Nerdy Newsletter: July, 2015

Client Highlight: Nice & Neat

Extra Nerds has worked with Nice & Neat on several projects and we appreciate their confidence in our work. For over 12 years, our client has been locally owned and operated in Athens, Ohio. During that time, they have developed a long-standing reputation built on their reliable service. They've made it their mission to make our community clean and healthy, one job at a time. And we like to lend a hand by keeping their website updated and offering technical support as it's needed. Our local, smaller clients are just as important to us as our larger, national clients. It's important for companies, as they grow, to remember their roots and we value the ongoing relationship we have with Nice & Neat.

Meet a Nerd

Angel Arnaudov, one of our .NET Nerds, has over 7 years of .NET / SQL experience, working almost exclusively with the Microsoft  technologies. He graduated from St. Kliment Ohridski University in Bitola, Macedonia from the department of Applied Computer Science and has vast international experience working for companies in both Europe and the United States.

Angel is constantly learning and working to stay current in the industry, lately investing significant amounts of time on several applications such as AngularJS, Knockout JS, and MongoDB as well as keeping up with .Net applications. He also has a great deal of knowledge of HTML, CSS, Jquery, and Bootstrap.

When not being a Nerd, Angel enjoys reading, cooking new dishes, and spending time with family and friends, as well as being a dedicated marathon runner. He has completed several full- and half-marathons and two triathlons! His personal lifetime goal is to complete 50 full-marathons.  We wish him luck with that, not that he needs it and we consider ourselves lucky to have such a knowledgeable, diverse, and driven self-professed geek on our team!

Industry News

Web Design Trends of 2015
An interesting question showed up on Quora recently. What will be the biggest web design trends in 2015? At Extra Nerds, we like to monitor these kinds of discussions not only because we are nerds, but also because it's important for us to stay on top of what's changing in the world of web design and development. And, we figured you might be interested too since, if you're reading this blog entry right now, you may be interested in making sure your website is on the bleeding edge. The rest of this post can be read here.

What's the 'F' Pattern and Why Does your Website Need it?
Let's face it. You have about 3 seconds to impress your website visitors before they get distracted by those cute little kittens over on YouTube. For your website to be successful, you need to capture their attention right away. More importantly, you need to keep their attention long enough to convey your message, pique their curiosity, and perhaps even convert them into a paying customer via a successful call to action. It's a tall order. Thankfully, the folks over at The Next Web have summarized some pretty interested research for us on eye movement and how users quickly scan your website content. An unsurprising pattern has emerged called the "The F pattern". To learn more on this topic, check out one of our earlier blog posts.

The Understated Importance of Monitoring your Website.
Having a website is not a "set it and forget it" endeavor. These days, with dynamic content, hackers, social media links, and rapidly changing technology and competition, it's important to constantly monitor your website to make sure it's at peak performance and delivering content your visitors find useful. Ultimately, you want to convert website visitors into paying customers, and so it's vital that your website is available, loads quickly, and is serving useful, directed content to your visitors as intuitively as possible. You can find the rest of this post here if you'd like to keep reading.

Become a Nerd

Extra Nerds is always looking for folks to add to our team. Do you have interest in becoming a part-time developer with a background in .NET and SQL Server? Our preference is for someone with knowledge of MVC, Entity Framework, and WebAPI. Javascript and CSS experience is a plus. Check out our website and if you're interested in joining our team then give Sid McFarland a call at 740-249-2200.

Extra Rewards

Be sure to take advantage of the Extra Nerds Referral Program. For every person or company you refer to Extra Nerds, you receive 1 FREE hour of development from one of our specialists. Not a bad deal, right? Spread the love!

The five qualities of a good project manager

In the introductory blog in this series, we outlined five important attributes, the Five Ps if you will, of project management– prepared, precise, proactive, perseverance, and perpetual learning. The next installation expounded upon the first in P is for Prepared. Next, let’s talk about precision.

P is for Precise

As the person who is almost solely responsible for ensuring the success of a project, precision is critical for a project manager. Keeping track of all of the nuanced details can be challenging and it’s not uncommon for PMs to use external tools to help. For example, one could purchase a membership to the Project Management Institute  where you have access to templates, forms, and checklists galore as well as a fairly comprehensive support structure.

