What is Bitcoin? ...and is it safe?

After two years I’ve decided to post an update on my blog to answer two questions that friends and colleagues have been asking in the past months. The questions are ‘Do you know about Bitcoin?’ and ‘How safe is Bitcoin?’

The answer to the first question is Yes, I do know about Bitcoin, how much I know? is another question, but let’s start with the basics! Bitcoin is a virtual currency, which means that no physical money is used in the transactions, and it has three main characteristics:

1. It uses concepts of cryptography to make transactions and to control the amount of bitcoins created.  For this reason that Bitcoin can be defined as a crypto-currency
2. It’s based on a peer-to-peer payment without intermediaries like financial institutions to establish rates, and
3. It’s decentralised, which means that nobody controls it or has authority over it.  This is the main difference compared to other currencies, where banks and governments control the production of the currency as well as the transactions

The process to create bitcoins and make transactions is a little technical and there are already great articles, videos and websites that explain this process in detail. Hence, if you are really interested in understanding how the Bitcoin protocol works I recommend the following sources:

• Bitcoin.org
• Paper by Satoshi Nakamoto (creator of Bitcoin)
• And my favourite, an Infographic created by Joshua J. Romero, Brandon Palacio and Karls S. Inc., explaining how a Bitcoin transaction works (see image below)

Bitcoin is not the only crypto-currency on the market, but it is probably the most common one used these days, even being adopted by well known retail businesses (e.g Victoria's secret, Target, and eBay) as well as casinos (e.g. Golden Gate and D casino in Las Vegas).

The special characteristics of Bitcoin make it attractive to many people and businesses, including terrorists, fraudsters and money launderers.  The fact that terrorists have quickly adopted Bitcoin, and that Bitcoin has enabled alternative ways to launder money raise significant concerns about an increase of illicit activities.  Hence, Banks, Government Regulators and Law Enforcement don’t see any benefits, but troubles in crypto-currencies like Bitcoin.

Eventually, Law Enforcement and Governments will find ways to apply regulations to digital currencies, which is not a bad thing and will help to change the view of Bitcoin as a currency of the black market.  I consider that regulations are key to the success of any virtual currency as far as it doesn’t limit the innovation.

In relation to security, I think Bitcoin as a protocol is well designed, but it’s not 100% safe (most systems and protocols aren’t). Bitcoin security could be in danger if cyber-criminals take advantage of the 10 minutes delay that exist between each transactions to commit fraudulent activity or make use of quantum computers to deduce private keys. However, for this last threat the protocol could be modified and it will take some time until actual quantum computers are used to exploit the vulnerabilities of Bitcoin.

Most of the times, the security problems with Bitcoin transactions don’t lie in the protocol itself, but in the techniques to store the private key required to send and receive bitcoins. The application used to store the private keys is called wallet, and there are different types of wallets available, where offline wallets are perhaps more secure than online wallets.

I like to think about the security of Bitcoin wallets as normal cash wallets, where you, as individual, are responsible for the security of your wallet. With wallet applications you take similar risks to wehn you go out with cash in your wallet.  For example;

• When you have cash with you, it’s your responsibility to take care of it. No bank will reimburse for cash that was stolen; different story if it is a credit or debit card.  In the case of Bitcoin, if someone get’s to know your private key and steals your bitcoins, nobody will cover your loss.
• If thieves don't have access to your wallet they can't steal it. Similarly, if your wallet can't be accessed or it's accessed but it's protected they won't be able to steal your money.
• Losing your wallet with cash means losing your money.  With Bitcoin if you have lost your wallet and it’s secured nobody will be able to spend the bitcoins in it unless they get the private key from you.

Many reported Bitcoin security incidents are associated with wallet’s security breaches.  Therefore, everybody should spend some time deciding which type of wallet to use, which are the advantages, disadvantages and risks of each option before using Bitcoin.

Personally, I consider Bitcoin a great innovation that enables many possibilities for all countries and most of them haven’t been discovered yet. However, likewise with the Internet back in mid-90s, not all people believed in the success of that global computer network that enabled a new form of interaction between individuals and businesses. It is possible that Bitcoin doesn't succeed in a long term, but the concept of cryto-currencies will do.

Bitcoin is in early stages and the price of each bitcoin will continue fluctuating drastically in the next months. Thus, my final advice for anybody who thinks of using Bitcoin is to spend time understanding the high risk that it involves and stop thinking about saving bitcoins as an opportunity to become rich in a short time.

