Measuring Engagement (101)

Ah well, time to bit the bullet, I think. I've been looking around for ideas on how to measure audience engagement and I've found this post by Ronald Patiro.

Lots of great ideas such as:

• Visitor Engagement Index = (Visits) / (Visitors)
• Take Rate = (# of Visits Taking Part in Desired Activity) / (Visits)
• Repeat Visitor Share = (Repeat Visitors) / (Visitors)
• Heavy User Share = (# of Visits with X or More Pages Viewed) / (Visits)
• Committed Visitor Share = (# of Visits Lasting Longer Than X Minutes) / (Visits)
• Committed Visitor Index = (# of Page Views in Visits Lasting Longer Than X Minutes) / (# of Visits Lasting Longer Than X Minutes)
• Committed Visitor Volume = (# of Page Views in Visits Lasting Longer Than X Minutes) / (Page Views)
• Bounce Rate = (# of One Page Visits) / (Visits)
• Scanning Visitor Share = (# of One Minute Visits) / (Visits)
• Scanning Visitor Index = (# of Page Views in One Minute Visits) / (# of One Minute Visits)
• Scanning Visitor Volume = (# of Page Views in One Minute Visits) / (Page Views)
• Average Order Amount = (Total Sales) / (Total Orders)
• Sales Per Visit = (Total Sales) /(Visits)
• Repeat Order Rate = (# of Orders From Existing Customers) / (Total Orders)
• Order Acquisition Ratio = (Marketing Expense/Number of Orders) / (Marketing Expense/Visits)
• Conversion Rate = (Number of Sales) / (Visitors)
• Page Views per Visitor = (# of Page Views) / (Visitors)
• Average Time on Site

Wish me luck.

What are we supposed to do with popularity stats?

Like many aspects of online publishing, information about what people actually do online is both a blessing and a curse. Here is what the photos section of the aviation community airspace.aero looks like today:

Yes, scantily clad women are what our users really look at.

It's always a bit puzzling to consider what one should do with this information - upload pictures of more scantily clad women and fewer aircraft?

Of course, in this case it's pretty self-organising as it is the users who are uploading the photographs anyway and the aircraft outnumber the cheap exploitative calendar shots by about 5000 to 1.

But when it comes to news, it's a knottier problem. If you're chasing traffic, do you respond to popularity or do you continue to make grand editorial decisions based on what you believe is important for people to read.

The answer is "both", of course. The most read article on the BBC news website is currently Paxman to meet M&S over underwear even though the lead story is Darling unveils Rock rescue plan.

Publishing "Most read" also gives an added boost to these interesting-but-unimportant stories.

Should one give readers what they need to know or what they want to know? Who's to say?