In the coming year we shall see tremendous refinements in the current web analytics tools to meet the new and very specific analytics needs of growing organizations. Here is our list of the top trends that we are likely to observe in 2011:
1. Tackling the challenge of analyzing multiple web access points:
The ways through which people can now access web has grown significantly and so analysts needs to stand up and face the challenge of understanding the behavior of the users of these multiple platforms to drive the whole advantage. In 2011 connected devices are set to make more use of your cars, work stations, TV, devices with larger screens and so on for keeping you fully connected. With multitude of handheld devices like smart phones and iPad that offer enhanced viewing and browsing experience – the number of mobile web users is increasing exponentially. Mobile analytics here would emerge as a distinct component of reporting user information for clients.
2. In-app analytics will come up significantly in 2011:
Today’s mobiles are flooded with options to run thousands of applications, which are slowly becoming significant for communication, interaction, navigation, search, entertainment, information, gaming, etc., for the users. The list is growing at an alarming pace and is capable of keeping the users addicted to their gadgets. iPhone applications alone run over 350,000, while Android has over 50,000 apps. The reason for this growing numbers is the usability and utility of these applications in smart phones. Web analysts will have to burn the midnight oil to extract valuable data from these applications’ usage.
3. Proactive companies will focus on analyzing the voice of the customer:
With millions of conversations happening online, companies have little control over what is being talked about their brands, but by being proactive in listening and following their brand name on all online channels, companies can influence and give a positive direction to those conversations. Social media analytics would be extremely useful. Another challenge here is to cut down huge amounts of unnecessary data, which may become a specialized task for analysts. Twitter is coming up with its own analytic tool which could give out some real valuable data, good for analysts to track and drive marketing objectives.
4. Better framework for social media analytics would be developed:
Currently, there are thousands of free and paid tools in the market. Each addressing a very specific analytics need and none of them are totally accurate. There’s a need for some level of tool consolidation and a social media analytics solution that answers critical questions holistically when it comes to tracking a brand online. Convergence of best web analytic practices may shape up new and standardized frameworks. Recently concluded global events and conferences like Blogwell, FutureGov Summit, among others, focused on the hot issue of developing a strategic social media framework for better and effective analysis.
5. Social media campaign analytics is coming into the picture:
With major companies targeting social media for online marketing; campaign analytics on social media is becoming a necessity. The metrics for measurement is totally different from the standard campaign analytics. Tracking Facebook fan pages, twitter hash tags, various brand specific applications and promotional campaigns on social media is becoming the need of the hour. So with increased use of online marketing, tracking social media campaigns will now grow at par with regular web analysis.
6. Privacy concerns might change the web analytics landscape totally:
With increased concern over privacy issues, tracking data that is private in nature might get banned altogether, and analysts might end up looking for new jobs. In 2011, we will see what Federal Trade Commission’s Do-Not-Track initiatives include and how it will impact web analytics. It may be something similar to the Do-Not-Call registry for phone users.
7. The need for web analysis will shoot up, so will the jobs
With online marketing, experiencing a near primary-marketing platform status, businesses are rapidly joining the web analysis bandwagon. Major web analysis vendors have seen a steep rise in the application of their solutions, which is indicative of this trend. And with more analysis needed we will surely see a surge in demand for quality web analysts too. As per Econsultancy report, companies are investing more in people as well as technology in order to get ‘actionable’ information from their web data. Forrester Research reported that web analytics spending will more than double to $1 billion by 2014. This implies a pressing need for analysis, and of course, more jobs for analysts.
Source: Web Analytics – Refining and Redefining The Current Techniques
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