Measurement Plan for Higher Learning

Choose a college or university and in a blog post, follow the steps in KDP's reading to setup a measurement plan. Explain any choices or recommendations you've made.

I'll use Lansing Community College for this blog post simply because using Lawrence Technological University would have been too expected. 

Step 1: Identify and Prioritize Your Audiences

The audience for this school would be the students, both new and old, staff, faculty, local communities, other schools, government and more. I would prioritize the students above all else since that is the 'consumer' so to speak.  Faculty and staff are also important as they will be the ones educating students and maintaining the overall functioning of the university. Government should also be prioritized high as they are relied upon for grants, loans, and other funding. LCC has education alliances with many other Michigan colleges/universities so it is also important to keep that in mind. A good relationship should be maintained with rest of the audience though the focus should always be directed at and around the students.
 
Step 2: Define Your Objectives and Get Everyone on the Same Page

LCC's main objective is to prepare students for success in their chosen field. This may mean the proper education and training to fulfill a specific job or offering some students the chance to acquire and transfer credits at a lower price than a larger school. Graduation rate and the rate of employment of further education are possible measures for this.

Step 3: Establish a Benchmark

A benchmark can be created with previous information as well as those from other schools. These will allow the organization to gauge whether it has improved as well as how it measures with other schools. Because the school is smaller it may need to compare its results to specific career fields or just to those of other community colleges.

Step 4: Pick a Measurement Tool and Collect Data

Measurements can be conducted with that is being said about the organization by traditional media or over social media sites. Web analytical tools can be done to this. Graduation rates are easily figured out from existing information within the organization. Surveys can also be used to get the opinions of students, communities, employers, and other audiences.  


Step 5: Analyze the Data, Glean Insight, Make Changes, and Measure Again

Once the data is gathered it can be transformed into relevant information. This information can then be used by the college to determine what needs to be altered to better steer the school towards its goal. If something is doing poorly then a deeper examination can uncover what is causing the issue. For example a particular department could be lowering the overall graduation rate so that department should be changed in some way and then measured again to see if the changes created the desired impact.

Distance Learning Case Study Discussion

Based on the case study in the reading, in a blog post, explain how you would recommend Lawrence Technological University measure the effectiveness of their online learning programs?  

One way that I think a school like LTU can measure the effectiveness of its online learning programs is by measuring the graduation and employment percentage of graduates within a set amount of time. There needs to be some benchmark to compare this to so I would also measure the same things for more traditional schooling options as well as comparing the information to other schools. Surveys can also be used to gauge how the student's educational experience was. I would also like to survey businesses that have hired in graduates from both a long-distance and traditional education and see how their satisfaction with each of the groups are. Internships are a particularly good candidate for measuring the last part about employer satisfaction.

Back up your recommendations.

The reasons I would measure these things is because I believe they give an overall picture of whether or not the program is functioning effectively. Graduation rates are always important to measure and can help expose any flaws in the system. Employment rates are equally, if not more important because it measures whether the education the school is providing is satisfying industry requirements. Surveying employers can also get an idea on this. Student surveys on the other hand are a narrower scope which can again help to find problems to improve upon, or highlight something the school is doing particularly well.

Who are their audiences and what can a good and bad relationship with each do to LTU?  

 LTU has a large potential audience. Of course there is the students and candidate students which the university relies upon for its existence. However the school must also keep in mind the public, employers and even the government. This is because each will have some sort of requirement or expectation from the school. Employers expect graduates to be properly educated in their respective field and capable of doing a job well done. Though the university is private it still has to adhere to certain regulations to receive public subsides like tax exemption and student loans/grants. A poor relationship with any of these could mean a school loses credibility, funding, students, etc. which could spell disaster.   

What types of communications does LTU use?  In your personal experience, are the communications effective?  Why or why not?

I can't say I know what all the types of communications LTU uses but they seem to have created visibility across at least the state of Michigan. I learned about the school while attending community college and found they had an academic alliance program going with that school. There has been some confusion with some programs however and one school saying one thing and the other something else. This is clear problem in communication that should be rectified. Overall though I'd say the school has pretty effective communication.