Some would rather a free option, of course, and there are some great ones out there. The following sites provide a framework for PMs to utilize for a structure within which to operate and communicate.  One that seems to be present on many PM lists and a favorite in the field is Asana, which is a collaboration tool and multi-project hybrid task and management site. Similar sites are Evernote, Trello, ProjectManager.com, and Teamwork.com. Each has their own style and organizational structure, so it would be prudent to explore various site interfaces to identify the one which is most appealing to you or most suitable for your particular projects.

Most project managers have honed various techniques in order to stay organized, communicative, and on task. Frequently these include lengthy checklists or giant white board diagrams with colored post it notes (which sounds primitive, but can be useful if you are a more visual person and have the space). A common favorite for the more complex project is that which is called a Critical Path Analysis (CPA, also called a Critical Path Method or CPM) which is, in reality, just an impressive way to say flow chart. This is a logical and effective method as the format is linear, essentially a timeline. CPA diagrams are excellent for displaying each interdependent factor as well as demonstrating how they overlap and coincide with others. Mind Tools provides a step-by-step process using the CPA technique.

When we speak of precision, it’s not just the precision of the project manager that is important. One of the responsibilities of a PM is to be able to recognize the various strengths and weaknesses of team members. To this end, it may be helpful to have a skills inventory for each of their people. Along side the list of each person’s technical expertise, it is useful to have a directory of their more abstract qualities, such as creativity, vision, or, you got it, precision and attention to detail.  This is a valuable team member to have and a PM may utilize their ability by having them conduct a website audit, for example, in the beginning stages of a website project, or maybe have them aspart of the quality assurance process in the final stages of a project, or maybe even ask them to analyze and report metrics. Regardless of your project, be sure the use the person with an eye for detail and innate precision wisely.

In the next blog in this series, we’ll talk about the importance of being proactive and what that means for a project manager, so stay tuned!

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: Why Angular is a Good Buy For Your Team

As we discussed in the introductory blog in this series, AngularJS is an open source web application framework which is maintained by Google and a group or community of corporations and individual developers. It was developed to address the numerous challenges that developers and organizations face when developing single page or static applications.

So, just a quick review of the Angular series to date before we conclude, we’ve talked about why developers like to use it and how it works well for an array of website building projects, for single page applications, and especially when paired with Web API. In this Final blog in this series, let’s bring it all together.

As many developers will tell you, HTML is very good when you are declaring static documents but it fails miserably once you try declaring dynamic views in a web application. AngularJS comes in quite handy in this regard because it does allow developers to extend HTML vocabulary into an application, in the end giving you an environment that’s quick to develop, easy to read, and very expressive.

In simple terms, it is a set of tools specifically meant to help you and your team to build the framework that’s most suited to the application which you and your team are developing. It is not only fully extensible, but it also works extremely well with libraries from other development platforms. As a matter of fact, every feature of Angular can either be replaced or modified to suit the unique development workflow your team may be employing.

The framework is also well organized and does provide developers with a structure that guides them through the process of building a complete application; from designing the user interface to writing the required business logic to carrying out thorough and up-to-date testing of the application before deploying it and anything in between. 

It is worth noting that, with Angular, it's easy to create reusable components. This has the major advantage of allowing developers to separately focus on either how the application looks or focus on what the application does. This is possible because the components will allow developers to hide all those complex structures and behaviors unique to the application being developed. The framework basically decouples the server side of an application from the application side, in the process; it does allow your team of developers to work in parallel. This has the added advantage of saving time and allowing the team to re-use either side. 

With current applications, localization is very important. It is imperative for any app to be readily available in all locations. AngularJS achieves this by availing features which gives the developer the appropriate building blocks to ensure your application is availed in all required locales. 

One of the major benefits of this framework is that if you have already invested in other technologies then there is no need to worry because AngularJS does work pretty well with all kinds of different technologies. It is possible to add as much or as little as you desire to an existing page within a very short time. The main difference with other alternative frameworks is that they usually require full commitment or entire overhaul of the page.

