Sterne Measures, July 29, 2008

Welcome to Sterne Measures
July 29, 2008

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In This Issue:

1. Tough Times Call for Tough Measures
2. New WAA Board of Directors Member
3. Nokia Wants You
4. Does This Introduction Make My Face Look Red?
5. Where in the World is Jim Sterne?
6. Brought to You By

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1. Tough Times Call for Tough Measures
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Yes, that’s the theme for the Fall version of the
eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Washington
D.C. October 21-23 (or 20-25 if you count workshops).

I don’t have to tell you that times are tough, but I
can tell you that there are some very smart people with
some very useful experience who can give you some very
worthwhile clues about how to get more oomph out of
your marketing budget. And they all meet in Alexandria, VA
October 20-23 at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit

The Agenda will be up at

http://www.emetrics.org/2008/washingtondc/

in about a week. Stay tuned….

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2. New WAA Board of Directors Member
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Who is it? I don’t know yet – the voting didn’t start
until July 28th and isn’t over until August 8. Who am
I going to vote for? Man, this is a tough one. There are
six *really* qualified people on the ballot. Some of them
are good friends, some of them are well known, all of
them know everything there is to know about web
analytics and all of them – by order of our By-Laws -
come from the vendor community.

So – if you are a WAA member, please look over this
august list and vote! http://tinyurl.com/6qnmr2
If you are not a member of the WAA – why not???

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3. Nokia Wants You
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I don’t usually put job postings in Sterne Measures,
but Shubhra Srivastava has been a speaker at the
eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit and a hugely
valuable member of the WAA Board of Directors. I owe
her and figure this is one small way I might try to
start paying her back.

Shubhra spent many years as a Senior Analytics
Consultant at Intercontinental Hotels and is now
growing her team at Nokia. She needs a Web Analyst/
Business Intelligence Analyst in White Plains, NY
and the details are here:

http://www.webanalyticsassociation.org/en/jobs/v/1079

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4. Does This Introduction Make My Face Look Red?
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Eric Peterson hit me with an email interview and then
knocked me over with his introduction.

http://tinyurl.com/6rjetb

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5. Where in the World is Jim Sterne?
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I’m still in Santa Barbara and am looking forward to
my first home-made meal in about two months. The kitchen
is almost done! But then…

Monday, August 18 I’ll join the wizards of web analytics
at X-Change at the Ritz in San Francisco

http://semphonic.com/conf/index.asp

The next day, I’ll be on a panel with Richard Zwicky,
Matthew Bailey, Avinash Kaushik and Marshall Sponder.

http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/sanjose/

In September I make United Airlines reconsider closing
those Red Carpet Clubs by flying to Johannesburg,
Baton Rouge, Washington D.C., Stockholm and London
and making it home in between to help my mother
celebrate the 51st anniversary of her 29th birthday.

And then there’s October, with the next big eMetrics
Marketing Optimization Summit in Alexandra, VA. It
will be remarkable.

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5. Brought to You by Jim Sterne at Target Marketing:
====================

Practical strategy
for getting the most
from your Web site

Fifteen years of online experience: http://www.targeting.com
Five books on online marketing: http://www.targeting.com/books.html
One industry conference series: http://www.emetrics.org
One industry association: http://www.WebAnalyticsAssociation.org

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———————————————————-
Jim Sterne Target Marketing of Santa Barbara
jsterne@targeting.com http://www.targeting.com
Author, Speaker, Consultant +1 805-965-3184
Blog: http://emetrics.wordpress.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/jimsterne
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Copyright 1994-2008 Target Marketing of Santa Barbara
211 East Victoria, Suite E
Santa Barbara, CA 93101
805-965-3184

Europe and the Web Analytics Association

This is my response to a long thread over on Eric Peterson’s blog on Europe and the WAA.

Hey Eric –

Thanks for highlighting on your blog an important issue that the WAA Board has been chewing on for quite some time.

The reason that ** nobody ** from the Board has responded is because the WAA is an organization. We represent others and need to evaluate how they feel. We must speak for many and that takes time.

Thanks also for giving me a clear understanding of how corporate-speak is born.

You all know corporate-speak when you see it. Platitudes and fuzzy mumblings full of mild statements and moderate views that does its best to offend no one. I tried to write this on the plane last night and deleted three versions that were just awful.

So I am go on record here as Jim Sterne and NOT as the Chairman of the WAA. The Chairman speaks for the organization and I do not know what the organization is thinking yet – I’ll have to get back to you on that. So this is just me – on my blog instead of on the WAA blog.

This issue was brought into high relief recently at a very enjoyable evening with Wandering David Rhee and René Dechamps Otamendi at the eMetrics Marketing Optimization Summit in Munich and I told them most of this ( although I had to take off my WAA lapel pin before saying this stuff!).

First and foremost – YES – the WAA needs to be more valuable to ALL of members and that means localization. Local events, translated content on the website, addressing local issues – all of that is critical.

What’s personally frustrating is that people love to complain to me that the WAA Board has some sort of cabalistic control over the world and is deciding this and not doing that and that the WAA is this and isn’t that – but without the recognition that the WAA is a member-driven organization (thank you Stephane). Do WE want pages in German and Spanish? Great! Start writing! Do WE want an EU-focused research study on privacy and advocacy? Great! Join those committees and volunteer to get it organized!

But when WE want something to happen, understand that the Board is made up of volunteers who are all highly engaged in their own businesses and are not full time employees. This stuff takes time.

Here’s the main disconnect between the WAA and the community of its members – the most vocal people are entrepreneurs. They are passionate. They are agile. They are used to simply making things happen in this Web 2.0 world. The WAA as an organization is an organization. It sucks that I can’t just bend everybody to my will. It sucks that I can’t be Jean-Luc Picard say “Make it so!” and “Engage!” Instead, we are an collection of volunteers who must work on a basis of consensus. The Board is financially and legal responsible for not screwing up. So we have to move slowly and carefully. Arrrrgh!

So YES – the WAA needs to be more valuable to ALL of members and that means localization. YES, events, marketing, and web content translation and more should all be local and standards and education might be more global. But how?

Europe is very different from North America. Germany is very different from France and Italy and Belgium and Switzerland. Localization is critical. But how?

Separate but equal?
Chapters?
Sister Organizations?
Simply expand the organization we currently have in place?

And who decides how much to charge Indian members and how do you determine if they really are from India?

I want the Board to take the time to do some research on how others have solved this problem so they (WE!) don’t screw it up.

It’ll take time.
That sucks.
That’s life.