Content Analysis for Nonprofits

For your chosen non-profit, perform a content analysis. Share your findings.

I will again use ITEC as the nonprofit for this blog post which as I explain in my last blog post is an organization local to the Lansing area that aims to increase STEM skills in children and adults. Due to the size of the organization there isn't a very large amount of coverage online though there are several spots in local news publications and networks. In addition there is some content concerning the organization in social media sites like twitter and facebook.

 

What does the world and media think about the nonprofit?

The majority of the news media content has been focused on explaining the organization itself or the launch of a new project. Generally though these spots have been done in such a way that will generate a positive feeling about the organization upon watching them. I couldn't find any negative content concerning the organization so I assume that the organization carries a positive image. However I also think most people are unaware of the organization's existence which is something that should be worked on improving. 

 

Does this match their own messaging?

 

 Yes. In fact a lot of the news content is just interviews with the organization's CEO in which he explains what ITEC is about and what it hopes to achieve. A few focus on a particular program but still manage to highlight the organizations message while covering that.

 

What recommendations do you have to improve their communications?

 

 As mentioned before steps need to be taken to increasing the organizations visibility. Getting more involved in the community and sponsoring or running events are good ways to generate more interest. Social media can also be better utilized to generate online traffic and to better communicate with the public. Blogging is one thing I think that can be done to accomplish this. The organization also has a youtube channel which does get some attention but could use more to draw in people and communicate the organization's goal.

Measurement Plan for Nonprofit

Choose a non-profit and follow the steps in KDP's reading to setup a measurement plan.  In a blog post, explain each step and back up any recommendations you make.

For this assignment I choose to use the nonprofit I currently look for based here in Lansing. That nonprofit is the Information Technology Empowerment Center (ITEC) which drives to develop science, technology, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) skills in those of low-income homes or at-risk youth. This somewhat covers the first two steps of a measurement plan but I'll go into more detail.

Step 1: Use your mission to define your objectives.

So as mentioned the objective of the organization is to develop STEM skills in the Lansing area with a focus on low-income or disadvantaged homes or communities. Currently the focus is on building required computer skills in adults and making children excited about science, math and related areas of education. Some objectives to accomplish this mission would be to secure and raise a source of required resources such as funds, staff and volunteers, locations, etc. Increasing the organizations reputation and visibility in a positive way is another objective. Ensuring the organization is on the right path towards its mission is another important objective to measure.

Step 2: Identify and Prioritize Your Audience.

The audience is currently limited mostly to those in the capital area but most focused in the Lansing area. The audience who should be prioritized above all else is those the organization seeks to help. This would be those individuals who need more education or experience in STEM areas. Currently there is programs for adults and children mostly in the fourth to sixth grade. Schools, donors, employees, and volunteers are also stakeholders in the organization.Michigan State University and Lansing Community College are two higher education institutions that support ITEC in some way. The organization also operates in several schools and community centers to offer after school programs so students at those schools or children in the surrounding area are also important individuals of interest.

Step 3: Establish a Benchmark

A benchmark should be created using information from similar organizations as well as information from previous years. This information can be used to compare future results with for many areas. Cost effectiveness, resource procurement, and mission impact are all important things to benchmark and measure.

Step 4: Pick Your Metric

Examples for this organization are:
- Percent satisfaction of target audience.
- Maintaining a certain amount of funding or even increasing it by a certain amount/percentage.
- The amount of publicity or visibility of the organization.
- Positive reputation percentage among the community.

Step 5: Pick A Measurement Tool

Surveys can be used to get an idea on audience satisfaction as well gauge reputation. However web analytical tools can also be used to get some input from social media and news sites as well as measuring any changes in site traffic/activity. Financial tools can be used to measure the funding of the organization.

