Akin Arikan wrote a pretty nice article to ask why in earth that  “A Good Web Analyst Is Hard To Find” His answer is

Namely, at most organizations web analysts are faced with marketers / business colleagues who ask nothing more of them than endless amounts of reports on “How many visitors did we have to this page or that page or this link or that link …”

Yet, good web analytics is not about analytics. It is about taking action on analytics. But, no action was ever taken on mundane reports such as the above that just count eye balls.

I think he is right about good web analyst is the one who can take actions on analytics not the one who only knows how to build certain reports. However I think it is unfair to just blame our fellow marketing / business people to ask nothing more than endless amounts of reports. The real problem is often we are content with these reports and don’t go above and beyond to provide really actionable insights and recommendations. If you have actionable insights, who is going to ask for useless reports? So next time when you have a performance review with your boss, instead of blaming your marketing / business colleague, do a little bit reflection on how you can change yourself. It’s always my belief that it’s hard to change other people, but it is easier to change myself.

Jason Burby on the other hand, provided more advices on Becoming an Experienced, Invaluable Web Analyst He said you need hands-on experience to become an experienced web analyst (what a advice!). This is almost like I am telling you, you need a million dollars to become a millionaire! All kidding aside, he actually gave three pieces of advices which are practical:

First, you can start at a small company which doesn’t do much with web analytics and make a portion of your role with the company. Or working in an analytics position in an interactive agency with a strong Web analytics team (read as ZaaZ is hiring! ) Finally go to find somebody who are experienced that can mentor you.

I wholeheartedly agree with Jason on the mentoring piece and I am looking for one (If you want to become my mentor, let me know ) I also think to work in an agency might be a good starting point. Make sure you check out ZaaZ’s job information. However I am not sure his first advice. If you are currently working in a big company, the best way for you to switch to web analytics (assuming you are not a sales person and have some sorts of analytics experience in marketing) is probably to find your way through internal transition instead of joining a small company.

My problem with small company is they either don’t know the value of web analytics or their expectation is way too high. In both cases, they are not likely to hire an inexperienced web analyst. Of course, unless your uncle owns the small company. On the other hand, big companies understand the key to the success of web analytics is not the tool, but the people. Therefore they are willing to hire people who are not tool specialist, but business type of person understanding the business and identify the best opportunities for improvement through analysis. Myself is a good testimony to this. Before my current role, I have zero experience in the web analytics world, not even in the broad online marketing. What my boss ended up hiring me because he feels is better off to hire me and let me learn the tools, than to hire somebody who knows the tool well, but has to learn the business and the Dell way

That’s all I am thinking today. Now it’s your turn. What interesting thoughts you have on being a super web analyst? Where did you start? What are you working on?

Until next time…