The Art of Not Getting Overwhelmed by Research and Analytics

By Katie Eickhoff, Analyst Photo by The Shopping Sherpa

The wealth of tools and subject matter can make the practice of measurement overwhelming. What kind of data you’re searching, what media outlets focus on, how to present your data - all of these are questions that affect analytics and make (or cripple) its successful implementation.

There are certainly ways to simplify data selections to not make it so overwhelming. Infographics are a popular example of disseminating data - especially if you use them as an overview of the more detailed data that you’ll also be presenting. They’re also easy to post in tweets and blogs to make you’re data less overwhelming to an audience.

Another way to simplify analysis for yourself is to wholeheartedly jump into the arena of data collection - how it’s done by different parties, how to recognize its value, and how to present what you find. One such jump off point is the site SearchResearch. Besides giving you inside tips on how to do Google searches (and how they’re done on YOU and your company), the site is a showcase for the variety of ways information can be presented and the value of tailoring the presentation of your data to your audience. All of this is done with examples, and the author even turns his examples of research collections into scavenger hunts for readers to analyze what they see in the data as they research.

PR is rooted in research and analysis and tailoring a particular campaign to an audience makes those practices vital. The better you can understand the fundamentals of research, the less overwhelming the data will be and the more likely measurement and analytics will be arts that you will master.