It is also worth noting that this framework was designed, from the ground up, to be testable. It does this by basically considering the process of application testing to be as important as the process of application writing, this is because the code used in structured in such a way that makes testing not only simple to perform but also more accurate.

So, we hope that you've enjoyed and learned something about AngularJS by way of this series. It can be a very good friend to you developers out there. Now go forth and create!

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: The Symbiosis of AngularJS and Web API

In 2009, Google introduced a new application, AngularJS, and changed the field of website development. As we mentioned in the introductory blog in this series, it is a structural framework of dynamic web-apps. Developers love it and it works for an array of website building projects and is especially useful for single page applications. Now, let’s discuss why Angular is even better when partnered with Web API.

Every now and then a product comes along that just makes web design easy to implement for the ordinary man on the street. AngularJS and Web API are pioneers in their respective fields, simplifying HTML and HTTP respectively. 

AngularJS by Google

For any business that only runs a single page application, AngularJS will simplify and address the many areas of struggle experienced. Run as an open-source web application framework, you have the assistance of Google developers and companies to assist with errors and coding issues. It provides the person who is writing the code the opportunity to view it within the client-side model-view-controller (MVC) architecture, making it easier to navigate. This gives the coder the opportunity to access components usually limited to rich internet applications. Angular is built to ensure user interfaces and software components by using programming that specifically performs the “what” function. The business logic side is managed by imperative programming, which works off of algorithms. This simply means that the outcome changes with certain inputs and that the program aligns itself to that. 

This, of course, means that a business has access to all the bells and whistles that multiple-page users have, in a single page application. The fact that it is an open-source web application means that the maintenance and upkeep are up to Google to implement, which leaves your hands free to run your business. 

Web API by ASP.NET

This is quite possibly one of the most important aspects to take into consideration when you are trying to get your website out there. Web API uses the full features of HTTP including passing various content types, using ETags through versioning and concurrency and using and creating URI templates and then creating Task URI’s in the response. Web API is most commonly known for its ability to define browser cache controls. Getting your business to the next level will mean controlling the browser cache. What this means is that, when you have an active Web API that has a browser control cache, when people search for information on the internet and your hot words, keywords, or key tags are highlighted, the chances of your pages coming up first will be much higher than without the browser cache control. The combination of the browser cache control and the use of ETags make it almost certain that when anyone searches the products or services you offer, your website will be displayed first. 

The Symbiosis

It is recommended that these two programs be installed together to ensure that your business is able to leverage from both aspects of programming. First, getting a proper application in place and second, ensuring that the whole world gets to see it. Without the combination of these two aspects, chances are very good that your website will be one in a million with very little chance of actually being noticed. You also want to ensure that when it is noticed, your potential customers have full access to the entire page without experiencing technical issues. The potential increase in revenue streams is most certainly enough to consider applying these two programs together.
 

Join us next week for the sixth and final blog in this series when we wrap our argument on why Angular is such a fantastic alternative programming application.

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: Single Page Applications and Responsive Web Design

An old saying, “the first impression is the last impression” certainly holds true in the business world. Even when you provide quality services to your customers, if the impression of your website is poor, your business will be affected. Impressions matter to your customers  and in today’s world, your website is your calling card in many cases.

The era of static websites and apps are replaced by the dynamic and they have become one of the best ways to boost any business. People want to move quickly through any website with fast processing speed.

In 2009, Google introduced a new application, AngularJS, and it changed the field of website development. As we mentioned in the introductory blog in this series, it is a structural framework of dynamic web-apps. Developers love it and it works for an array of website building projects.

Angular shortens the HTML code of a website and merges all the web pages into the single page application. Single page applications are currently the most popular sites as they reduce the HTML code and are not a burden on the browser, even as it quickly loads the other pages of the site. It is an open source, high-level web application framework that is particularly developed for business owners to improve the quality and functionality of the website.  

The goal of the AngularJS is to simplify the application development and testing based on the client side with rich internet application components through the single page application (SPA). The SPA converts the website into the best quick and responsive website. Angular reduces the browsing load from both server and client end. The exact state or layout of a website remains the same and uses the code of the index page for the layout to load once. When the user wants to visit another page on the same website, only the data from the new page will be loaded while the layout remains. The function of the single page application is the same as the applications used in smartphones and tablets. The applications load quickly and in the same layout in smartphones and tablets. 

