Tinkering Your Web Strategy: Using Analytics to Understand Your Traffic and Making Adjustments

The panel Tinkering Your Web Strategy: Using Analytics to Understand Your Traffic and Making Adjustments will be held at 3:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21st, in Meridian D&E.

Description
Who is coming to your candidate's website? What do users do when they get there? How did they find you in the first place? Where are users who visit your site coming from? Web analytics can open doors to a political or public affairs campaign to understand their web traffic and adjust their communications strategy accordingly. Having a great website with all the bells and whistles looks great on the surface. But, how do we read a web analytics report and what indicators do we look for? How do we make adjustments? Answers to these questions are vital for campaigns at any level.

Speakers

 * Ben Weisberg - Ben Weisberg works at Google as an Account Manager on the Elections and Issue Advocacy Team. He works with political candidates, advocacy groups, and major non-profits on maintaining their existing AdWords accounts and building those accounts to ensure strong future growth. Previously, he spent three years on Google's National Agency team, managing the accounts of the largest SEMs (search engine marketers) that currently work with Google.  Throughout his time at Google, Ben has also been a dedicated volunteer for the Google Grants program--Google's advertising program for non-profits--screening potential applicants and optimizing the accounts of current grantees.  Ben received his B.A. in American Studies at Columbia University.


 * Mark Skidmore - Since joining Blue State Digital in early 2008, Mark has built the com pany's advertising and promotions practice; which includes search, banner and social media advertising as well as search engine optimization. Through the 2008 election cycle Mark directed advertising strategies for over 10 PACs, 501(c) 3s and candidate campaigns. Most notably he worked with the Presidential Inaugural Committee, America's Voice, Wal-Mart Watch, and John Kerry's PAC “Campaign for Our Country,” where he led the ground breaking “Truth Fights Back” campaign which defused smears on Barack Obama and other democratic candidates. Before Mark joined Blue State Digital he managed international search marketing for Nike, and U.S. based campaigns for Neiman Marcus. In 2006 he co-founded the social networking company VENTworkwhere he led marketing and business development efforts. Mark's work has published in various business and advertising publications including Barrons, the New York Times and ClickZ. Mark is a graduate of New York University with a degree in Fine Arts.


 * Dan Siroker - Dan Siroker recently founded CarrotSticks, a startup focused on using technology to help kids learn. During the presidential transition, Dan was the Deputy New Media Director where he was responsible for strategic planning of the administration's use of the internet and technology. He led several online initiatives on change.gov including a way for the American people to publicly comment on proposed policy, ask a question, or a submit an idea-- all of which could be voted on by others and went directly to President Obama and his cabinet. Prior to working on the presidential transition, Dan led the analytics team for the Obama presidential campaign and served as a senior member of the larger New Media team. He led a team of software engineers and analysts responsible for optimizing the effectiveness of the campaign's online operations that ended up raising over half a billion dollars, registering over 2 million voters, and enabling 3 million phone calls to be made in the final four days of the campaign. Before joining the campaign, Dan was a Product Manager for Google Chrome, the open-source web browser from Google. Dan worked previously as a Product Manager for Google AdWords. Dan graduated with Honors from Stanford University with a B.S. in Computer Science.


 * Jesse Greenberg - Jesse Greenberg is a Chicago-based independent strategic communications and public affairs consultant, specializing in new media and blogging strategies. After being laid off from the agency he worked at, Jesse decided to start his own shop, thinking that the economic downturn is a perfect time to bring value-added communications services to clients looking to outsource. Jesse's experience includes spearheading the creation of a digital strategy unit at the agency he previously worked and running the social media strategy for former Illinois progressive State Assembly Candidate, Daniel Biss. Jesse won two Golden Dot awards from the Institute for Politics Democracy and the Internet at George Washington University in 2008 for his work on the campaign. Jesse blogs about new media and public affairs, along with the latest scoop in Chicago politics. He holds an MA from Northwestern in Integrated Marketing Communications.

From Ben

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From Mark

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From Dan

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From Jesse

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General/from discussion

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