Stephanie Hatch Leishman, Social Media and Email Marketing Specialist at MIT, is one of the 12 higher ed professionals who presented at the 2014 Higher Ed Analytics Conference.
She is MIT’s central resource for social media and email marketing.
In this 3-question interview, Stephanie tells us about her top analytics challenge at work, favorite GA feature and chimes in on the next big thing for analytics in colleges and universities.
1) How do you deal with the biggest challenge you face in your day-to-day work on digital analytics?
Lack of time is my challenge, and it is for many at MIT.
I combat this challenge by automating what can be automated, and saving hands-on time for evaluation. For example, adjusting settings in order to receive a regular email from Google Analytics. Taking the extra time to set up a measurement and reporting process allows me to spend more time on evaluation, which can’t be automated.
2) Google Analytics is used by a large majority in higher ed. What is your favorite GA feature, report, function or segment and how do you use it at your school?
I like to see what pages receive the most referrals, especially from social.
We can feature them as top trending articles, which gathers a lot of interest from our audience. See MIT’s “Best of 2012” list.
3) What do you think will be the “next big thing” for higher ed analytics in 2014?
Integration.
While this isn’t the “next big thing” in the for-profit world, it’s something I believe we’re still aiming for in higher ed. In 2014, I see more universities focusing on analytics throughout all their communications, including email, social, web, print, etc. For many institutions, content creation still may not be fully integrated, and still in silos, so our analytics follow suit.
