Google Analytics gathers valuable information about the traffic on your Ning Network and how visitors behave while browsing it. With Goals, a powerful feature of Google Analytics, you can track the number of new members that sign up on your Ning Network. The information you learn will help you understand and stimulate your network’s growth. Crucially, you’ll be able to see the impact of your promotional efforts, and find out what’s working and what’s not when it comes to attracting new members.
If you haven’t already set up Google Analytics for your social network, check out this tutorial. Once you’re set up with Google Analytics, you’re ready to add a Goal:
- Click on the “Admin” button on the right side of the Google Analytics page, then click on “Profiles” and lastly on “Goals”.
- Click on any of the “+Goal” links to see general information for the goal.
- Select the radio button next to “URL Destination” to expand your options.
- Enter the information exactly as it appears in the screenshot below. Enter the Goal Name as “Signup” and select the radio button next to “Active” beneath it. Select “URL Destination” for the Goal Type. Enter the Goal URL as “/newProfile”, and change the Match Type to “Regular Expression Match”. Lastly, enter a Goal Value of 0.0. Save your changes”. You don’t need to set up any funnels, which are a series of pages leading up to your goal URL.
- Run contests or promotions and then measure their effectiveness in attracting new members
- See what paths members take to sign up by checking “Reverse Goal Path”
- Monitor conversion rates — the ratio of new signups to total traffic
- Find out when the most members are joining, and hop online to welcome new members when signups are most frequent
- Track where your traffic is coming from- If you’ve integrated your Ning Network with Facebook or Twitter by creating an app for them.
Tracking sign-ups is just one way to take advantage of Google Analytics and Goals. Experiment with other tracking methods to analyze data relevant to your Ning Network.
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