the best-and-brightest practitioners from within the measurement industry --- folks like Greg Dowling from Nokia, Lynn Lamphier from Best Buy, Dylan Lewis from Intuit, and James Robinson from the New York Times.  The huddles work because our leaders and participants actually do the work they're talking about every day.  No vendors or consultants lead huddles, nothing "meta" ... real people doing real work.

Larry: Tell me about last year’s conference. What were the highlights for you? (and lowlights, if you feel like sharing!)

Eric: Well, the biggest letdown was, of course, you not being there.  My highlight honestly was just being at the X Change and helping to make it happen.  This is a really special conference, and as you know, I get to ** a lot ** of conferences.  Our industry is still young, and the group that comes to the X Change is very much responsible for the sector's evolution ... either because they're the CEO of a company providing critical technology (like you), because they're a consultant in the middle of the process (like me), or because they're putting hundreds of thousands if not millions of dollars worth of measurement technology to use to improve their business (like most of our participants.)

Larry: Are you planning anything differently this year?

Eric: Well, other than having a big "Thanks for coming, Larry" presentation on Day One ...  The biggest difference is our keynote this year, something we call "Four Founders Perspective" where I will be moderating a conversation with Brett Crosby (Google Analytics), Bob Page (Yahoo Web Analytics), John Pestana (Omniture/ObservePoint) and Matt Cutler (Visible Measures).  These guys are unique in that each founded a measurement company (Urchin, Accrue, Omniture, and NetGenesis, respectively) and are still actively working in the sector.  The keynote will focus on where we've come from, where we are today, and where these four guys think the sector is going.  Since I'm a big fan of all four guys, I'm pretty excited about the keynote.

Larry: Feel like dropping any other names of who is already planning to attend? Who’s your target audience for this conference?

Eric: Well, rumor is that Larry Freed and Kevin Ertell from ForeSee Results are coming ... plus senior staff from WebTrends, Coremetrics, Unica, Omniture, SAS, Teradata, and a handful of other great technology providers, a handful of well-known consultants from the U.S. and Europe, and brilliant practitioners from companies like Apple, Adobe, HBO, TBS, Comcast, Verizon, Nike, Sony, Cisco, BBC, Barclays, Schwab, Kohler, Intuit, Best Buy, Avaya, Macys, and more.  In terms of attendance we're actually pretty selective and limit the conference to 100 participants plus about 20 huddle leaders and staff and so we're confident about selling out again (for the third year in a row!)

Larry: Why should people come to this conference above all others?

Eric: One reason: because they have experiences in measurement that they want to share and because they want to hear right back about the experiences of their peers.  There are a ton of conferences where you can go and be "talked to" but none in my experience where the participant is fully part of the content, other than the X Change.  The beauty of the X Change is that "rock stars" emerge where we least expect them --- there are a ton of brilliant people in our field but until we actually get together that brilliance is tucked away.  The X Change is about getting those folks together, having them network, and seeing what comes of it.  The conference is the best possible investment for companies wanting to retain and nurture their brilliant talent, and I haven't even mentioned our "Think Tank" training day on September 9th which is an awesome way for emerging talent to get hands-on training from some of the brightest consultants in the industry.

Larry: How should people register?

Eric: Your readers can point their browsers to http://www.semphonic.com/XC/XChangeRegister.aspx and get started now.  For more information about the conference folks can either visit http://www.xchangeconference.com, email me directly (eric@webanalyticsdemystified.com) or Twitter me @erictpeterson.

Thanks Larry, and I'm glad you're finally coming to the big event!

Larry: Thanks, Eric, and look forward to seeing you then, if not before.

ACSI e-business Report: USA Today leading the way of news sites

The latest ACSI e-business report is out and the only site in the news and information category that saw an increase was USAToday.com.  Now the score is middle of the road, but the score of 74 (on a scale of 0 to 100) leads MSNBC.com, NYTimes.com, ABCNews.com and CNN.com. 

The struggles of the local newspapers (Ann Arbor News no longer exists as we once knew it, the Detroit Free Press only offers home delivery 3 days a week, etc.) may be a hidden treasure for USAToday.com, which represents a national newspaper.  The site also has one of the cleaner navigation schemes out there. 

This is a tough market where the big guys not only compete against their peers, they compete against the regional and local players, the topic specific providers.  They also compete for customer loyalty with search engines and portals.  And they often struggle to bring their "offline" personality to the online world. 

If you are interested in our full report check it out  here.

