Web Analytics primer

If you're looking for a simple primer to web analytics, especially Google's, look no further than the acclaimed Occam's Razor blog and in particular this post that distils analytics down to the 5 basic tenets:

#1 Get the Basics Out of the Way.
#2 Understand Traffic Sources.
#3 Fix Stuff and Save Money
#4 the value of using the Site Overlay
#5 Focus on Outcomes

http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2007/12/web-analytics-demystified.html

Why Businesses Should Use Social Networking

"In a piece this year for the insider's technology blog, TechCrunch, entitled "Why Advertising Is Failing On The Internet", Eric Clemons, Professor of Operations and Information Management at the University of Pennsylvania, argued that the way that we're using the internet has shattered the whole concept of advertising. We need no encouragement to share our opinions online regarding products and services and offer them star ratings; as a result, we're much more likely to look for personal recommendations from other customers than wait for a gaudy advert to beckon us wildly in the direction of a company website or online store. He claims we don't trust online advertising, we don't need online advertising, but above all we don't want online advertising."

And this is why we use social networking.