May 12, 2010

Facebook “Like” integration

This past week I integrated Facebook’s Like toolbar into MicroMashBar.com. Now this is not a revolutionary concept, but I was taken at the ease of the implementation coupled with the value of what is happening. With just a link to a JavaScript SDK, and a single line call to Facebook’s Like functionality that is made available through he JavaScript SDK. And with those couple lines of code your web site now has an ability to be social on a level that has in the past taken advance user management and on site communities to achieve. With the Facebook Like tool bar Facebook users can indicate that they “like” a page. This in turns get pasted on the users wall, and more importantly, is now indicated on that page when a friend of theirs visits the page. Now the users of your marketing site, where you are not necessarily trying to build a community, can enjoy the benefits of allowing friends and family to see content that you indicated that you found valuable. Now of course this is all built on the premise that we are all Facebook users, but with the increasing number of parent and grandparents on Facebook it is really not that huge of a challenge.

Facebook Like tool bar

~Nathan Hein

February 6, 2010

Day 25 :: Muse 1, Still not getting the data I need

Google Analytics is setup and mostly working. After 2 days of patiently waiting for Google to inform me if the reporting code for use within the AJAX of my order form is functioning, I have come to the conclusion that the piece of code is not working. Also I cannot wait another 24 hours for Google to confirm if it is or not. With that in mind, I redesigned the ordering process to ensure I can clarify if users are going past the first page of the order process. So starting today I should get the analytics I need. I know I have said that at least five times now, but this is all part of the learning process.

~Nathan Hein

February 3, 2010

Day 22 :: Muse 1, lowered price

Today I was looking over Adwords and noticed I have received a major increase(10x) in traffic in February to Muse 1′s micro site. Google Analytics has not shown ANY visits to the site which is making me wonder if it is working as it says it is. I have a support ticket into Google to see what they have to say about the fact that Adwords has sent around 50+ visitors, yet Analytics says I have received but 6 (of which 6 of this were me prior to setting up Adwords).

Despite this possible error, I went ahead and decreased my price by about 13% to see if that will drum up some “orders”. I do not have any reason to believe that Analytics is missing all my traffic. Plus users are given an option to submit their info when prompted that I am out of stock and I have received no emails which again leads me to believe the market potential is just not there as I had hoped.

UPDATE: I discovered that the Google Analytics JS code was not even on the micro site. Between the copying and pasting of creating new pages I must have accidentally deleted it! What threw me off what Google’s indicator in Analytics was indicating that it was functioning and tracking traffic. We shall see what our traffic report says by the end of today!

~Nathan Hein

February 1, 2010

Day 20 :: Slow progress

Since my last post I was not able to complete a marketing plan for Muse 2. I was bogged down all weekend with home work, ILR, social commitments, and I even had to go into my full time job on Sunday. At his point I feel lucky I have made it to Monday. Muse 1, I do not believe I have gotten a single inquiry on the purchase page of the micro site. I will likely need to make some tweaks to the site and see if I can drive more(any) business. Otherwise at this point it looks like the retail offerings of Muse 1 are not happening.

This Thursday Amy and I are heading to Silverthorne, Colorado to snowboard with our friends Adam & Julie. This has increased the “to-do” list for the past week as there is a lot of little things to get done before we leave. At my full time job, we are doing midyear reviews which have to be done before I leave Wednesday. With about 20 hours of work left and probably no more than 8 hours of time to complete the work, I am in a bit of a bind. So it will be some late nights at work for me over the next few days leading up to Colorado.

The weekend away should help refresh me and get me back in the groove. The past week I have just been feeling tired, and very behind on work.

~Nathan Hein
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