Step 6: Analyze Results and Make Changes

 Perhaps even more important to nonprofits than for-profits is the analyzing of results. An organization needs to be aware of whether or not it is making positive growth and for a nonprofit these results may mean the difference between further funding or the loss of it. If an organization is seen to be under performing to a benchmark or goal then it needs to examine its parts to get back on the right track.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Case Study

Read the Blue Cross Blue Shield Case Study at the end of KDP Chapter 12. Discuss how BCBS could measure the results of their communications plan.  How could BCBS-NH measure their communication effectiveness with their own publics? How can BCBS-NH measure the relationships it has with local offices? Be specific.

In this case study it is mentioned that Blue Cross Blue Shield contains a diverse amount of independent franchises. While this may sound all well and good there may be an issue with what messages are being communicated with the public. This could have contributed to the overall issue the organization had in relation to its image. If the individual entities don't align with the message being broadcasted by the main organization then it leads to confusion and frustration. This is why it is important to ensure consistency in what the corporation is saying and what overall objectives it holds. With a better communication plan the organization can generate a better image for itself.

To measure the results of a communication plan BCBS can conduct surveys, pay attention to the news and media, and see what people are saying on social media and similar site. A good public relation and advertising campaign can make an organization more visible to generate a better idea on how people are reacting. It also has the benefit (assuming good things are being said) of more visibility. This will transfer to the local franchises such as BCBS-New Hampshire. BCBS-NH can conduct its own measures in relation to communication effectiveness with the public. I can't think of many instances where an organization hasn't given me the opportunity to share how I felt about an interaction. Surveys are common to measure effectiveness as well monitoring things like previously mentioned. These can also be conducted internally to get an idea of the relationship between the local offices. Regional offices can also be setup to better manage the communication and relationship between local entities, as well as serving as a bridge between them and the larger corporation. This is common among many national or global chains as it's nigh impossible for them to monitor the individual chains without some sort of hierarchy between them.

Communications Across the Sales Channels

Pick a franchise and discuss whether or not the communications at the franchises are the same as the parent corporation.  Give specific communication examples and discuss why these do or do not match the messaging of the larger brand. How can the parent corporation measure its relationships with the franchisees? Be specific.

A franchise I'm more familiar with is owned by the Kroger Co. which operates, well... Kroger stores in our region. As the nation's largest grocery chain store it also operates in other regions under different names. In addition they own many other types of businesses including the jewelery store subsidiary of Fred Meyer. Because of the size and number of entities operating under this organization communication is key but at the same time it is very different when contacting the parent organization is different than the individual entities.

As an employee communicating with the parent corporation generally you are passed to a regional department. There was however a way to communicate directly with the larger organization for specific situations, and they even mentioned we could contact the leadership directly for more serious circumstances. Online employee forums were also created to enhance communication between employees. I imagine a lot of the corporate communications dealt with legal things however, which I never had any experience with. So I can't give any personal accounts. For customers there are a number of ways to get in contact, many of which are listed on the corporate website: http://www.thekrogerco.com/contact-us. For more specific inquiries related to the Kroger brand stores there are specific sites with contact information. For example the actual Kroger chain can be found here: http://www.kroger.com/help/Pages/contact_us.aspx.

Like many organizations customer satisfaction is a key goal for the Kroger Co. By allowing individuals to contact both the corporation, each franchise, and even specific stores they help to enhance communication and better satisfy the customer. Maintaining a good relationship with the franchises and properly managing them are also important goals for an organization such as this. 

One way the Kroger Co. manages its franchises is through reviewing processes. I believe a number of reviews were conducted in the franchise but the one I witnessed while working actually included the presence of a high level corporate representative. I don't believe he was sent to all the store however and just came to ours because at the time it operated at the greatest efficiency. Surveys were conducted of all the employees at the store to get our input on what has been going well and what needed to improve.

To measure the actual effectiveness of an organization's communication web analytics could be used. Listening to what people are saying in social media outlets for instance can generate a rough idea on how people feel an organization is communicating. Monitoring news sources and other things such as blogs can also generate an idea and listen to what people are saying. All this information can be used to find how the company can improve its communications with the public as well as internally.  

PR Crisis Discussion

In a blog post, discuss a company that had a PR crisis.  What was the crisis and how did they handle it?  How could they have measured their communications effectiveness during and after the crisis? What could they have done differently?
 
