Twitter just issued a new challenge that will pays people to actually do some good.
As part of the hacker conference DEF CON beginning Aug. 5, Twitter has announced a challenge to the hacking/coding community to help the company make the algorithm that crops the platform's photos less (apparently) racist.
For photos attached to tweets that are a larger or different shape than the thumbnail proportions, a Twitter algorithm chooses what portion of the image to show in the tweet's preview. In Sept. 2020, Twitter users pointed out that this algorithm appeared to more consistently show white faces than black faces when there was an odd-shaped image that contained both. Some described this as an instance of algorithmic bias, which is when racism intentionally or inadvertently gets baked into the decisions a computer makes.
In response, Twitter shared the way the algorithm worked, and said that it would look into the matter. But the algorithmic bias bounty program takes efforts to solve this problem a step further by financially incentivizing people to mitigate it.
Bug bounties are programs companies or other groups have that reward people (often, those outside the organizations) for finding bugs in their technical infrastructure. Bug bounties often focus on finding potential security breaches, and organizations pay bug bounty hunters for alerting them to the issues.
Twitter is taking this concept and applying it to the challenge of algorithmic bias in photo cropping. It will award $3,500 to a first place winner that can identify the cause of this apparent bias, plus $1,000 each for second place, "most innovative," and "Most Generalizable (i.e., applies to the most types of algorithms)," and $500 for third place.
The challenge is a neat use of the bug bounty model: Rather than apologizing and playing defense for an instance of algorithmic bias, Twitter is saying, we want proactive help. And we'll pay.
"We want to take this work a step further by inviting and incentivizing the community to help identify potential harms of this algorithm beyond what we identified ourselves," Twitter's blog post announcing the challenge reads. "With this challenge we aim to set a precedent at Twitter, and in the industry, for proactive and collective identification of algorithmic harms."
The bounty program at this time is specific to the challenge of photo cropping. But the blog post announcing the challenge describes it as "Twitter’s first algorithmic bias bounty challenge." First, and maybe not last? Mashable has reached out to Twitter to learn whether it will launch more algorithmic bias bounties to hunt down bias in machine learning, and will update this when we hear back.
A conversion funnel is a visual representation of the stages in a buyer’s journey, from the moment they land on your page until they complete a purchase. How do you create a conversion funnel, though, and how do you get the most from this tool? Let’s take a look.
Should I Use the AIDA Model to Create My Conversion Funnel?
The AIDA model is the traditional way to track the customer journey. It’s based on the four classic stages people move through during the buying process: awareness, interest, desire, and action.
Awareness: First, a person discovers your brand and becomes a lead.
Interest: Next, you build their interest in your product.
Desire: Then, your goal should be nudging prospects from simply thinking they like something to actively wanting it, possibly by making proposals or carefully placing glamorous adverts for repeat exposure.
Action: Finally, you encourage a prospect to take the desired action―turning them into a customer.
Realistically, not everyone who visits your website will convert to a paying customer, which is why we use a funnel shape. Based on the AIDA model, then, a traditional-style sales marketing funnel might look something like this:
The problem? This is a rigid and fairly unrealistic way to view how people move through the stages of a sales cycle.
Leads are human, and the sales process is rarely linear. Often, people loop back to different stages in the sales cycle before they’re ever ready to complete the sale. In other words, people need nurturing before they’ll buy a product. As a marketer, you must understand their behaviors, their personalities, and their needs to convert them into paying customers.
Rather than a straightforward sales funnel, you need a more flexible conversion-based funnel, which will look something like this:
Don’t let the graphic intimidate you! While you might be tempted to start with a simple sales funnel, you’ll increase your chances of success if you start with a more flexible conversion funnel. Let me take you through exactly how it’s done.
How to Create a Conversion Funnel
There are nine main steps to creating a successful conversion funnel, based on a blend of AIDA and less restrictive techniques.
1. Determine Your Ideal Buyer Journey and Map It Out as a Funnel
The point of a conversion funnel is to build an effective buyer’s journey and increase your conversions. To increase your conversions, you must first identify your starting point and your end goal. In other words, you must identify three things:
what your typical buyer’s journey looks like right now
what your end goal is, or what action you want a prospect to take
how you can improve your existing buyer’s journey in order to increase the likelihood of leads becoming paying customers
Once you’ve identified what your end goal is, you can map it out as a conversion funnel. Visualizing or mapping out your funnel can help you stay on track further down the line.
2. Set Goals for Each Stage in Your Funnel
Think of your funnel in three separate parts: the top, middle, and bottom.
Decide what you want from each stage of the funnel; for example, maybe you want to increase your traffic at the top of the funnel, boost your engagement rate in the middle, and increase your conversions at the end.