Creating a Data Driven Culture - My thoughts

Leveraging analytics to improve internal processes in an organization and bottom line outcomes is challenging.  The challenge is bigger in profitable companies that have experienced success using gut intuition to take strategic decisions.  Moreover, changes in processes and attitude are required to create a data driven culture, but usually humans are predisposed to change, which makes it more difficult to leverage analytics. However, this challenge could be overcome by following a series of steps and proceeding cautiously to avoid any hazards that affect the success of the process.  The steps, pitfalls and challenges to entrench analytics into an organization are described in this document.

Getting the attention from C-level executives is the first step to entrench analytics. There are two options to get their attention.  The first option is using the data to expose a problem that affects directly the return of investment (ROI) of the business, and the second to show how ROI can be maximized by using analytics.  Although the first option can get the desired attention, it can turn out negatively for the web analytics manager when arguing that the problem could be avoided if the information was provided in time. On the other hand, the second option places analytics as a great opportunity to increase profits and success.

Presenting an initial plan and getting approval for it is the second step. A meeting with the C-level executives is a good tactic for this because it will allow the analytics manager to convince the decision makers of using analytics.  The meeting should outline the benefits of web analytics to get actionable insights and to optimize ROI. Furthermore it should present the overall process that needs to be implemented to move from a ‘gut instinct’ culture to a data driven culture. This meeting is of high importance because the senior executives‘ approval, support and level of engagement in implementing analytics rely on it.

The main challenge in this step is convincing the entire audience of web analytics as a must-have to increase profit and competitive advantage.  Thus, the analytics manager should identify who are the detractors and believers of creating a data driven culture.  Probably, the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) who asked the analytics manager to champion the idea of leveraging web analytics in the organization is the best individual willing to help in the process, and she could be the first person to be empowered.  However, approaching the people who are not totally convinced of entrenching analytics into the organization is also essential.  These individuals need to be persuaded; otherwise they could put the process at risk.

Regrouping with each one of the C-level executives to define business objectives and develop key performance indicators (KPIs) is the next step.  The development of KPIs, goals and metrics to measure the KPIs requires the introduction of accountability. Without accountability, web analytics is not taken seriously because nobody feels responsible for the metrics and targets defined, but as we all know introducting accountability is a delicate job.

In addition, it is essential to clarify any doubt, and discuss any issues the heads of the departments can have in relation to the process.  Before communicating to the rest of the company about the new changes, the C-level executives need to feel confident to support and communicate the analytics project to their teams.

Getting the C-level executives and members of their teams engaged is the fourth step.  The analytics manager has already convinced the senior executives to go ahead with the project and has received approval from them.  The required stakeholders have been informed about the new changes, KPIs and metrics.  However, if motivation and incentives are not provided, entrenching analytics into the organization will not happen.

Providing training is one of the best ways to motivate and engage involved stakeholders.  The stakeholders will not see value in the analytics tool until they learn how to use the provided data to get insights and drive bottom line outcomes that meet their business objectives.

The challenge of training is to ensure that everyone understands the content and will not forget what was learnt during the first session.  However, commonly people forget what was taught in a training session and as consequence do not use analytics to make strategic decisions. In order to mitigate this challenge, the analytics manager should not assume that after a training session, the stakeholders would become experts in web analytics. The first training session should teach people the basics of using the data to improve the website and KPIs performance. After that, the analytics manager should continue educating the stakeholders to create a data driven culture.

In addition, the IT department should receive training on tagging and procedures to update analytics code when making changes on the website, because is IT who implements the tagging in the website. Therefore, IT must be aware of the impact that a wrong tagging can cause to the outcomes and should follow procedures defined by the analytics manager when changes are required.

Another way to engage the stakeholders is providing incentives such as bonuses, contests or sharing success when targets are met.  Instead of making emphasis on low performance and mistakes, the analytics manager should focus on highlighting good results. This also contributes to give a positive reaction to accountability. Stakeholders will try to perform better because they know their efforts are recognized and shared; they are transformed in heroes.  In addition, Avinash Kaushik affirms in his book that once you have a hero, other stakeholders will get jealous and will want to turn into heroes as well, which will help with the process of leveraging web analytics.