Though not exactly a company a recent example that I think of when it comes to a public relations crisis was the Jerry Sandusky sex scandal at Pennsylvania State University in 2011. That alone would have been enough to get any organization in hot water however the crisis grew further when it was revealed that university officials were aware in part of the happenings but made the decision to cover it up. The damages of this situation were great in many capacities. Members of the athletic department including the head coach Joe Paterno were fired and many high ranking individuals, including the school's president, were forced to resign. In addition to this the school had to commission an internal investigation and pay fines to the NCAA and Big Ten Conference. Ongoing investigations continue to be conducted at the school to determine whether additional laws were broken. Perhaps the greatest damage was to the school's reputation which created a public relation nightmare of significant proportions.

When this event began to surface the response by the school's leadership was far less than superb. Heavy criticism has been placed on the school after these allegations for trying to protect and defend Sandusky and the other involved individuals. Sandusky was honorably discharged from the coaching staff however he retained access to the athletic facilities. Overall the entire situation was a PR disaster that is nigh impossible to recover from any time soon. Several released from the school were made to try and regain some reputation but by this point the communications were almost meaningless as more information surfaced. After it was all said and done the communications from the school have seemed to taper off, probably under the realization that time is all they could really the only option at that point. 

What Penn State could have done differently goes all the way back to when the staff first made the decision to cover up the whole sex abuse situation. A more public relation conscious culture would have known from the start that reporting the event to the authorities would have been better for the school's reputation than trying to bury it and hoping it disappeared. Defending Sandusky and staff was also a big mistake by the school that should have been done differently. This doesn't necessary mean they had to agree or disagree with whether the staff was guilty but they could have just reported they are running investigations and await for the conclusion.

Multichannel Campaign Analysis

When I think about multichannel campaigns the first things that come to my mind are marketing campaigns for things like movies and games. These things are commonly marketed between several outlets to attract people to viewing or purchasing a product. Because of this I will use a company such as Paramount Pictures, owned by Viacom, in answering these questions. 

What type of campaigns is your company using?

Paramount makes extensive use of multichannel campaigns for every major picture release. These campaigns typically reach across several outlets including TV, print, and most recently Internet. They have even combined these mediums into viral marketing campaigns which have led to the creation of interesting campaigns known as 'Alternative Reality Game', or ARG for short. These more interactive campaigns have captured many people and make people more excited for a release.   

How might they be able to tell which channels are giving them results?

Measurements can be conducted on each channel to determine the amount of viewers it reaches. From this alone though it may be difficult to determine the effectiveness of any individual advertising medium. Demographics however can be used to generate a rough idea. For instance, if an company finds that most of its consumers are from an older age group with relatively fewer younger individuals then perhaps the more traditional mediums were more effective. That's assuming the product wasn't already targeted towards that group of people however. Surveys are really the only for sure way of getting accurate results but may be difficult for a movie studio as it's not typically something surveys are conducted for.    

How can they track results that may flow across online to offline (or vice versa)?

This would be an interesting to track for a movie studio, especially with the advent of viral marketing. To track offline to online would be fairly easy. First the movie studio will create a website for their film and then monitor the traffic after it begins marketing on TV or in print. A change in site activity should be expected to follow. To track online to offline is a bit more difficult but one interesting way it has been done by movie studios is through the previously mentioned ARGs. These games operate usually by clues found online which correspond to an offline place or thing. Measuring the participation in this is a fascinating way to track online to offline flow. 

Long-Tail Search Strategies

As a web analyst for your company, you've completed the search budget distribution below.  Does the search traffic appear to match the budget?  What recommendations do you have?

From this image I believe that the search traffic does match the budget. The SEM stats are the ones related to money paid to draw in search results and as can be seen the majority of that money (three quarters) is being put into tail key phrases. Within the tail key phrases you can see 90% of the results come from SEM so the fact the tail key phrases make a third of the visits is reasonable.

