I just completed presenting the Web Analytics Association 2008 Member Outlook Survey. I want to thank the Research Committee for their hard work in organizing, administering and getting the survey together.

I take my hat off to the Web Analytics Association Strategic Programs and Events Committee. I am always amazed at what goes into doing a survey; first, by making sure the questions are correct, that multiple choice answers are appropriate, the data is compiled and making sure the analysis is done right. I also want to thank Jim, Joel and Rick for participating in the webinars today. I have attended a lot of webcasts and surveys but having people who are actually in the trenches answering questions about what they are seeing is just phenomenal.

Fundamentally, our research shows that Web Analytics, in 2008, continues to be a hot field where companies are investing in Web Analytics even in these tough economic times, because the web is one of the most inexpensive ways to do business while being the best way to develop a personal relationship with your customer. What more could a company ask for?

As we know, things just started to calm down with respect to reporting, and it really didn’t make much of a difference what platform you went with but as is typical nothing sits still for very long and information begets yet more information. As web analysts, we are often are in situations where we start to notice small trends in the data that trend require more analysis. Typically, web analysts provide management with one nugget and, once that happens, management tends to start asking for pots of gold; I love it!

Now, based on the survey many of you want more analytics and integration with business processes. Meanwhile, many companies are getting smarter about what they are doing, and dare I say strategic, investing in best practices, education and training – this is a trend that will continue in 2008, our research shows.

What is going on here? When do companies engage in forward looking strategic activities instead of flying by the seat of your pants stuff? What drives companies to be strategic and their investments in Web Analytics are passionate people, like yourselves, constantly thinking about and espousing the virtues of web analytics, and analytics in general.

Please add your comments to this post and I’ll do my best to answer every one of them.

Meanwhile, I am answering the questions attendees of the webinars had - the answers are not complete yet - will be adding them in the next week or so.

Richard Foley, WAA President

Questions:

Will you be holding this during European working hours? (Will answer soon, looking into this)

Will it ever become easier to authenticate users? Authentication is a policy that each company tends to implement in it’s own way. There are standards surrounding web services which may help in passing credentials from one company to another and help in authenticating users as more standards are being adopted.

Will 2008 yield web analytics "best practice" standards for metrics and reporting industry-wide? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

What non-web metrics are people providing in order to add greater context to their reports? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

What are the most significant international trends? Also will there ever be an eMetrics summit in Australia? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

I'm seeing what I think is an obvious connection between "usability" roles and Web analytic roles at major corporations (in that they both tend to be underappreciated/underutilized), can you comment on whether the concept of a combined role makes sense? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

How does an IT professional break into web analytics? What types of companies hire web analysts? What are the starting salaries like in the United  States? (Answer to be provided in later comment/post – but actually, Eric Peterson answered this question in his latest research)

How do you see web analytics companies measuring distributed content such as widgets? Widget serving platforms (such as Clearspring) are the only ones who can harvest the "spread" data to show how a widget spreads from one site to another. Do you have Any Thoughts? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

How do you get your sales staff to buy into selling online marketing if they don't want (or can't) grasp the concepts? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

How can we become more involved with WAA? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

Can the WAA help convince the social networking sites, e.g. Facebook to help us track analytic data in our existing software tools? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

What are top priorities for 2008 segmented by industry? (Answer to be provided in subsequent comment/post)

Comments

[Avinash Kaushik]

Let me also add a voice of appreciation to you Richard for a job well done and to the Research Committee. This was a very valuable exercise and the feedback I have received is positive.

Everyone wants to get their hands on the powerpoint deck, that has got to be a good thing! : )

-Avinash.

[Matt Westover]

Great webcast and a great summary of the 2008 Survey.

One item that peaked my interest was that video measurement was high on the list top items to measure in 2008. How are firms measuring video content? What are the important metrics associated with videos? Percent completion? Percent that see the ad? What makes a video "successful"?

[Matt]

I know it was mentioned during the call, but where can we access the results of the survey?

Thanks!

[Bruce Barondes]

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