Introducing experimentation and tests is the last step of the process to leverage web analytics. Especially in an organization where the decisions are made based on the opinions of the Chief Executive Officer (CEO).  It is not anymore the analytics manager, designer or CMO’s opinion against the HiPPO, but the customer’s opinion that will define the winner. The customer’s opinion is the most important one because it has a direct impact for improving outcomes. Once the organization sees the benefits of implementing customer’s preferences, experimentation and testing will become part of the organization’s culture.

Following the steps described above will help to entrench analytics into the organization.  However, there are two elements that need to be present in the entire process of leveraging web analytics. These elements are enthusiasm and patience. The analytics manager needs to bear in mind that creating a data driven culture does not occur from one day to the other. There are periods where the entire organization seems to be engaged and excited about analytics, but there are also periods where some stakeholders lose focus and motivation. Excitement and positivism are contagious, but negativism and apathy are even more. Therefore, the analytics manager must be prepared for this type of situations, and keep enthusiasm in every activity performed in order to reduce the chance of facing these situations.

NOTE: This post is a modification of the original project submitted in the module WA 4 Creating and Managing the Analytical Business Culture from the Award of Achievement in Web Analytics. The original text contains proper References. 

Flow Visualization in Google Analytics

Google has announced a new feature in Google Analytics (GA) that helps site owners visualize in a dynamic chart how visitors navigate through the site. The flow visualization feature has been implemented under the visitors and goals sections. This is an example of the flow visualization chart and its main components:

The nodes can represent two things:

1. Normally the first column is a dimension that you chose to filter the traffic analysed. By default this value is source, but you could select medium, custom variables, city, country, etc.

2. After the first column, the nodes represent single pages or collections of pages that the users have visited in your site. 

The connections represent the paths users have followed and the size gives you an idea of the volume of traffic through those paths at a glance.

Visits Flow

The visitors flow report shows a chart representing visitors’ paths through the site. If you have used the navigation summary feature in GA and have felt frustrated trying to analyse visitor behaviour across the pages, the new flow visualization is a great solution, since it makes visitor flow patterns visible.

Not only the graphical representation of the flow visualization is quite different to the navigation summary, but it’s also interactive. You can highlight different pathways to see information of particular sections without loosing visualization of the entire picture.  

One of the best things from the flow visualization chart is that it shows you percentages of the traffic that travels from one page to another as it was shown in the navigation summary, but in addition it gives you the information of the actual figures. Therefore, you can see number of visits that dropped off  (exit the site) and the ones that continue to a different section of the site.

Goal Flow

From the two flow charts available, the goal flow is my favorite. How many times you tried to get better insights and segment traffic within the funnel visualization report but it wasn’t possible? With the goal flow chart you will be able to apply advanced segments (default and custom segments), dimensions and see details about  the incoming traffic and outgoing traffic.

Stay tuned for my second post on this new feature, detailing some insights you can get by using the flow visualization charts.

Search Engine Optimization in Google Analytics - Part 2

In my previous post I showed you how to set up ‘Web Master Tools data sharing’ in your Google Analytics account, in this post I give you more information about the three reports available under the Search Engine Optimization section.

Queries:  From the three reports provided we find this one the most useful. Within this report you can see metrics related to the web search queries that returned your page in the Google Search results.  The metrics include impressions, clicks, average position and CTR for the top 1,000 daily queries.  

The following are some ideas that might help you to have a better sense of how your site is performing in Google Search:

• The Queries report is very useful to help determining improvement of search queries after running a SEO audit and applying changes in your site, look at changes in average position and CTR.  
• As in any of the other reports in Google Analytics, you can compare different periods, i.e current month and last month and look at the performance of the search queries you are more interested in.  

• Compare impression and CTR to get ideas of how you could improve the content of your landing pages making them more relevant based on the search queries.
• Apply secondary dimensions to filter data for particular search queries.  For example, you could be interested to analyse search queries by country and by search properties (i.e image, Mobile smartphones, Mobile, Video or Web).

Landing Pages: Similar to the Queries report you are able to see the top landing pages by impressions, clicks, average position and CTR.  You can find that some of the pages don’t get a good CTR because the meta tags such as description, title and keywords are not configured or are not used effectively. 

Geographical Summary: Under this report we can see impressions, clicks and CTR by country and by Google search property.  

My advise is that you don’t use these reports trying to match information from Google Analytics with Web Master tools because they may differ.  The way how Webmaster Tools processes the data is different to Google Analytics; but it’s possible to find some similar trends in the number of clicks and visits. Also I guess they will differ more now that Google will no longer report the query terms the user searched on to reach your site when they are logged in with their google account.

