Quinnipiac Assignment 01 – Qualitative and Quantitative Analytics in my Life
I began a new semester at Quinnipiac University; this new course is on social media analytics, which includes Google Analytics plus the collecting and interpreting of actionable data. It was time to look at qualitative and quantitative analytics in my life.
Professor!
My professor is Eleanor Hong, who was also my professor for Social Media Platforms. I had really loved that class, so I made sure to take this one with her as well.
Our first assignment was to create a video. I was very pleased to see some names that I knew who are taking the course with me and I had originally met in Social Media Platforms.
My final project partner from that course, though (Kim Scroggins), is graduating later this year and is instead just taking a Master’s Degree capstone project credit course. I have to admit that I do miss my final project partner a bit!
It already looks like it will be an interesting course. This video is about quantitative and qualitative analytics that I use in my daily life.
Vanity Metrics and The Meaningful Stuff
One thing which I suspect a lot of companies do not quite get is that there are some Google metrics which they can live without. And, in fact, those metrics can end up being downright misleading.
Plus, there are other metrics where it is quite easy to lose the plot.
Case in point: clickthrough rates and conversion rates.
These are both percentages, where the denominator is the number of impressions or views.
Two scenarios.
- One person views a site and clicks through. The rate is 100%. Sounds fabulous, right?
- Ten thousand (10,000 people) view a site. One thousand (1,000) click through. The rate is 10%. Sounds terrible, eh?
Except the second scenario is, by all other measures, a rousing success.
No doubt, when you look at metrics, you need to take denominators into consideration. Or at the absolute minimum, remember that they exist, because they can color your perceptions.
Takeaways: Qualitative and Quantitative Analytics in my Life
We all measure, in some way or another. And maybe it comes from having done data analysis before as a job. But I do measure stuff! In fact, I use Microsoft Excel nearly every single day!
And – oh my God! – I have been doing so for the better part of two decades!*
*I updated this post in 2023, so I have been using Excel nearly every day for 28 years.