Anil Batra is vice president of search and analytics, POP in Seattle. Anil has over 13 years of experience in consulting, business intelligence, web analytics, online advertising and behavioral targeting.

He was a featured moderator in the analytics and metrics session at PR+MKTG Camp Seattle.  Here he expands on the session’s discussion on whether  PR and marketing are more or less aligned because of social media.

He is what Anil had to say:

Who currently has a better handle on social media analytics and measurement – PR or marketing and why?

Anil: It really depends on the organization; I don’t think there is one clear answer though, in my experience, I have seen more marketing folks involved with social media then PR but both of these disciplines are learning how to use social media analytics.

How do all the reams of data that analytics tools generate help/hinder the way you or our clients do your or their jobs?

Anil: Data by itself does not mean much. Value comes from the usage of data. Tools make it possible to collect a lot of data but most of the tools fail to distill down the data into few KPIs [key performance indicators] that business can use to do their jobs.  This is where the problem occurs. Having access to all this data causes people to get caught up in the interesting data. Interesting does not always mean critical data to do their job. All this open access to data, hinders them from doing their job. On the other hand smart business people focus on few critical metrics that is required from them to do their job. If a problem is reflected in a key metrics then they dig deeper in the other data points to understand what happened and how they can fix things to get back on track.

How do you evaluate the effectiveness of the tools you are using to analyze data?

Anil: Tools effectiveness and what tool you should use really depends on your business objective. Every business has unique needs and they need different tools. What’s effective for one business might not be effective for another one. Businesses need to first state their objective and goals, then define KPIs and other metrics they need to measure the their goals. After that they should analyze the tools and pick the one which will meet their needs. Most of the people do it the other way round. They pick the tool first and then get frustrated when the tool can’t meet their needs. If I have clearly defined objectives, goals, KPIs and metrics before I select the tools then I know I will find effective tools. (I assume that I will have the budget to buy the tool)

What recommendations do you have to help clients share analytics data across their organizations?

Anil: Distill down your data to a few key metrics. Do not provide tool access to everybody in the organization. Do not overwhelm them. Provide them access to only the data that is required for them to do their job. I highly recommend creating custom dashboards that show the KPIs and analysis based on business goals.  Every data that you provide should be evaluated to make sure that it not just an interesting number but a metrics that provides value and is actionable.

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