Once you’ve set some concrete goals, consider using tools to track your progress and ensure you’re meeting those objectives. For example, you might use Google Analytics or email automation software to measure your success rates.
Unless you’re clear on what you need from each stage in your funnel, it’s impossible to know if you’re meeting your targets. Spend some time reflecting on your overall goal before you build a conversion funnel.
3. Make a Content Plan for Each Stage in the Funnel
Each part of the funnel (top, middle, bottom) requires its own marketing plan to keep prospects moving from one stage to the next.
Top
The first stage is all about building brand and product awareness. You’re trying to generate some buzz and encourage prospects to learn more about your company and how your products can help them.
At this early stage, use visually engaging content such as videos, short blog posts, and social media posts to introduce your company and emphasize your brand story.
Middle
You have a person’s attention, so now it’s time to gain their trust and show them why they need your product.
A prospect could ultimately be in this stage for a while, so the focus should be on creating valuable, informative, and reliable content such as case studies, video tutorials, and downloads.
Bottom
The final stage should be focused on giving prospects a reason to buy your product, sign up for your service, or take any other action you desire. Marketing strategies at this stage could include free trials, actionable emails, and CTAs, or calls to action.
4. Implement Strategies and Create Content to Generate Awareness
At this first stage in your funnel, you’re trying to build hype around your brand and product. Why should a customer care about your company? How do your products solve the problems they have? Answer these questions to help build a content strategy for this stage.
Do some competitor research, too. Consider what you can learn from their landing pages, social media channels, and blogs. How are they reeling in potential customers?
With all these questions in mind, here are some examples of ways you might generate awareness and create appropriate content for the first stage of a conversion funnel.
Consider using PPC ads to increase traffic in the first instance.
Optimize your content for SEO so it ranks high in the search engine results. This way, people are more likely to find you online.
Get on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Post regularly and interact with followers to build some engagement.
Set up a referral program to reward people for recommending your products and services to their social network.
Other ways you might build interest in your brand include, for example, trying influencer marketing, hosting interviews, creating informational guides, and designing printable checklists.
5. Generate Interest and Desire
While the AIDA model labels “interest” and “desire” as two separate outcomes, in real terms, they’re the same thing.
Generating interest, or building desire, comes down to one key thing: creating compelling content. You build some awareness around your brand, you show people why they “need” what you’re selling, and as a result they decide they “want” your product.
How do you create great content to nudge people along this stage of your funnel? Here are some ideas.
Craft authoritative blog posts to educate your audience. If a user finds your content valuable, they’re more likely to trust you enough to spend money on your products.
Show your product in action by creating a YouTube video. Video content helps people visualize how the product could benefit them, which in turn makes them feel like they “need” the item.
If you have a prospect’s contact details, send them curated email content such as roundups of your top blog posts, customer testimonials, or and hints and tips that could benefit your reader.
There are some other ways you can generate interest, too, such as starting a podcast, creating some product guides, running a free trial program, or offering product samples.
6. Encourage Users to Take Action
At the end of the funnel, your goal is to convert a lead into a customer by encouraging the required action. While you could skip this step in the funnel if it works for your business, here are some ways you might optimize your strategy for this stage.
Create a PDF Download
Put together some valuable content in a PDF download and offer it in exchange for their contact details. Make sure your document promises to answer common questions your customers have, to encourage them to actually download it.
Here’s an example from LegalSuite, a legal services provider. Their customers typically want help with streamlining their operational efficiency. To help their customers, LegalSuite offers a free eBook with ways to make their legal operations run more efficiently.
The catch? Prospects must provide some contact details, which means that LegalSuite can follow up with them:
This is a great example of how to encourage an action without being pushy.
Add a Call to Action (CTA) to Relevant Resources
CTAs clarify the action you want people to take, so don’t forget to add them to the content you create.
At this stage of the funnel, you’re trying to entice customers to take a final step to complete the cycle, so give your CTAs a sense of urgency. Emphasize how your product can solve their problem and why they should act now.
Make it easy for customers to act by displaying the CTA somewhere prominent, like the top of a landing page, the end of a guide post, or in a colorful, clickable button at a strategic point in a YouTube video.
Finally, remember to test your CTAs to identify which strategy resonates most with your audience.
Send Actionable Emails
In many ways, great marketing is all about helping people help themselves.
Send them clear, concise, actionable emails emphasizing how they can solve their problems through buying your products or using your services.
Again, ensure there’s an obvious CTA so potential customers know what action you expect them to take.
Incorporate Customer Testimonials
Did you know that 72 percent of customers won’t make a purchase until they’ve read some reviews? Give those customers the reassurance they need to take the final step by adding some testimonials to your page.
You can either just ask customers for reviews, or you can take a look at your existing reviews on websites like Facebook and LinkedIn and ask for permission to share them in your content.
Where should you display testimonials?
