Are You Measuring Up?

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In the world of web analytics, it can be confusing to see so many different ways of trending data, generating measurements, and techniques to perform an analysis. Today I’m going to be focusing on Digital Measurement and how it helps us in a professional marketplace. It’s my effort to break this down so that you can not only understand what digital measurement is, but also how it can be applied to any professional marketplace and so that you can even begin using it.

As you may have noticed with some of my other posts, I believe that in order to properly understand these subjects it’s important to have a firm understanding of the technical jargon before trying to apply it to our lives. To form this base of knowledge, we’ll first look at what digital measurement is. Then we’ll look at how it can be useful to individuals and corporations within the job market setting.

In researching digital measurement, I found out that it goes hand in hand with digital marketing. Our friend, Avinash Kaushik [2], helps us understand a simple 5 step process to get our thought process around digital measurement and marketing.

Step 1:

            To force us to identify the business objectives upfront and set the broadest parameters for the work we are doing. Sr. Executives play a key role in this step.

Step 2:

            To identify crisp goals for each business objective. Executives lead the discussion, you’ll play a contributing role.

Step 3:

            To write down the key performance indicators. You’ll lead the work in this stop, in partnership with a ‘data person’ if you have one.

Step 4:

            To set the parameters for success upfront by identifying targets for each KPI. Organization leaders play a key role here, with input from Marketing and Finance.

Step 5:

            To identify the segments of people/behavior/outcomes that we’ll analyze to understand why we succeed or failed.

Now that we have a great 5 step process, let’s pull out a few key terms. Since our main focus is digital measurement, we’ll focus on this while it also coincides with digital marketing. So, what is digital measurement? It’s the process of setting structured and thought out objectives in which can “be measured to identify success or failure.”[2] We also saw another key term you might not be familiar with and that’s KPI. KPI stands for key performance indicators and “are quantifiable measurements, agreed to beforehand, that reflect the critical success factors of an organization.”[3]

Now that we’re a little more familiar with the key terms, how does this apply to us? I know what you’re thinking; the 5 step process is directed towards businesses. While that is true, it can also be utilized for us. Now let’s re-look at these 5 steps and see how they can apply to us as we’re in the job market.

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Step 1:

            Here we need to set clear objectives that are measurable in which we can base our progress. With some broad parameters we can be prepared to drill down and really focus in on what we want.

Step 2:

            Now that we have some clear objectives with broad parameters, we need to set some clear and concise goals for each objective.

Step 3:

            Write down your key performance indicators (KPI’s) that will help you determine if you’re being successful or if you’re failing.

Step 4:

            Determine targets that will help you reach your KPI’s so you can have improved success.

Step 5:

            In your own approach to the job market, you’ll be analyzing yourself to determine what you’ve done well and what you should’ve done better based on the outcomes that occurred.

This might seem a little complex, but a key thought to remember it to set objectives up front that you can drill down into. This allows you to have something to track and measure to determine later if your efforts were successful or not.

Now that we know how it can be used on an individual basis, let look at how businesses can utilize digital measurements in their approach to the job market. While many of the principles that were references for us individually can be used for a business, it’s important to remember that a business will really need to drill down on their goals more. The reason for this added focus is because a business will have an extremely broad audience which they’ll need to sort through and with clear goals and objectives it’ll allow them to find the best candidate possible. Also, through the added focus received from the businesses it allows us as individuals to better approach potential employers in the job market if we know what they’re actually looking for.

Overall, the use of digital measurement will help both business corporations as well as us as individuals. As we each follow these couple guiding steps, we can find success in approaching the job market as well as other areas of life. Don’t be left asking, are you measuring up?

References: 

1. http://drsimpson.net/fills/Lap-band-made-simple/Diet-calorie-counting/Diet-calorie-counting.html
2. http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/digital-marketing-and-measurement-model/
3. http://management.about.com/cs/generalmanagement/a/keyperfindic.htm
4. http://www.theage.com.au/business/index.html