As for recommendations, that depends on the current goal of the organization. If they are looking for new visitors then investing into the tail makes sense. The head is typically key phrases from users who are already familiar with the site so they already likely know the organization. The tail however is generated from more generic terms which is more typical of people who haven't already picked a product manufacturer or service provider. If the organization is trying to stay ahead in the head key phrases then they need to invest some more into that area, 25% not appearing to be enough. 

Path Analysis

Read Avinish Kaushik's post Path Analysis: A Good Use of Time?  Do you agree or disagree with his post?  Why? How could your company use Path Analysis? What advantages or disadvantages would path analysis provide?

I can't say I agree or disagree with Avinash Kaushik's post completely as I've never actually done a path analysis to determine whether or not it was worth the time. I do see however how it can be viewed from both sides. What ultimately matters is whether the user had a good or bad experience and if it profited the site or its owner in some way. Whether or not they followed the path the organization wishes is somewhat irrelevant. At the same time though if it seems users are clicking in awkward paths to arrive at some destination then there may be something confusing about the site that could be reworked. There may also just be unnecessary pages that can be removed or combined in order to safe the user time and hopefully improve their opinion of a site. The disadvantages of path analysis though are that it takes resources and if what the article says is true they don't really offer too much benefit. So, like many things, I really think it depends on the organization and the site as to whether or not it's worthwhile to conduct a path analysis and act upon the results.

Context is Queen

You're a web analyst for a company and are handed the following report on search traffic to your website.  What would you do to provide context to the data?  Explain what context does for your reporting to management.

A number of things can be done with the information displayed above depending on the context of which it is viewed at. First though is to list what exactly is shown. The following things can be identified from this display:

• Visits to a site or page, and the percent of total this represents.
• Pages per visit, including the site average.
• Average duration of the visits, as well as the site average.
• New visit percentage, also with site average.
• Bounce rate, again with site average.
• A graph showing visits per day through a six month period.

 With these measurements in mind I would say that this data provides useful information in the context of site activity by users. We can see how many people visited the site, how many of them were new, how long they were there, the number of pages, and how many left. From the actual numbers it appears the site isn't retaining many visitors well. They don't even remain a full minute and most of the traffic is new instead of returning. The bounce rate is also higher than I'd probably like to see, and the pages per visit lower. All this tells me that there is likely something driving people away from the site which needs to be addressed. 

As shown in this example the context of the data can have a significant effect on whether something is working well or not. It can also help determine what exactly is wrong or right which allows attention to be better focused. Using this information a report can be generated to management to help guarantee the most successful path is found and followed.        

Measuring Influence with Employees

"Choose a company that is using social media effectively to communicate with their employees..."
 I will be using Google while answering the following questions.  

 

What are they doing to communicate effectively with their employees?

 

Google is making fantastic use of social media within their organization. Employee blogs and similar services are encouraged to be used by employees both internally and externally. Internally these sort of things increase communication and give employees a new way to present questions and solutions. Externally the employees can use social media to communicate directly with users and customers of the products and services they create. For example if users are having a particular issue with a Google product then one of the creators of that product can answer them directly. So social media isn't just to enhance communication within an organization, but also outside of it.

What are your recommendations for how they should measure their influence?

 

As with many things simply surveying the users can generate a measure of influence for something such as this. However other things can be measured such as employee or project efficiency. One of the major goals of enhancing communication is to better succeed in meeting goals and deadlines. So seeing if an increase in meeting these is one measure. To measure if employees are actually making use of social media though you can stick to online measurements like posts and comments made daily/weekly/monthly/etc. 

Do you have any suggestions for improvements they could make in their communications?

 

I can't really think of anything Google can do better from what they already are. As a major player in the technology, and specifically Internet, field it comes as no surprise that they are already efficiently using online content like social media. They already own several major services like Youtube, Blogger, and more. These tools are easily used to enhance communication. I'm sure experimental or special internal services like Wikis are also already being used by the organization.

Behavioral Targeting & Predictive Analytics

How could your company use behavioral targeting to improve their customer experience?

