Week 4
Experiment!
Social analytics for journalists:
measuring your success
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
2) different platforms (email, Pinterest, Reddit, etc)
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
2) different platforms (email, Pinterest, Reddit, etc)
3) design/display of social actions on your site
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
2) different platforms (email, Pinterest, Reddit, etc)
3) design/display of social actions on your site
4) language (subject lines, tweets, etc)
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
2) different platforms (email, Pinterest, Reddit, etc)
3) design/display of social actions on your site
4) language (subject lines, tweets, etc)
5) schedule (timing, frequency of social posts)
What to experiment with?
Engagement and referral rates per…
1) different content forms
2) different platforms (email, Pinterest, Reddit, etc)
3) design/display of social actions on your site
4) language (subject lines, tweets, etc)
5) schedule (timing, frequency of social posts)
6) anything else you can dream up!
The first rule of
experimentation?
There are no rules.
There are no rules.
But there is a method.
Remember this?
💡📋🔬📈
Scientific method
(adapted)
💡📋🔬📈
Hypothesis
Analyze
Experiment
Observe + Collect Data
Hypothesis
Analyze
Will shortening the length of
my Facebook posts will
increase engagement and
reach? 💡
Observe + Collect Data
Experiment
Hypothesis
Analyze
Experiment
Observe + Collect Data
Hypothesis
Analyze
Set maximum 300 character
count for all Facebook posts.
📋
Observe + Collect Data
Experiment
Hypothesis
Analyze
Experiment
Observe + Collect Data
Hypothesis
Analyze
Observe average
engagement, reach rates on
posts in the test period. 🔬
Observe + Collect Data
Experiment
Hypothesis
Analyze
Experiment
Observe + Collect Data
Hypothesis
Analyze
Keeping everything else
consistent, did reach/
engagement increase with
shorter posts? 📈
Observe + Collect Data
Experiment
Hypothesis
Analyze
REMEMBER!
Experiments are only useful if
you can put new information
in context of historic
information. Be sure you
know your baseline rates!
Observe + Collect Data
Experiment
And remember…
And remember…
Sometimes magic happens
Sometimes it doesn’t.
Sometimes it doesn’t.
But #fails = better insights!
That’s it.
That’s it.
That’s it.
Go forth and experiment.
Week 4 takeaways
•
Be curious. Good experiments
come from good questions. Be
observant of your data. Look
for patterns and anomalies. •
Make a plan: Hypothesize
about what you can do to
improve performance. Then
experiment, observe, analyze
results.
•
Don’t be discouraged. Failed
experiments can provide
valuable insights to inform
future experiments and
strategies.