With a single page application, business owners can create a quick and responsive website, which can be particularly appealing to businesses with e-commerce sites. The products are loaded quickly along with the online transaction pages with fewer loads on both the client and the server side. The two-way data bandwidth is saved and, most importantly, millions of users can visit the website simultaneously without any timeout of the server.

Benefits of AngularJS Single Page Applications:

• Two-way data binding

• Templates

• Full testing environment for developers

• Strong server communication from client end

• Deep-linking of web pages

• De-coupling client side and server side

• Model view controller (MVC)

• Easy to adopt for the User Interface (UI) developer

• Strong community

Since Google developed the Angular application for business owners all over the world for the quick loading of the web pages and faster transactions, the single page application has become the best way for quick, responsive websites. Not yet convinced of the benefits? Stop back next week when we talk about Angular and Web API by ASP.NET and how they can work really well together.

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: Running The Rule For Your Projects

So far, this blog series has provided an introduction to AngularJS and why it's a good investment as well as detailing why developers like it. So, now let’s talk about why one may want to use it for new projects.

Fifteen years ago, it would have taken a brave developer to bet on JavaScript emerging as the de facto front-end language of the web. These days though, there's not a development team in town that doesn't lean on it heavily at several points in the stack.

As adoption increases and the language matures, the need for structure in handling JavaScript across a project has become clear. All too many early projects ended up devolving into unmaintainable messes of spaghetti code. The need for frameworks, as pioneered by other languages such as Ruby and Python, swiftly became obvious to all concerned. 

Several strong JavaScript frameworks soon emerged and in the last couple of years the number of new entries to the market has truly exploded. Business owners and IT leads are understandably reluctant to bet the farm on whatever is the latest shiny new toy making waves on GitHub, however. 

They're looking for something stable, battle tested in the field, with an active community and a clear product road map. This approach narrows down the candidates considerably. Partly due to its high profile backing from Google, AngularJS is the JavaScript framework at the top of many people's lists. Let's take a quick look at some of the reasons you might consider looking at AngularJS for your next project.

A Large Developer Talent Pool

Angular is established enough by this stage that an in-depth understanding of its best practices is virtually de rigueur for any high-level JavaScript programmer. Basing your project on Angular will help you attract some of the best front-end developers in the business to your team. How to locate Angular specialists was discussed in the second installation in this series if you’d like some guidance.

Easier Onboarding for New Developers

Angular's modular component structure and commonly shared set of assumptions means that your project comes with an easily understandable, clearly defined scaffolding straight out of the gate. New team members will have no trouble instantly grasping this intuitively and starting to productively contribute. The days of month-long hand-holding sessions just to get up to speed will be in your past.

Improved Code Reusability

No developer worth their salt relishes re-inventing the wheel across projects. Using AngularJS encourages your team not to waste time repeating themselves. Instead, they'll naturally lean towards developing tight, reusable components that are easier to troubleshoot and can be re-used down the line to increase velocity on future projects. 

Mature Testing Environment

Taking the time to set up adequate testing is all too often kicked to the curb on JavaScript heavy projects. The resulting chaos that ensues when changes are required has burned more than a few teams in the past. Angular comes with solid and well thought out testing best practices so that you can be sure of getting your project off on the right foot from the start. 

That's just four of the obvious benefits AngularJS can potentially bring to your project. You'll discover plenty more as you take it for a spin Let's finish with a quick word on a classic real-life use case where Angular might be a good fit. 

It's not necessarily perfect for every project, but if you're tasked with building a single-page application that relies on delivering value through a heavily responsive interface, Angular JS is going to save you an awful lot of heartache. Begin by letting some of your team experiment with it for prototyping on larger projects and you'll be able to safely see if it might work for you.

Hopefully you’re learning just how valuable this language is becoming. Join us next week to learn about the benefits of AngularJS single page applications.

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: Developers

It is getting easier by the day to find developers who have adopted AngularJS. Whether the people you are working with are freelancers or full-time employees, there is a compelling argument for them learning AngularJS now or in the near future. 

