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Google Analytics is one of the most robust offerings by the search giant and it manages to fly under the radar a little bit. It has almost become ubiquitous for a large number of companies that are not prospects for other analytics packages like Omniture, Coremetrics, Webtrends etc. Many will even run it concurrently with these other players that have one distinct and major difference compared to Google’s offering: they cost money. Now, many people rail against the amount of data that Google has at its disposal as a result of their analytics offering ( formerly Urchin ). That’s fine and is great fodder for the Google conspiracy theory set, which is a pretty active community. On the street level though it is hard (read: impossible) to find a more robust offering that is free (another bone of contention for Google haters so go ahead and let’er rip). Well, Google is not resting on its laurels as it has announced a new feature that allows for users of the program to include annotations on reports. Search Engine Land tells us Following October’s release of Google Analytics new features, Google has just released another set of very cool new features. Among them is “Annotations,” a tremendously useful new feature both to analysts as well as executives, who are usually not up to date on granular details about website activity. The annotations feature basically allows users to make comments on graphs regarding events that happened on specific days. Here is an example of what can be done with the annotation feature: The idea here is that there can be real collaboration between those who put together campaigns and those who see the analytics without that important data. There is nothing more dangerous than an upper level executive that sees a spike or a dip on a graph but has no idea that there may have been very good business reasons for why that type of traffic or conversion or whatever pattern exists. A simple note that outlines a “cause and effect” for the data consumer can save a lot of time and trouble. Daniel Waisberg of Search Engine Land points out some great scenarios where this could be useful The PPC team can announce major changes to their campaigns. The SEO team can annotate changes to the website so that results can be tracked over time. The PR team can update dates of events, enabling the tracking of offline activities into Google Analytics more easily. The media buying team can provide updates of major banner campaigns. As per usual Google does a pretty good job on its blog showing how this feature is implemented as well a other additions to the analytics tool. Here’s to a 2010 full of real communication and good cheer!

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Google Analytics Adds Annotation Feature

By Trevor Dobrygoski of Twit 101 – Follow him @trevord209 Have you seen the Hangover? If not, you may want to grab the eight other people out there who haven’t and go give it a peek. Without ruining it for all eight of you, here is a quick rundown. A group of four friends go to Vegas to celebrate an upcoming wedding. After a long night of bachelor party fun, they lose the groom. The remaining three spend the bulk of the movie trying to remember what happened, find their friend and make it back to the wedding in LA. Had the guys took advantage of their Twitter account and used a few of these simple tips, many pitfalls and shenanigans from the day after could have been avoided. I am not a fan of using cliches, but hindsight is 20/20. (I’ll admit if they did use any or all of these tips, it would have made for a really boring movie.) 1. Mobile Updates Everyone is talking, texting and taking pics and video from their phone when they are out for a night on the town. Using your mobile device to take pictures of your night is commonplace. For smartphone owners posting to Twitter is super easy with apps like Ubertwitter or Tweetie. If you have a standard voice only phone you can MMS (picture message) your mobile photography to a web app such as Twitpic. Twitpic has a dedicated email address for you to send the MMS to. Here are the steps to find out where to send the MMS to: 1. Log into Twitpic using your Twitter credentials 2. Go to settings and you’ll see the email address Twitpic has created for you. 3. Copy that email address and add it to your phone. 2. Use Hashtags Using hashtags is a great way of tracking topics, events or even are sometimes used as part of an application. In the case of this party, the group could have used a hashtag like #dougsvegasparty. This could have brought all of the random tweets, pics and videos posted over the couple day period together. This could have answered some questions early on like “Why is there a Tiger in the bathroom?”. If they glanced through the tweets with that hashtag, they might come across something like this: [Mike Tyson needs better security. Got the tiger in the back of the cop car without wakin' up the champ. Back to the hotel #dougsvegasparty] 3. Timestamp If you haven’t noticed when browsing your timeline, every tweet has a time and date at the bottom. In the case of a bad memory (self-induced or not) this alone could have filled in many of the time gaps when things are a little hazy. 4. GPS Location Many of the new devices and services can put a map tack on Google Maps showing where you were when you sent the tweet; kind of like a digital  bread crumb. If you go with a location based service option (Brightkite, Ubertwitter, etc), it is dually helpful. Your tweets will be time stamped and also give you a location of your tweet. This will come in very handy when mid-way through the night when things are a little fuzzy and your updates aren’t as easy to follow. The problem with the first four solutions is they are very public. Anyone, including Stu’s girlfriend, could have followed the evening via Twitter. While this may be okay for some events, the happenings of these couple of days needed to be a little more discrete. Tips five and six will be a little more incognito yet offer some handy features. 5.  Reminders (@rtm) This one could have been a huge timesaver for the gang. If they sent a DM something like this to @rtm (Remember the Milk): [d rtm tomorrow 9am get Doug from the roof], they would have received an SMS with a reminder at 9am. All four of the guys could have had a horribly hung over drive back to LA together. If you can text your updates and DMs into Twitter, you should also receive incoming DMs. Alternatively, Blackberry and other smartphone users can get them with one of the numerous available applications. 6. Evernote (@myen) With a slogan like “Remember Everything”, following Evernote on Twitter could have helped the guys out tremendously. Evernote can be updated by texting a DM to @myen. All of the DMs can be searched for by typing DM or Twitter into the search box. You can take a quick peek at this post from the Evernote blog for more explanation (and a video). After the Vegas wedding DMs like these could have shed some light on their vehicle debacles: [d myen bought the high roller package. see Eddie before we head back.] or [d myen left the Mercedes parked on Las Vegas Blvd. Hope $4 was enough for parking]. This only scratches the surface of how Twitter can be used to remember things. Share your tips in the comments below. [image: Kevin Lau ] http://www.flickr.com/photos/kevinlau/2188869187/ © 2008 TwiTip Twitter Tips . 6 Ways Twitter Can Help A Bad Memory Related posts: 10 Ways To Create A Community Around Your Tweetup 10 Ways To Avoid Being Sued On Twitter 10 Ways To Use Twitter For Weight Loss

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6 Ways Twitter Can Help A Bad Memory