It all depends on your audience, brand goals, and marketing strategy. You could, for example:
include some quotes from positive reviews on your landing page
embed a widget from a website like Trustpilot on your page so prospects can read your reviews before they buy
link to videos of happy customers using your products (remember to thank them for trying out your product, too!)
Other Ideas
Finally, you might offer other incentives like free trials, competitor comparison guides, demo videos, and product samples to nurture leads into becoming paying customers.
7. Keep Customers
Great marketing is not just about finding customers. It’s about retaining them, too. Here’s why.
40 percent of sales, on average, can be attributed to repeating customers.
Sounds great, right? Here are some strategies for retaining those all-important loyal customers.
Next-sell
Next-selling is when you follow up with a customer after a purchase and offer them a similar product with, perhaps, an attractive discount attached. Not only does this allow you to communicate with your customer and make them feel valued, but it’s a way to potentially increase revenue.
Say you want to know whether customers who buy coffee machines are more likely to buy a discounted toaster. You can send the customers who bought a coffee machine a discount code for toasters, and send a control group a full price ad on toasters.
Next-selling can provide you with helpful data to build effective funnels.
Create Loyalty Programs
Loyalty programs are crucial to any customer retention strategy, with 81 percent of millennials spending more money when they’re a member of a loyalty scheme. However, since loyalty schemes are nothing new, you need to get creative if you plan on building a winning program.
When you’re creating your own program, consider:
using high levels of personalization
giving customers flexibility around how to use their reward points
offering extra perks and benefits to loyalty scheme members
Amazon Prime, for example, stands out because customers enjoy benefits like free same-day delivery, exclusive savings, and access to members-only shopping events.
With the Starbucks Rewards program, members pay through the Starbucks app, and they earn points towards perks like free food and drink. What’s really great about this scheme, though, is how it’s centralized through the app, meaning Starbucks can access large volumes of data about user behavior to inform their marketing strategy:
Make your loyalty program work for you by using it to monitor customer preferences and buyer behavior.
Product Updates
When you update your products, you’re keeping up with evolving customer demands and changing expectations. You’re showing your loyal customers that you value their continued loyalty.
For example, maybe you can update an app glitch, based on user feedback. Or, you could launch an add-on to improve a software download.
In short, product updates are a great way to improve the user experience.
Other Techniques
How else can you keep those all-important customers? Well, you can try marketing strategies such as:
introducing member-only events
sending out exclusive emails
running contests or prize draws
starting a customer service RSS feed
8. Grow Customers
Finally, don’t forget to capitalize on your existing customers by encouraging them to make more purchases. There are a few strategies you can try, so here’s a rundown of your best options.
Cross-sell
With cross-selling, you look at a customer’s most recent purchase and show them similar products they might be interested in. Or, during the sales process, you offer them other items which complement the item they’re currently buying.
For example, say someone buys a laptop from your website. As part of your sales funnel, you might also recommend a charger or laptop case to go along with their purchase.
Here’s a real example from REI Co-op. Say, for example, a lead decides to view a set of strength trainers. Under the product listing, there’s a “people also viewed” list, which highlights similar products the lead might be interested in:
It’s not a pushy strategy, but it nurtures leads in the right direction.
Upsell
Upselling means offering a customer a more expensive alternative to the item or service they’re interested in.
For example, if someone selects a free subscription to your service, you might highlight the cheapest paid subscription option to them.
When you’re upselling, it’s helpful to compare products or services side-by-side.
However, don’t try to upsell a product if it’s substantially more expensive than what the potential customer wants to buy. Otherwise, the strategy could backfire!
Just remember, though, to avoid being too pushy at all times when you’re upselling.
Here’s a good example from Best Buy. The customer views an entry-level MacBook Air. Above the product, they see other more expensive products from the MacBook range, one of which also has an enticing discount attached to it:
The products advertised aren’t massively different in price from the viewed product, and it’s a good, subtle example of upselling.
Other Strategies
There are a few other strategies you can try to grow your customer base and build your business, including:
sending out discounts to loyal customers
personalizing your marketing emails
issuing more voucher codes
Test out a few strategies and identify which ones resonate best with your customers.
9. Address Funnel Problems
In reality, there’s no such thing as a perfect funnel. However, if your funnel is underperforming, it could be due to common errors such as:
leaving out a strong CTA
forgetting to start with a clear brand message
using too many steps in your funnel
misreading your funnel analytics data
failing to follow up with leads
To find out why your funnel isn’t working optimally, you need to run some A/B testing or use an analytics tracking tool like Google Analytics (GA) or Hotjar.
Alternatively, you can perform some lead outreach. Send out surveys or ask for feedback about the website user experience, and always take negative comments on board when you’re refining your funnel. They’ll give you very clear insight on what your audience does or doesn’t want.