As we discussed in part 1 of this series, AngularJS is JavaScript web application framework. Originally developed as an open-source project aiming to create a framework that improves on the traditional uses of HTML, AngularJS is now maintained by a number of Google employees while retaining its open-source origins. As a result, you will find developers and freelancers have drastically varied levels of knowledge on the subject, depending on their interest in open-source projects. Those that do use it tend to love it.

Why Developers like Angular

AngularJS allows developers to bridge the gap between HTML and the functionality of single-page applications. It makes it easy to produce declarative UI and eliminates a lot of the difficulty that comes with managing dependencies, resulting in easier parallel development. Angular also makes data-binding more straightforward than any other framework out there: it removes the need to create complex models for connecting the UI to the treatment of data, and your developers will be able to spend less time writing the same code repeatedly. These are just some of the key factors that make AngularJS an attractive prospect for developers. It’s an ongoing project, and the end goal is to vastly improve testing and provide structure for the entire application building process. 

To put the advantages more simply, AngularJS allows developers and freelancers to write code that works easily with different controls and, combined with Web API, functions more smoothly on a range of devices. 

Locating Angular Specialists

You may be wondering how to find developers and freelancers who specialize in AngularJS, or who at least have a decent level of knowledge to build upon. The answer is that front-end developers have been rather slow in adopting AngularJS in large numbers, but specialists are out there. Despite being around since its early stages in 2009, Angular is still working to win over the majority of experts. The main issue seems to be that developers and web development freelancers in general are hesitant to invest great amounts of time and money in a framework that is still relatively new. It has undergone numerous changes across different versions, as one would expect, but there have been issues. For example, the Angular team’s Chrome extension, Batarang, was released in 2012. Since Angular has been updated, the plugin has been left behind and is incompatible with recent versions, irritating some users.  Despite this, however, there are several good sites to visit in order to find freelance AngularJS developers, such as Elance, Guru, and Toptal. For some helpful hints on finding the perfect freelancer, check out one of our past blog posts, Tips on Choosing the Best Freelance Site for your Needs.

Developers have primarily been migrating to AngularJS - or at least picking it up - from backgrounds in Java, as the styles are fairly similar. However, the aim of Angular is to simplify complex tool selections like the ones offered by JavaScript, so the appeal does extend to experts in a range of languages. In time, this simplicity and the diversity of AngularJS will win over developers at both the front and the back end, and will save hugely on costs by making the development process much simpler. 

Stop back next week and check out the third installation in this series which will delineate the benefits of AngularJS in even more detail.

AngularJS and Bootstrap CSS: It's Time to Invest

AngularJS, also known as Angular, is an application maintained by Google as well as a series of individual developers and corporations to address many challenges faced in developing single page applications. Angular is an open source web application framework, the main purpose of which is to simplify the development and testing of the application by providing a framework for the model view controller (MVC), that is, the client-side architecture, and also in commonly used internet applications. Angular implements MVC pattern so as to distinguish presentation, data, and logic components.

Angular adapts and utilizes traditional HTML to present dynamic content, whereby it allows the automatic synchronization of models and views by using the two-way data binding. Therefore, the framework insists on its testability and performance being up-to-date. There are many versions of AngularJS, such as versions 1.3 and 2.0, which are modified to accommodate more features.

Purposes of the AngularJS

AngularJS makes the application testing of equal importance to application writing. For the writing to be easy, the code structure should not be a hard nut to crack. The application also aims at separating the client side of the application from the server side. This helps the progress of the project being done and both sides are easy to use. It also helps in designing, writing, and testing of a business logic. That is, it aids in building an application. Most businesses make use of this advantage since their work has just been made easy for them. It also works by separating the document object model (DOM) manipulations from the framework logic. This helps improve the testability of the code.

AngularJS Bootstrap

Also known as the Bootstrap CSS, AngularJS Bootstrap makes the front end web development faster and easier. Bootstrap is designed so that it can be used by just about anyone, without any skills needed. It scales all your applications with a single code base and it is also applicable for use in your phone, desktop, and tablet.

