For the most part my college career has been rather smooth sailing. Even so, my internship for the summer requires a grad program. Last year I wasn't thinking of applying to a grad program. Now, that this internship requires one I placed a lot of weight on getting in the MISM. Turns out the MISM requires the GMAT. A minimum of a 550. Well, I thought I could reach that after taking a prep course. I spent a lot of time outside of class studying for that exam. For those of you who really know me I have been preparing a lot for it, while also trying to balance classes.
Anyways, I finally took the exam this past Saturday. Sad to say, I did worse than the first time I took the exam. 500...So, 50 points shy of the minimum. Because of this, my plans of getting in BYU's MISM is sort of on-hold. I honestly don't feel like I can take it again. After all that preparation and no improvement...that's pretty bad.
Thus, I am once again filling out applications for other graduate programs. Hopefully it's not too late. One school I do have my eyes on is the U of U. So, if BYU doesn't want me, perhaps the rival school will. It would be interesting to see that. For now, I have a lot of essays to write and more applications to fill out. Hopefully one school will accept me. Curse the GMAT!!!
Monday, March 30, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Social Networks - Useful? I say Yes!
We had an interesting discussion in my Web Analytics class. Our discussion was on social networks and how they were/are useful. The following are some notes I took:
-Social Networks have grown into our culture in the past few years. There's Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs....etc. Yet, while many of these are used to connect with friends/family, they are rather valuable in learning about technology. News can spread rather quickly. It can also draw focus to particular sites. If you want good traffic you can utilize social medias to help draw attention to your site by using viral marketing. Also, if you want to direct traffic to specific sites you can.
-Marketing is big with social networks. By knowing how to market your site you can get traffic. Social media usage is vital. You need to understand what users are doing on the site, and, more importantly, where do they come from before they came to your site. If you know where they come from you can market to them.
-There are some drawbacks with social networks. For example, Twitter has open channels that are fragile and are at risk of overloads. Even so, you can overcome them by filetering (based on social profiles).
-Social Networks have grown into our culture in the past few years. There's Myspace, Facebook, Twitter, Blogs....etc. Yet, while many of these are used to connect with friends/family, they are rather valuable in learning about technology. News can spread rather quickly. It can also draw focus to particular sites. If you want good traffic you can utilize social medias to help draw attention to your site by using viral marketing. Also, if you want to direct traffic to specific sites you can.
-Marketing is big with social networks. By knowing how to market your site you can get traffic. Social media usage is vital. You need to understand what users are doing on the site, and, more importantly, where do they come from before they came to your site. If you know where they come from you can market to them.
-There are some drawbacks with social networks. For example, Twitter has open channels that are fragile and are at risk of overloads. Even so, you can overcome them by filetering (based on social profiles).
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Userfly
Yesterday we had an interesting discussion in Web Analytics. Dr. Liddle introduced to us Userfly (http://userfly.com/). It's an interesting concept as it sort of takes a different direction in web analytics. What makes this unique is that instead of gathering data for certain "clicks" or actions a user does (i.e. like how Google Analytics or SiteCatalyst does), it actually records a user's acutal session. I think this could be very useful since you can actually "see" what a user does on your site.
While this sounds amazing in itself, there are a few drawbacks. For one, it would take forever to watch all the sessions that hit your site. Also, there currently is no way to filter the vidoes effectively. So, while you may have tons of "hits" you may have only a few videos that are actually worth watching. Another drawback is that even if you do get some good videos, it may take some time until you see trends of some sort.
As with all new technology, there are some flaws. However, I believe there is a lot of potential in Userfly. This could be the next big thing in Web Analytics as it is definetely more visual that other analytic tools.
While this sounds amazing in itself, there are a few drawbacks. For one, it would take forever to watch all the sessions that hit your site. Also, there currently is no way to filter the vidoes effectively. So, while you may have tons of "hits" you may have only a few videos that are actually worth watching. Another drawback is that even if you do get some good videos, it may take some time until you see trends of some sort.
As with all new technology, there are some flaws. However, I believe there is a lot of potential in Userfly. This could be the next big thing in Web Analytics as it is definetely more visual that other analytic tools.
Sunday, March 1, 2009
Thoughts on OWAC Finals
So, this past Friday I went to the OWAC finals. I was interested to see why the finalists were the finalists. What was interesting to see was I wanted to know why they chose the finalists since I never received any feedback on my own project.
The first group to go was .Convert. They were very professional in the way they presented and they did a really good job in their analysis. Yet, one thing that bothered me was that the ideas they had were really similar to what we had done. Sure their slides were way nicer, but the contect overall was similar. Our group did an analysis on the customer segments (loyal customers contributing to the most profits), and they did as well. Some of their recommendations were similar to ours as well.
At any rate, I was very disappointed in the second presentation. Not to criticize them (although they are from the "U" - rival school), but, they were terrible. They basically read from their slides, and all their information was from 27 days worth of data. Now, I have no idea how you could base recommendations or analyze how a company is doing with 27 days worth of data. Even so, it was sad to see them make it to the finals and have a really unimpressive presentation. It was not at all worth 4th place.
Yet, not to bash on the "U" too much, the other team representing them did a really good job. The last BYU team wasn't as crisp (presentation wise), but they too did a good job. But, they all weren't as great as .Convert. In my opinion they were solid preformers when presenting and they did a really good job on the analysis.
Well, even though my partner and I didn't make it to the finals (or even prelims), I was at least glad that our analysis wasn't too far off from what the finalists came up with. I guess I should try again if the opportunity arises. Either way, that's what I thought about the finals.
The first group to go was .Convert. They were very professional in the way they presented and they did a really good job in their analysis. Yet, one thing that bothered me was that the ideas they had were really similar to what we had done. Sure their slides were way nicer, but the contect overall was similar. Our group did an analysis on the customer segments (loyal customers contributing to the most profits), and they did as well. Some of their recommendations were similar to ours as well.
At any rate, I was very disappointed in the second presentation. Not to criticize them (although they are from the "U" - rival school), but, they were terrible. They basically read from their slides, and all their information was from 27 days worth of data. Now, I have no idea how you could base recommendations or analyze how a company is doing with 27 days worth of data. Even so, it was sad to see them make it to the finals and have a really unimpressive presentation. It was not at all worth 4th place.
Yet, not to bash on the "U" too much, the other team representing them did a really good job. The last BYU team wasn't as crisp (presentation wise), but they too did a good job. But, they all weren't as great as .Convert. In my opinion they were solid preformers when presenting and they did a really good job on the analysis.
Well, even though my partner and I didn't make it to the finals (or even prelims), I was at least glad that our analysis wasn't too far off from what the finalists came up with. I guess I should try again if the opportunity arises. Either way, that's what I thought about the finals.
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