The following post is the second in a three-part guest post series from Gregg Blanchard, a resort marketing specialist who splits his time between running SlopeFillers, a ski resort marketing blog that aggregates and analyzes industry-wide social media marketing data and tactics, and Ryan Solutions, the leading database marketing supplier for resorts and the ski industry. When he’s not at the computer, he’s either pedaling away the miles during the summer or searching for powder turns in the winter.
One summer during college I took an internship in a government office in downtown Utah. Us witty marketing folk used to poke fun at all the government guys who, at times, managed to form complete sentences using acronyms. USTAR, WIRED, UGREEN, DBED, and EDCUtah were some of their favorites. Heck, even the name of the office was shortened to GOED.
And then, not too long ago, in a single conversation on web marketing I realized the depth of my hypocrisy as we discussed ROI, PPC, KPIs, CPM, CTR, and even the beloved PTAT without batting an eye.
Now, in case you don’t swim in a sea of Facebook marketing metrics, PTAT stands for “people talking about this” and is near and dear to many a marketer’s heart. An aggregation of all engagements between fan and page during the last 7 days, PTAT is a rolling total that is often used to show how “good” or “active” a page’s fan base really is.
Except, there’s a problem with PTAT. Or rather, there’s a problem with the way most people use it. They think it’s telling one story when it’s telling another one entirely.