 

Search Engine Optimization Reports in Google Analytics

A few months ago Google launched a pilot program to include data from Webmaster Tools in Analytics reports. Early last week the set of reports included in the program was released publicly. In case you haven’t noticed there’s a new set of reports called Search Engine Optimization under the Traffic Sources section in Google Analytics. You will need to set up Webmaster Tools data sharing to see the reports.  Enabling Webmaster tools data within Analytics is a simple process, and here are the steps you will have to follow.

1. Navigate to Traffic Sources > Search Engine Optimization

2. Click on any of the three reports available ‘Queries’, ‘Landing Pages’ or ‘Geographical Summary’.

If you haven’t set up webmaster tools data sharing previously you will see the following message.

3. Click on the button ‘Set up Webmaster Tools data sharing’, which will redirect you to the Web Property Settings tab.

4. Click ‘Edit’ under the Webmaster Tools Settings section

5. Select the site you want to associate to that particular web property id (UA-XXXXXX-Y) in your Google Analytics account and click save.

6. Once again you will be redirected to the Web Property Settings tab in Google Analytics where you can see the profiles selected and save the changes by clicking ‘Apply’.
Next thing to do is to enjoy your SEO reports in Google Analytics.

Social Engagement in Google Analytics

Google recently announced the introduction of Social Engagement reports in Google Analytics. The new reports allow you to see Google +1 metrics along with other types of social sharing actions that are occurring on your website.

Google +1 social engagement interactions are automatically tracked by default in Google Analytics. However, as you might know most websites use social button actions from other suppliers such as Twitter, Facebook, Delicious and LinkedIn. That’s why Google has provided a social plugin that allows us to track these additional social interactions.

By tracking social interactions in Google Analytics and using the Social Engagement reports you can gain more insights into your visitors’ behaviour.

The Social Engagement reports enable you to:
1. Compare visitor engagement metrics such as visits per page, time on site and bounce rate between your socially engage visitors and your regular (not socially engaged) website visitors.

2. Analyse goal conversion rate and percentage of e-commerce transactions generated by socially engaged visits.

3. Determine which social sources are preferred by your visitors. For example, most of your users might share your content via Twitter, rather than Facebook.

4. Compare which actions are the most common for a particular source. For example, users that are social engaged using Facebook; do they use the ‘like’ or ‘send’ option more often.

5. Calculate the percentage of socially engaged visits that reached the site through a social media link and then converted.  

6. Identify which content on your site is the most shared using the social actions and in which part (page) of your website these actions took place.

Most of you have been using event tracking to track social engagement interactions such as ‘like’, ’tweet’ and ’send’, among others. The method to track social interactions has a similar syntax to event tracking. The following is an example of the event method and how it should be changed using the track social method.

Before (using Event Tracking):


_gaq.push(['_trackEvent', 'facebook', 'like',document.location.href]);

After (using Social Interaction Tracking):

_gaq.push(['_trackSocial', 'facebook', 'like', document.location.href]);


This tracking should occur once the social interaction is completed. It is important to differentiate between social engagement actions and clicks on links that drive people to your social media sites. A link to your Twitter profile from your website should continue being measured as an outbound link while a piece of your content being Tweeted should be tracked as a social engagement action.

Google announced a new version of  Google Analytics the past 17 of March during the Google Analytics User Conference in San Francisco. This announcement concerns to all Google Analytics users and competitors.  The new version has been launched to provide more functionality, and improve the experience of people with the interface based on the feedback received from GA users around the world. This version not only offers more flexibility, simplicity, and speed, but also a better administration of accounts and profiles.

The next is a set of key features that you will see in the new Version:

1. Simplicity and Speed
• Quicker Navigation
• Easier and more intuitive interaction with elements
• Faster interface.
2. Flexibility/Usability
• Different type of custom reports
• Flat Table -> All data in a single table, analysing 1 to 2 dimension and many metrics at once.
• Explorer -> Current type of custom report in Ga where data is organized hierarchically based on the dimensions selected. Therefore, you have drill down in each dimension to see data
• Application of Custom Report Filters.  This gives us the opportunity to limit our report to a subset of data in a context.
• Term Cloud report for Referrals and Keywords data.
• Easier creation and application of Advanced Segments
• Possibility to add events as Goals.
3. Account Management
• Better search options to find profiles and accounts.
• Definition of assets under account settings management 

Based on the features listed above, I will keep posting articles with more detailed information.