Conversion Funnel Tracking With Optimizely
Want to experiment with different funnel variations and track their performance? Give Optimizely a try.
It’s easy enough to use. Once you’ve registered, simply head to your “Experiments” dashboard, select “Create New,” and choose whichever experiment you want to run, such as A/B testing or a personalization campaign:
After you create your experiments, you can track them from your dashboard and make whatever changes best suit your marketing strategy. For example, you might refine your CTA or emphasize a new product. You can run multiple variations simultaneously, too, and track which one works best.
Whatever your conversion goal, Optimizely can help you realize it. Sign up for a free version, or choose a paid subscription with more advanced features if your marketing budget can stretch to it.
How to Track Your Conversion Funnel With Google Analytics
Google Analytics is another handy tool for funnel tracking. With GA, you can easily track customers from the moment they visit your page to whenever they decide to either abandon their journey or complete the purchase.
From the “Admin” menu, go to “Views” then click “Goals:”
Click “New Goal” and work through the steps to generate the desired goal.
Since we’re trying to visualize a funnel, you want to set a “Destination” goal such as registering for a newsletter.
You can view your funnel by going back to the “View” menu in the “Admin” section, choosing “Reports,” then selecting “Goal Flow” from the “Conversions” menu.
From here, you can identify where people leave your funnel or where they loop back to different stages.
Conversion Funnel Frequently Asked Questions
What are the four stages of the AIDA model?
The four stages are “Attention,” “Interest,” “Desire,” and “Action.” You’re trying to attract attention, generate interest, encourage the customer to want the product, and have them take the desired action.
What’s the difference between goals and funnels?
The goal is the objective you’re trying to achieve e.g., a customer completing a sale. The funnel is the journey the prospect takes to reach this goal.
How do you visualize a funnel?
Start by checking out funnel visualization tools like Google Analytics.
What is the purpose of a funnel?
A conversion funnel shows you the paths people take on their journey from visiting your website to becoming paying customers.
Conversion Funnel: Conclusion
Think of your conversion funnel as an evolving process. Just as your customers want and need change over time, so should you adapt your goals and funnel strategy to match.
Social platforms like Facebook and YouTube continue rolling out content moderation tools meant to keep harmful content like hate speech, misinformation, and incitements to violence off their platforms. Reports show that users keep successfully posting terrible stuff anyway.
The latest example concerns anti-semitic content. There is a rise in anti-semitism around the world, and that's translating to (and fueled by) posts on social media.
As reported by the New York Times, two new studies — from the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and the Anti-Defamation League, respectively — show that social platforms including Facebook (and Instagram), Twitter, YouTube, Reddit, Twitch, TikTok, and Roblox (yes, even Roblox) remove only a small percentage of content the organizations reported as anti-semitic.
Specifically, the Center for Countering Digital Hate reports that Facebook removed just over 10 percent of the "hundreds" of pieces of content the researchers reported, while Twitter acted on around 11 percent. YouTube responded to 21 percent, and TikTok acted on 18 percent.
The ADL's report had similar findings, though Twitter fared better. It assigned grades to platforms based on their responsiveness to reports on hate speech. Twitter got a B- (congrats!), Facebook and TikTok received C- grades, and Roblox got a dismal D.
The director of the ADL summed up the findings appropriately for the Times: The results are depressing, but unsurprising.
That's because these reports are just the latest examples of how users keep successfully publishing content that social platforms say they prohibit, with objectionable content running the gamut from hate speech to Covid-19 misinformation to incitements to violence.
In late July, The Washington Post reported on studies that showed how anti-COVID vaccine propaganda and misinformation easily flourished on Facebook and YouTube. Countering this sort of content has been a priority for social platforms, but the content President Biden described as "killing people" is still thriving.
In April, BuzzFeed News shared the results of an internal Facebook report that detailed how "Stop the Steal" organizers successfully incited people to violence in Facebook groups and posts the platform failed to act on.
Thanks in part to the abhorrent rhetoric of politicians like Donald Trump, throughout the pandemic, Asian people have faced a flood of hate and harassment on social media. As CNET reported in April, the ADL found that "17% of Asian Americans said in January they experienced severe online harassment compared with 11% during the same period last year, the largest uptick compared with other groups."
Facebook publishes a quarterly Community Standards Enforcement Report, which shows data about numbers of reports of prohibited content, and Facebook's responsiveness. The most recent report from May on the first three months of 2021 says that the prevalence of hate speech is declining, and comprises just "0.05-0.06%, or 5 to 6 views per 10,000 views." Facebook also says its advancements in AI have led it to "proactively detect" — rather than rely on user reports — 97 percent of the hate speech content it removes.
