Key findings From Action Research Project

Action Research Project

Project conducted to investigate and evaluate the effectiveness of the online strategies of organisations in the cultural sector. Involved surveys and data collection from:

Useful findings: Analytics The majority of organisations had not taken the following basic steps when setting up their analytics accounts. Health check guidelines Successfully segmented their internal traffic Set up filters to remove case-sensitivity on URLs Integrated regimented campaign tagging in their and other online marketing activities Set up effective methods of tracking views and downloads of non- HTML pages, such as PDFs. Understanding the way in which Google Analytics calculates time on site and taking this into account in reporting practices.

Useful findings: Analytics

Useful findings: social media Social media tended to be used to a different extent by organisatons Report highlighted that social media tended to have low referral rates “In fact, mobile traffic is growing considerably faster than social media traffic sources combined, yet few organisations had dedicated mobile versions of their websites. As expected, sites with a greater event-focus - those in the performing arts - drew the highest proportions of mobile traffic.”

Useful findings: social media The main points highlighted: Set objectives for social media that relate to broader objectives within your organisation Align each high level objective with a set of tangible outcomes that you hope to see happen as a result of social media engagement Select metrics for social media which relate to these outcomes Before you start a campaign or any new activity, ensure that you have taken a benchmark of the current position, in order to assess the impact of changes.

Attention History of attention TV industry struggled to engage with two way communication TV is now having to compete for attention in the living room Many people have two screens in attention is divided

How TV is changing

Ensures viewers whole attention is dedicated to the programme Increases user engagement Vast amounts of money are being invested to develop and run these websites Website is only functional for an hour when show is live

Further trends? Nintendo possibly adopting similar strategy?

Failing forwards Design Museum used artists to participate in online Q&A session when their exhibitions were on display Artists had low IT skills, but staff assisted them with twitter and uploading images Enhanced news items on the website and provided interesting content users would read