Advantages of Bootstrap

With the use of this awesome application you get to use the beautiful documentation for HTML and CSS components. This makes it suitable for use by many writers and businesses since the work is really presentable. Bootstrap is commonly used in online sites due to its extremely user-friendly features.
 

Both Angular and Bootstrap are applications in which it is worthwhile to invest. The Angular application provides security to the user company because of less hacking to the company’s database. Angular is known for its declarative programming and is therefore used for building user interfaces and connecting the software components. There is also the imperative type of programming, whereby it is well suited for defining the business logic. The task of the AngularJS Bootstrapper occurs in phases after the DOM has been loaded. 

Also, the two way data binding features have its perks in that it reduces the amount and length of the code written and hence relieves the server of the backend responsibilities. The scope also modifies the HTML expression view and model by use of a controller. With all of these features, and many more, a company that uses the AngularJS and the Bootstrap can attest to how well this works for them. Also, you don’t have to worry about the versions being inadequate since, after every modification, you can always update your Angular application.

 
Hopefully, this AngularJS introduction and why it is a worthwhile investment has left you wanting more! Stop back next week for the second post in this blog series, when we talk about AngularJS and why Developers like it.

Tips for building a following on Facebook, Part 6: Advanced Analysis

Since this is the last post in this series, let’s quickly review that which we’ve looked at so far.  In part 1 we built our foundation, identifying our social media objective and strategy. In part 2, we identified our target audience. Part 3 addressed the importance of, and provided some tips on, managing the cornerstone of your social media blueprint: content. Part 4 provided an overview and the basics of using Facebook Ads and part 5 delved into analytics. In this final installation, we’ll use advanced analysis methods to help us identify ways to use social media for identifying growth opportunities for your business.

Discover your Mentions

Finding pages or people that mention your Facebook page brings the opportunity to develop content and nurture that relationship, ultimately leveraging another page’s audience.

By identifying the most frequent posters on your business page or the page of your "mentioner", you can get a good idea of whether or not your target audiences overlap significantly and where your outreach should start. One should look many factors to ensure that the most relevant stories appear in the news feed, including which posts are receiving the most engagement (likes, shares, comments, and link clicks).  Also take a look at the posts which are receiving the most engagement from people who like both the person/page that posted and the page that was tagged.

Locate Pages With Similar Interests and Large Audiences

Have your competitors reached potential customers that you have not? There’s a good chance that the answer is yes. So, how do you reach them too? You could run an analysis on a big chain store that would be similar to your business and use the information to tell you the techniques they are using to bring in customers on Facebook. You can also learn the kind of audience they have with whom you could connect as well.

This sounds like cheating, I know, but it isn’t. It’s simple and smart…and it’s the world in which we live now. And it doesn't have to be nefarious, it can be done in a friendly way because you can share your audience with them, if you choose to do so. Competitive analysis is one of the easiest and most under-utilized types of analysis. There is so much that you can learn and leverage from businesses similar to yours.

Conduct a side-by-side analysis in order to determine how you measure up against your competitors or other successful companies. Identify their trends in engagement and track that which is working and that which is failing for them. If you can do this on an ongoing basis you will get a very clear understanding of target influencers, industry friends, how and when to mention them on your page, and how to leverage their audiences.

Timing

Once you have identified the pages from which you are looking to pull an audience, pinpoint the peak times that your audience is engaging on Facebook and then cross reference with qualitative research on the industry-aligned pages you are looking to target.  Are they active at similar times? Mentioning or tagging other pages during peak times to ensure that your content displays effectively on both news feeds is going to make a huge difference in growing your followers.

Test and Measure

Now, did it work? In order to find out, you will want to determine which posts received the most engagement and analyze whether or not tagging the other pages or brand names boosted your interaction per post. This will help you to qualify the value of engaging with certain pages over other ones. You will, of course, want to conduct a similar analysis on organic versus paid posts or ads.

Don’t forget to take into consideration your ultimate content goals for Facebook. You will want to see not only the post inviting the most engagement, but also the type of engagement. If tagging a specific page led to a lot of picture views, for example, but no actual link clicks it may be time to reevaluate if the goal of the content was, in fact, to get people to click.  