The recent reports on anti-semitic posts show the gaps in these figures, however. That 97 percent refers to posts the social media company removes, but there were still plenty of posts for the non-profit organizations to find (and report themselves). On the combined platforms, 7.3 million people viewed the anti-semitic posts, the Center for Countering Digital Hate found.
The fact that we've heard this story before doesn't make it any less upsetting. These companies continually pledge to improve and acknowledge that they have work to do. In the meantime, people die.
Are you making the most out of the data you can get about your website from Google Analytics (GA)?
The free tool gives you valuable insights into metrics like conversion rates, traffic sources, engagement, audience demographics, and more.
Let’s learn what GA is and how to use it to improve your website’s metrics.
What Is Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is a free tool to track user behavior on your website. With a range of metrics to explore, you can start to get a picture of how people use your website and how you can make changes to increase sales.
On a basic level, you can track how many visitors you have, how they found you, the number of views a page receives, and more.
In many ways, Google Analytics is the portal giving you insider, back end, and real-time access to what your users want.
Why Should You Use Google Analytics?
Google Analytics is the most powerful tool to track website metrics, and it comes from the king of search engines. On top of that, it’s free.
Although it takes some work to get set up, there are plenty of online tutorials and resources to walk you through the process. Once you get Google Analytics connected to your site, you can head to the Google Analytics dashboard and start checking things out. It can’t go back in time, though, so you will have to wait for data to gather.
Google Analytics can free you from relying on gut checks and intuition and instead tell you what pages and which content hit the mark or fall short. In this way, you can make informed choices.
The Basic Google Analytics Interface
Once you set up your Google Analytics account, you can connect different URLs and choose which one to explore from the drop-down.
The first thing Analytics shows is basic traffic data, including dates. You can alter the dates based on your needs.
On the left side of the screen, Google Analytics provides a list of report options. This is where you can start to get into the details.
On the far right, there’s a blue box with real-time metrics showing how many people are on the site, how many pages are viewed per minute, and the most popular pages to view. You can then click on the blue box to learn more about the data.
If you’re looking for something specific, just type it into the handy search bar.
As you scroll down, you can check out different analytics, including where your users come from and what devices they use.
Common Metrics Tracked With Google Analytics
There are many metrics you can track using Google Analytics.
No matter which type you focus on, you need to choose a time frame for your data. This way, you can check a specific timespan against prior spans to see what’s changing and if what you’re doing is working.
As you analyze the data, try to remember what your marketing goals are. Otherwise, you may get overwhelmed by the whirlwind of numbers.
Let’s look at some of the most popular metrics just to get you started.
Tracking Visitors With Google Analytics
Tracking visitors shows who’s visiting, how many visitors you have, and what they’re doing on your website. This includes factors like bounce rates and session durations.
These metrics are anonymous and vague. You can’t gather personal details for specific visitors to your website.
To dig deeper, you can go to the “Audience” section of Google Analytics.
Tracking Traffic Sources With Google Analytics
Another powerful metric Google Analytics can provide is traffic sources. It answers the question, “how are people finding my website?” You can find this information under the “Acquisition” tab.
For instance, you can find out how much traffic comes from social media, Google Ads, and the Google Search Console. Knowing where your visitors are coming from and what they do once they get to your site can help you know where to focus your marketing efforts.
Tracking Content With Google Analytics
Google Analytics can help you understand how well different pieces of content perform by tracking user behavior. For example, are they visiting certain pages more often than others? Is on-page time higher on some types of content? This can help you determine what works and what doesn’t, which you can use to inform future content creation and marketing choices.
You can find this information under the “Behavior” section.
Tracking Conversions With Google Analytics
Let’s get down to brass tacks here. Are people buying (or doing whatever else you want them to do) once they land on your website? That’s what conversion metrics on Google Analytics can tell you.
These metrics are not automatically generated like the previous ones. Instead, conversion analytics requires you to set goals, typically using the pages visitors are directed to once they convert. Telling Google Analytics to follow users to these final pages can provide more specific information about how people are getting there, how many are converting, and more.
These metrics can be found in the “Audience” section under “Mobile.” Here, you can see website metrics broken down by device categories. For example, if you find certain device users are spending less time or money on the site, look into how your site looks and behaves on that type of device.
Creating Custom Reports
As you get a handle on following your website’s metrics, you may find you need custom Google Analytics reports. Custom reports can help you check specific metrics more efficiently, using apples-to-apples comparisons between periods, campaigns, and more.
These custom reports may help when presenting information to your department, organization, leadership, or investors thanks to the hard numbers you can compare and the visual reports you can run. Of course, not everyone may fully understand what you do, but many are likely to understand the basics of what these numbers and graphs mean.
Other Common Google Analytics Functionality and Uses
If you have a lot of content on your website, you may have a search function available to users. Knowing what people type into that search function can help you understand why visitors are on your site, allowing you to plan for and create more relevant content.