Quick poll:

What is your favorite source for news online?

ACSI E-Business Report: Google Reigns

The latest ACSI e-business report is out today with conclusive findings: with a score of 86 on the ACSI's 100-point scale, Google outperforms nearest competitor Yahoo by nine points and outperforms MSN by 12 points. Bing wasn't included in this study because the research was done before Bing formally launched.

It seems to me that Bing couldn't have come at a better time for Yahoo and MSN. Since customer satisfaction predicts customer loyalty and retention, future financial performance, and even stock prices, their best chance at this point is to combinemarketshare resources to get traffic. Problem is, though the early Bing market share numbers are good, it's mostly the result of that Yahoo andMSN market share that is being handed to Bing on a silver platter, along with the advertising and PR of the launch...excitement is high and willingness to experiment is high. But where is Bing going to get that long term advantage over Google? If Google has anACSI score of 86 and if Bing comes in about where MSN is today (75), no one will have any reason to switch long term. The only place to get the long-term advantage is from satisfying customers. Bing has to be as committed --or more--than Google. And that's a tough row to hoe. Not only because satisfaction with Google is so high but because Google and Bing have a revenue model that depends on advertising, which searches don't like. Search engines are figuring out how to make money without annoying searchers too much. It's a balance. 

If you are interested in our full report check it out  here.

Quick poll:

Can Bing do it?

What's your prediction for the Google v. Bing head to head?

Will you try Bing?

iPhone Innovation from USAA

The iPhone all the rage.  And many of the apps are entertaining, but lack "valuable" innovation.  It is fun to have a light sabre, zippo lighter and bubble wrap on your iPhone.  But is that innovation?  While it is entertaining, I struggle to call it innovation.  But I recently saw an announcement of an upcoming app from USAA that demonstrates some interesting innovation.

Imagine being able to deposit a check via your iPhone- yes, you heard me right.  By taking a photo of both sides of the check and submitting to USAA, you can deposit the check. No need to take it to the bank.  Now that assumes you are a customer of USAA and you are approved to perform the function.  Check out the detail here. 

So, while there is great anticipation in waiting for the next fun app, maybe something really important, like a pet rock (ok, if you are not old enough to know what I am talking about check it out -- and if you are old enough, admit it if you had one).  But thankfully there will continue to be valuable innovation.

Great job USAA!

In a Blind Search Test, Which Do You Choose?

Our annual ACSI rating of search engines and portals is coming up next Tuesday, and in doing some research about the measured companies, I found this article in TechCrunch about the Blind Search Tool.

Here's the theory: Google gets a lot of credit just for being Google. If you take Yahoo or Bing search results and put a Google logo at the top, people will like it better, but when you compare head-to-head functionality, Bing and Yahoo hold their own. Google's market share hovers around 70% of searches, but in a blind test of which search results are actually the ones you're looking for, people choose Google as the best 44% of the time, Bing 33% of the time, and Yahoo 23% of the time.

This kind of distribution would suggest that there is room for more than one search engine. I did the test four times and chose Bing twice and Google twice in the blind test, requiring a tie-breaker, in which I chose Yahoo. Pretty representative of the numbers above, actually.

It is interesting to look at those results and compare them to the market share numbers.

Which do you choose in the blind search test? And is it time for a Facebook quiz: what search engine result are you? (in other words, enough with the Facebook quizzes, already!) 

The Open Campaign

Have you checked out Webtrends' Open Campaign?

"This campaign is about Open Exchange - of information, ideas and numbers. We're going behind the scenes of an actual marketing campaign to show in real time how these elements come together to generate profound customer insight and digital marketing success."

The idea is that it'a a living, breathing, live case study of how to run an online marketing campaign. We're partnering with Webtrends to do online customer satisfaction and usability audits and have put up a lot of content about what we're doing for the campaign.

Here's a snapshot of how we see our role in the campaign.

Here's a bit about our methodology. 

This is a great idea, and hats off to Webtrends for thinking of it. We've been working with Elizabeth over there who has just been great, and who is really excited about the potential for our partnership and integration. We see amazing case studies with clients all the time, but often corporate communications prevents them from telling their story. This will be fun to watch because there are no holds barred--you will see what happens, the good, the bad, and the ugly.

So stay tuned and check in and watch as things develop. See how they're using email marketing, search marketing, ad buys, and other techniques to maximize the effectiveness of this campaign. It's going to be interesting to watch. Let us know if you have any specificf questions--this campaign is an open book.