Use Insights

By asking specific questions, you can evolve your planning process and social media strategy.  Simply Measured says to use a “SWOT analysis”:

Strengths: Characteristics of your social presence that give you an advantage over competitors. Where are you exceptional? Where are you being proactive, not reactive?

Weaknesses: Characteristics of your social presence that put you at a disadvantage in comparison to competitors. What are you not doing that you need to be doing? Which minimum industry standards are you failing to achieve?

Opportunities: Holes in your competitors’ social strategies that you can fill. What are some successful competitive strategies you’ve learned that you can mimic or improve upon? Which social network capabilities are you not taking advantage of fully?

Threats: Possible competitive impediments or encroachments to the quality, reputation, singularity, and overall value of your cross-network social presence. Where is your brand at risk on social? Where do you need to devote resources immediately?

In this day and age, it is imperative for businesses to have a strong website and social media presence. I hope that this series has provided a comprehensive look at all the aspects involved in creating a strong social media and marketing plan from the initial objective to strategy, audience, content, ads management and analytical tools.  Now, go forth and build your following!

Tips for building a following on Facebook, Part 5: Analytics

So far we’ve determined our objective and our strategy (part 1) and we have considered our target audience (part 2).  In part 3 we emphasized the importance of and provided some tips on managing content and in part 4, we provided the basics on Facebook Ads. Now, let's get into the basics of Analytics.

So, what are analytics and why are they helpful? Facebook is constantly evolving, both in regards to how content is distributed and how users interact. For those using social media as a marketing tool, the challenge is determining how to best reach and engage your audience.  One of the keys to success in this arena is knowing how to use your data.

Measure your Real Audience

Who is your effective audience? Those who see your content are not limited to those who like your page. Reach, which measures the unique number of people who saw content associated with your page, can provide that answer for you.

Over time, Reach helps you understand how the sharing of your content impacts your ability to attract and engage your audience. Without it, it’s difficult to accurately measure your ability to engage people or to turn them into customers.

You can evaluate Reach in two ways - organic and paid. This will help you to determine whether your content was seen primarily by people engaging with your content or due to your ad spend.

Also, by reviewing the data chronologically for specific dates, you should be able to identify the exact content or campaigns that engaged most with your audience, whether in a positive way or negative.

Analyze your Engaged Audience

Now that you know your engaged audience, increasing it each month becomes the goal. As your number of page likes increases, you will also want to expand the number of users who engage with your content.   When combined with your posts, the percentage of audience engaging metric tells you when and on which content types you’re getting engagement value from the audience you’ve worked so hard to build.

Grow your Likes

Although your total number of page likes isn’t the only metric you should care about, like growth is important. It can help you identify tactics to increase your audience as well.

First, look at the sources of your likes. By doing this, you can determine where folks were in Facebook when they liked your page or what device they were using as well as they came across it through a paid source or organic.

Next, you want to compare that with other user actions by reviewing likes, comments, shares, and link clicks for a given time period within the same chart.

Third, check out your page visits. Look at the number of times each of your page was viewed alongside your new likes. This information will tell you which part of your page is a bigger attraction to your new likes. 

And finally, consider your referrers by looking at your likes progress over time. This will tell you which non-Facebook activities bring you the most likes.

Identify Who Likes You

To identify who likes your page, establish an audience baseline using Facebook Insights demographic data. Then, put the data to work. For example, knowing where your followers are located can help you to make informed decisions about the kind of content you share and when you share it.  No matter your brand, it’s important to know that age and gender demographics for your Facebook followers matches your target audience for your product or service. Then use sales data to identify the products in which your audience is more likely to be interested. Once you’ve established a baseline, go beyond follower demographics by building identities that map to certain products or content topics. Measure engagement with content which ties back to the identities as part of your regular audience analysis. This type of analysis can give you a more profound understanding of your audience and which content will resonate with them.

Identify when your Audience is Active

By noting how your page likes change when your fans are online, you’ll be able to time content posting more wisely to increase page likes. By comparing the timing of your likes to when you’re fans are online over time, you’ll be able to paint a realistic picture of how posting times affect page likes in particular.
 

Stay tuned for our sixth and final post in the is blog series in which we’ll dive into Advanced Analytics and how to identify growth opportunities.