Under the “Behavior” area, click “Site Search” to view this information.
Identify Your Worst Performing Pages
Is there content on your website that’s just not performing? Then, you may benefit from optimizing those pages for SEO, deleting useless content, or creating entirely new work.
To learn which pages are not performing, go to “Behavior,” then “Site Content.” From there, click on the arrow to reorder the pages by popularity. This shows which pages get the fewest views. Do with that information what you will—though perhaps consider finding a cause before throwing the page into the abyss.
Find Where People Abandon Their Shopping Carts
People abandoning shopping carts while shopping is a typical e-commerce problem. If you can find where visitors are dropping off your website, you can make improvements to help convert them.
First, set up your goals using a sales funnel. Include each step of your check-out process, including cart, check-out, shipping, and confirmation, in the pages you plan to monitor. Then, click to “visualize your funnels” to see how people behave as they move through the funnel.
You may see a pattern regarding when people abandon carts begin to emerge and make updates accordingly.
See Your Most Important Analytics First
As we talked about above, Google Analytics places many of the most common analytics on the dashboard. However, you can set up a custom dashboard to see exactly what you need. Under the “Customization” tab, find the link for “Dashboards.” You can use a dashboard template or create your own.
How to Create Custom Reports in Google Analytics
Google Analytics makes it easy to create custom reports for your own use or presentations.
First click on “Customization,” then click on “Custom Reports
Click on “+ New Custom Report” to get started
You can name your custom report, as well as each tab you want to create if you want different variables in the same report.
Choose what you want to create the custom report to report on, including overarching metrics you can choose from a dropdown, more specific dimensions, and filters to fine-tune your data thoroughly.
If you scroll over the question mark in the dropdown, you can learn more about each choice.
Click on whether you want to see all views or limit them.
Start with all, if you’re not sure. Now click “Save.” You’ll be taken to a page with the data automatically. From here, you can save, export, share, or edit the report.
If you save it, you can find this report under “Saved Reports.”
To rerun this custom report, go to “Custom Reports.”
Google Analytics Basics FAQs [wp editor: add schema]
What are some basic things you can do with Google Analytics?
Google Analytics can give you information about who visits your website, how many views your website receives, which content is the most popular, and more.
Google Analytics uses a tracking ID, which you place in the code of your website or a plugin to allow Google to receive information about your website.
How much does it cost to use Google Analytics?
Most of the benefits of Google Analytics are free, though you can choose to purchase upgrades.
What is the benefit of using Google Analytics?
Google Analytics provides in-depth information on how well your website is performing.
Basics of Google Analytics Conclusion
Google Analytics provides nearly endless amounts of information about your website’s data. Once you set up Google Analytics on your website, you can access metrics covering nearly every part of your customers’ journeys.
You can create custom reports to analyze how well your strategies work. This may help you make informed changes to your website, which may, in turn, draw even more people to your brand and via your analytics-driven marketing strategy.
What’s your favorite Google Analytics feature?
from Blog – Neil Patel https://ift.tt/3rKXfF8
via IFTTT
Telegram's latest feature would be more exciting if the company actually did more to protect its users, and civilized society.
Telegram announced in a Friday blog post that group video calls will now allow up to 1,000 users to join and participate. There's a much smaller limit on the number of participants who can share video from their camera or screen — it's capped at 30 — but as many as 970 others are free to join the call and watch along.
The post also notes that Telegram isn't quite finished expanding the total supported viewer count for video calls. "We will keep increasing this limit until all humans on Earth can join one group call and watch us yodel in celebration (coming soon)," the post reads (emphasis in original).
The expansion of group video call viewer counts comes just over a month after Telegram launched the feature initially. The new announcement also reveals a few other additions, including higher resolution video messages, as well as the ability to expand them; screen sharing for one-on-one calls; timestamp links; and more.
The expansion of group video calls is potentially a helpful thing for some users, but as with all things Telegram-related, this expansion of access to content sharing on the platform isn't as exciting as it could be. That's because Telegram takes a hands-off approach to policing the material shared in private chats.
The company's FAQ page addresses this directly in a question: "There's illegal content on Telegram. How do I take it down?" The response reads: "All Telegram chats and group chats are private amongst their participants. We do not process any requests related to them."
The policy has all sorts of implications for the kinds of content that can be shared behind the proverbial closed doors of a private chat, with revenge porn in particular being a specific and publicly reported concern. And while there's something of an understandable push-and-pull here — the tension between protecting people's privacy versus keeping society safe — critics argue that there are more concrete steps Telegram could take.
As Mashable's own Rachel Kraus wrote in a 2020 report, WhatsApp users have the ability "to report content and users to WhatsApp, which may disable accounts or share information with authorities." The same kind of reporting feature also exists on Facebook, the company that owns WhatsApp. Facebook also says it uses automated technology to stop users from posting pornography in private groups.
