Last Friday, Suzanne had a guest speaker, Michael Despotovic, come in during lecture to discuss the many capabilities Google Analytics has to offer. His presentation included helpful step-by-step demonstrations, showing certain ways users can make the most out of their experience utilizing the platform. I like how he encouraged us to ask questions involving specifics before, during and after about what his occupation in the marketing field primarily entails and we received informative responses as a result.
He also went through key terms such as “metric” and “direct.” “Metric” pertains to anything numerical. “Direct,” according to him which I found very interesting, as well as a fact I did not expect, is what Google defines as a category they do not know what to do with because there are many associated ambiguities. However, Despotovic specifies that the actual traffic considered “direct” is anything organically typed that an individual wants to search for.
He additionally brought up a credential I was unaware of, which is the Google Analytics Certification and explained how the program is essentially a prerequisite needed to be completed for the following skills he would teach if someone in his position were to hire an employee for this particular kind of work. Overall, it was intriguing. I am glad Despotovic decided to reference this course and incorporate a brief description of it into the conversation. I plan on looking further into the details.
In a previous participation activity, the class shared their Google Analytics (or other similar information- gathering tool) data and it was interesting to see the different trends people have noticed for their sites. Data is an aspect of running a blog that I am not too familiar with, but through gaining the analyzing experience, I hope to be more knowledgeable by the end of the semester.
References
Despotovic, M. (2020, February). Google Analytics. PUB 201. Lecture conducted from Vancouver, B.C.