Is USAToday’s Social Network Experiment May Not Be Paying Off? Michael Arrington from TechCrunch says USAToday's Social Network experiment failed base some stats from Compete.com, along with other feedback and reviews.
I will take issue with this one - even though I don't read USAToday much there days and haven't looked at it for a while. No question that some of these features sound more interesting than they might actually be - or they may not be delivering the lift that was intended. But 6 months to decide it's a success or not?
I think not. It's too early to say. But consider this: If a site is re-launched as a Web 2.0 site that's been all full of AJAX, and much of the Social Network functionality is supplied by Pluck ..... we'd expect USAToday to show decreases in Page views, and possible in Visits and even in Uniques ... but that may be more of a counting issue than any real decline in readership.
One way TechCrunch is measuring USAToday's numbers is to compare them to other large Pluck Clients like the New York Times and the Washington Post ... I don't see The New York Times on the Client list but I do see the Washington Post.
I think the comparison is interesting but I don't think there's enough reliable information to be accurate. I'd rather see USAToday's actual Web Analytics traffic logs - that might be more indicative. Compete's numbers are improving but not are often much lower than the real numbers and you can't go to the bank with any of it.
There may be other reasons why the new Social Networking features of USAToday might not have brought the gains in that were intended but I don't think we can say they were a failure yet...but I'm sure they can improve.
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