Or take Discord, the Slack-like messaging service that lets anyone create a private group where they can share media and stream video. The company's Trust & Safety team won't snoop into private groups proactively, but user reports can spur that team to investigate those spaces. This can lead to users being banned and groups getting shut down.
So while the situation with Telegram isn't without its complexities, it's also refusing to take action on certain things in an environment where other, competing companies have done so. That's why Rachel's report is such a tough read; the path to preventing (or at least minimizing) the scenario she describes is right there, trailblazed by others. So it's not so much that Telegram can't fix the problem; it simply won't.
That may or may not stop you from using Telegram, especially now with 1,000-viewer video calls opening the door to all kinds of remote gathering opportunities. Just make sure you go in with both eyes open, and — as always in our extremely online world — be very careful about what you share with people.
When you’re trying to drive traffic to your website and generate new leads, the goal is to make your content as attractive as possible. After all, with so much competition out there, it’s important you stand out from the crowd and grab someone’s attention right away, right?
The answer’s yes!
Just like you spend time and energy creating visually appealing content for users to enjoy, you shouldn’t forget the finer details: namely, your links.
Yes, really. URLs matter. Let me show you why link shortening is worth your time and what link shoortening alternatives to Goo.gl are worth trying.
What Is Link Shortening?
Link shortening takes longer links, with their confusing combination of numbers, letters, and special characters, and turns it into a short, readable link.
Here’s an example from NASA’s Twitter feed. The link is only a few characters long, it contains the NASA branding, and it’s clear where the link redirects to:
Here’s another example. When you click the link, it takes you to a YouTube video. The destination is fairly clear from the short link (youtu.be) even though it’s unbranded, meaning there’s no mention of NASA’s name in the link:
The original “longer” link looks like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Mqsd0ru_pc
Which one do you think looks more attractive on a website or social media post? Which one would you be more likely to click on?
Chances are, it’s the first option, and the reality is, your potential customers feel the same way.
Why Should You Use a Link Shortening Tool?
OK, so that’s how link shortening works, but is it worth your time? Here’s a bit more detail.
In most cases, URL shortener tools also track how many people click your links. You can track who clicked your link to calculate the success of ad campaigns or content marketing strategies you’re running. From a marketing perspective, link shorteners are invaluable.
It’s also ideal for socialmedia posts, where you might have a limited number of characters to convey your message. Shortening URLs and focusing on content makes it easier to engage your followers.
Finally, short URLs are more attractive. They’re easier to read and make your content more user-friendly. You can also create branded links with URL shorteners to reinforce your brand message at the same time.
Since great marketing is all about creating a great experience for your customers and building awareness, short URLs are a crucial tool.
To be clear, it’s not always worth shortening URLs. For example, if you’re just linking from one page on your website to another, there’s no need to shorten the link.
If you need help figuring out which links to shorten and which ones to leave alone, check out my consulting services.
At first, it only worked with Google applications, meaning you could only shorten URLs for the Google toolbar. However, Google made the tool available to the public in 2010, which made it simpler for all website owners to access and use.
Goo.gl offered a simple means to create shorter, more readable URLs. All you had to do was input your long URL and Goo.gl generated a smaller URL without lines of extra characters:
You didn’t need a Google or G Suite account to create a one-off URL, either. However, if you wanted to keep track of all your custom URLs, you could create an account and view all your shortened links at a glance:
Website owners could also track how many people clicked the shortened URL, which helped with marketing strategy creation:
Why did Google shut down Goo.gl, though? Put simply, Goo.gl wasn’t designed for anything other than desktop browsing. As browsing habits changed and it became more common for people to access the web through mobile devices or apps, Google realized the tool just wasn’t flexible enough to stay competitive.
The answer? Firebase Dynamic Links, or FDL, which replaced Goo.gl back in 2019. As we’ll see in a moment, FDL improves upon Goo.gl in a few ways, although it’s not the only URL shortening tool worth considering.
7 Goo.gl Replacements
There are many other link shortening tools out there, so how do you choose the right one for your needs? To help you narrow your search, here are seven promising alternatives to Goo.gl you can try right now.
1. Firebase Dynamic Links
Since Firebase Dynamic Links (FDL) replaced Goo.gl, it’s a good tool to start with if you’re focusing on app creation and development.
Firebase works similarly to Goo.gl, since you’re still creating short URLs. However, these URLs are no ordinary links: they’re “smart” links, or Dynamic Links.
When a user clicks on a FDL link, they’re directed to exactly where you want them to go in your Android or iPhone app… even if they don’t already have the app installed. They simply download the app and the right page loads automatically.
Cool, right?
It doesn’t matter whether they click through from a desktop browser or mobile device, either. They will be directed to a compatible version of your website, so there’s no need for you to generate different URLs for each platform.