Behavior targeting can be used a number of ways to improve the experience of customers and users by targeting relevant content. Even for an organization such as Redline Auto Service behavioral targeting can be a valuable tool to improving the user's experience. By examining the search that brought somebody to the site a more relevant page can be displayed. For instance if somebody searched for 'oil changes in Lansing' and clicked the page for the company they could be taken to the section of the site related to oil changes. Similarly if they searched for directions or contact information they should be better pointed to the appropriate part of the site. Images and similar content can also change depending on the the user's behavior. An example would be somebody looking to have their BMW repaired, the site can display more images of cars from that manufacturer. Specials and deals could also be offered based on a user's behavior. If there was a special offer for owners of certain automobiles then they can be displayed or linked to a user looking for the type, make, or model.  

How could your company use predictive analytics to improve their customer experience?

Predictive analytics is a similar concept that can be used by an organization to enhance user experience. This type of analytics varies from behavior by automatically generating intelligent content using inputted business guidelines. History and statistics are also taken into account for this type of technique. Still using the organization type presented in the above example a number of benefits can be created for the user. One way this can be used is to direct people more quickly to a seasonal offer. For example a tune-up may be of more interest in preparation for the winter months. History may let us predict that people are more likely to navigate to those pages in November so the page can be displayed in a more obvious spot or links to the promotional page showed more often.  

Building an Action Dashboard

Choose one of the measurement strategies you've created in a previous week.  Choose one of the KPIs and discuss how you would build an Action Dashboard to improve executive decision making.  Include what would be in each quadrant and why.

For this post I imagined I was creating an action dashboard for a small business whose customers were mostly within a local vicinity. I decided learning visitor location would be an important thing to track. In this dashboard it shows several things related to this. Along the left is information is both unique visitors and total visitors from Lansing. With the extra space available I decided to add a pie chart that breaks down all visitors into city. The center of the page shows timelines with unique visitors from Lansing, Michigan, and total. With the spare room I added a visitor duration for individuals from Lansing. The right column is similar to the left except it's a larger scope of Michigan instead of Lansing for unique visitors and total visitors from the state. The extra space was used to breakdown the visitor location outside of Lansing.With this information an organization can better track the location of visitors and hopefully find a growth in local traffic.

Measurement Best Practices

I'll use Redline Auto Service as the organization for this assignment.

Is your chosen company following these best practices? How?
 

Unfortunately they are not practicing the best practices highlighted by Avinash Kaushik in this blog entry. Not all pages are tagged and if there are tags they are first instead of last which is the opposite of what is suggested. The unique page names are also meaningless and offer no information to what the page is about. Some of the other rules are irrelevant to this organization's site, such as the rules on redirects and flash/flex/etc.

 

How can they improve their measurement practices?

 

 Following this practices an organization can achieve better results in its data collection as well as generating easier to understand and follow reports. The tips on tags for instance are to better see activity on the site as data is gathered with them. This is especially important for organizations that do not have access to their web server. Tags are also used by cookies which can help both the visitor and the organization by remembering certain decisions and settings or in some cases record keeping. Some other ideas like meaningful unique page definitions and redirects can help improve a user's experience and make them more likely to visit the page in the future. The former also helps with offsite looking as individuals are more likely to click something meaningful than something seemingly random. 

Measuring Local Community Influence

I'll use Redline Auto Service for this post.

How would you recommend they measure their influence with their local community? What tools and techniques should they use and why?

 

The first step is to determine what the scope of 'local' is for an organization. With the size of this company in consideration I'd say local is pretty small. Situated between Dewitt and North Lansing I'd say that area is the local community. To determine the influence the organization can look at local news sources both online and off as well as what people in the community are saying. Social media, blogs, and related sites are all online sources to determine this. For an organization of this size there may not be much information available. However I do know it's been featured several times in local newspapers for renovating a street corner as well as participating in public events.For a large organization in a major city there is going to be much more content to measure. Surveys and public opinion polls can also be conducted in the local community to generate an idea on an organization's influence. These can be done both online and off though the cost for latter is higher for obvious reasons.

Twitter Measurement

Google maps containing information on electricity situation. I'd say overall there is content relevant but seeing as Google's audience is so massive many may find a lot of it trivial. That said, Google has split their content up into different categories to better filter through it.
Are they engaging their target audience?