If you’re focusing on app-based marketing, definitely consider FDL. There’s a free plan available, although the paid plan has some nice features.
2. Rebrandly
Do you want to create unique branded links using custom domain names? Then Rebrandly could be for you.
Trusted by global brands like IBM and Shopify, Rebrandly is more than just a URL shortening tool. It’s a link management platform designed to help you build entire marketing campaigns around branded links in just a few clicks.
Without leaving your browser, you can create and share links across over 100 integrated apps including Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook. Plus, you can measure your campaign results from the dashboard.
It’s free to sign up, but paid packages start at just $29 per month, which gives you access to more detailed metrics and a larger number of branded links. If you’re looking for an enterprise-level solution for larger teams, reach out to Rebrandly for a custom quote.
3. Ow.ly
If you’re already using Hootsuite, Ow.ly is worth a look.
You can shorten any link posted to social media right from the Hootsuite dashboard. This lets you view everything from your campaign ROI to your link metrics at the same time. There’s no need to switch between different tools (unless you’re also using other platforms like Google Analytics.)
Ow.ly comes free with every Hootsuite account, too, so you don’t need a paid subscription to benefit from the tool. Sounds good, right?
All that said, Ow.ly’s only available to Hootsuite users, so it’s not the right tool for everyone, but it’s worth a try if you already use Hootsuite.
4. Bitly
For enterprise-grade link management, consider Bitly, one of the most comprehensive tools out there.
With Bitly, you’re not just creating short, branded links. You’re turning those links into valuable marketing tools. Bitly offers some of the most in-depth campaign management tools available to help you track everything from clicks to organic shares.
It’s a useful tool for tracking customer journeys without hopping between different CRMs, making it ideal for larger companies looking to track data and grow their campaigns efficiently. You can even generate QR codes to engage customers and drive sales.
What’s more, Bitly is trusted by the likes of Amazon, Disney, and Gartner, so you know it’s a platform that delivers on its promises! Packages start at $29 per month.
5. TinyURL
No roundup of link shortening tools is complete without TinyURL, the very first program of its kind:
You don’t need an account to shorten one or two short URLs. To get the most of the platform, sign up for a free account which allows you to create an unlimited number of URLs and track clicks.
The Pro package starts at $9.99 per month and offers advanced tracking options. For businesses looking to run high-volume ad campaigns, the Bulk package may be a better option at $99.00 per month.
If you’re looking for a no-fuss way to shorten your URLs and track some metrics, TinyURL is worth a go.
6. BL.INK
Are you a small business owner looking to launch marketing campaigns but don’t need a large-scale solution? BL.INK was designed for you.
With BL.INK, you can quickly share shortened URLs across social media channels and even send actionable links by SMS or messaging platforms. BL.INK seamlessly integrates with existing worktools and CMS, so you can easily track link performance and view the data alongside other metrics.
Packages start at $48 per month, making it one of the more expensive tools on the list. However, you can try it free for 21 days, which is a bonus.
If you’re not looking for an enterprise-level solution but want more than just a basic shortening tool, consider BL.INK.
7. Sniply
Do you want to add a CTA to every shortened link you create? Now you can, thanks to Sniply.
On the surface, Sniply works like any other link shortener. However, it offers a unique level of customization: you can embed a colorful CTA button with every link you share across social media.
Not only do your links look more appealing because they’re shorter, but they’re more actionable than ever:
Pricing is reasonable, too, with packages starting at $29 per month. However, if you want to add more than one team member, you’ll need to opt for a more expensive tier.
Link Shortener Frequently Asked Questions
What is link shortening?
Link shortening, or URL shortening, lets you change how a link displays to users. You can make a URL appear shorter or even add branding and still send users to the correct page.
What’s the point of link shortening?
A link shortening tool turns a long, rambling link into something memorable to share with prospects, which is handy on social media. You can also track the number of real people visiting your website, which provides more accurate analytics information.
Why did Google stop supporting Goo.gl?
Google made the changes in response to how people use the internet. Its new tool, Firebase Dynamic Links, is more flexible than Goo.gl and lets site owners redirect users on mobile apps rather than just desktop websites.
When should you not use link shortening?
Since one of the main reasons we shorten links is for tracking purposes, you don’t need to shorten links if you’re just linking from one page on your website to another.
Link Shortener Conclusion
Are the alternatives to the Goo.gl link shortener worth your time? Absolutely. With the range of link management tools out there, you can quickly generate short, readable links to showcase your brand and drive traffic to your website.
What’s more, there’s a link shortening tool to suit every marketing strategy, whether you’re looking for a no-fuss, budget-friendly option or want to invest in an enterprise-level solution.
Have you tried a link shortening tool yet? How has it improved your conversions or made it easier to track your performance?
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