I didn't see much interaction between Google's twitter and individuals but as stated above they are definitely responding to major recent event, announcements, or news articles. They've probably responded to individuals before but I am just not finding any.  


 
Using TwitterCounter, evaluate their follower growth and compare them to their competitors.  




It's hard to choose competitors for an organization such as Google as it has expanded into several markets. I decided to just pick what it's most popularly used as -- a search engine. Bing and Yahoo are two other search engines so I am comparing it to them. As can be easily seen Google is drastically ahead but all of them are growing.

Using RetweetRank, evaluate their retweet & message amplification and compare it to their competitors.



Google again is in first between these three. Yahoo however isn't far behind. Bing on the other hand has a lot of catching up to do. Interestingly Google is following significantly less than the other two.

Use stats.brandtweet.com to evaluate their conversation and compare it to their competitors.

 A significant amount of the replies given by all three organizations were to themselves. However Bing had a significantly larger amount of replies to other individuals. It also had the greatest Conversation Quotient at 83.5% while Google was at 41.5% and Yahoo at 23.5%.








Report on your findings using TwitterCounter,  RetweetRank & BrandTweet -- how does your company compare to their competitors?

As I've discussed throughout Google is typically ahead in the twitter department. However It was behind Bing in the Conversation Quotient. 

Discuss how the company is using their Twitter profile:

Google is mostly using their Twitter profile to advertise or market their new products and services, or when updates are planned, being done, or have finished to old. It's a good way to get information out to those interested though without forcing them to constantly check blog posts and similar news sections.

Discuss differences & similarities between how the company is using Twitter and how their competitors are:

 They're all using them for pretty much the same thing. That is marketing, advertising, etc. Google targets a wider range though since it's more an organization than an individual product/service like the other two are.

Make recommendations for how they might improve in their use of Twitter to engage their target audience:

I think that Google is doing mostly the right thing when it comes to Twitter. The only thing I think they need to do better is responding to individuals or at least highlighting when they do. I couldn't find many responses when I first went through their Twitter profile but the later results returned that they have replied. I think they may also want to follow more individuals to just generate even more traffic. 

Blog Measurement

Post the name and link to the blog you are evaluating.
 
Google Official Blog

Report on your metrics for the blog: Raw Author Contribution: Posts per Month & Content Created, Conversation Rate, Technorati Authority.

• Posts per month: 
• 1536 posts / 46 months = 33.4 posts per month.
• Content created: 
• 5690 words / 12 posts  =  476.2 words per post. 
• 33 images or videos /  12 posts = 2.75 images or videos per post.
• Conversation Rate: 
• 2803 Google+ comments / 12 posts = 233.6 Google + comments / post.
• 8006 Tweets / 12 posts = 667.2 Tweets / post.
• 7292 Facebook Likes / 12 posts = 607.7 Facebook Likes / post.
•  Technorati Authority:
•  Score of 833 - Ranked 12 in top 100 blogs.

How might they measure the cost & benefit of their blogging?

The cost is relatively easy to calculate. It'd simply be the cost of hosting the blog along with the time spent maintaining, updating, and directing traffic to it. I have a feeling though that the cost for Google is extremely low (in relation to others). First Google owns the platform the blog is hosted on (Blogger) so it's quite easy to maximize control over it. Knowing the culture Google has created I suspect much of the posting is done by employees in their relative spare time so ultimately there is not too much cost going into that part of it. As for the benefits the blog creates, there are many. A lot of the posts are about new features, devices, etc. or changes to old ones. Those interested in what Google is working on would find a lot of information and Google has enhanced much of the content with pictures and video. There are posts on things like events and public relations also. A significant generation of publicity for each post can also be seen when looking at the conversation rate.

Do you have any recommendations on how they might improve their blog?

I do. The blog seemed incredibly slow to load, especially when changing months/years in the archive. I found myself impatient when trying to record things like word count and comments, which is why I limited my results to just twelve posts. They definitely need to make a lighter weight version or find a way to speed up the current one.