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Unknown: We've all heard it before. It's cool, you know, welcome to social capital, a weekly podcast that dives into social relationships and why the investment you put into them is so important. Your host, Lori Highby will connect with industry leading professionals and dive into their networking experiences and expert advice.

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Lori Highby: Hey, everybody, Lori Highby here, welcome to the social capital podcast. Our show notes are found at social capital podcast.com. You know what, it's been a minute or two since the last time you heard from me, but that's okay, I needed to kind of think pause reevaluate what the heck I'm doing with this show, as I'm on episode number 370, something something anyways, I decided to change it up a little bit. And I'm wanting to really put some emphasis on marketing relationships are a huge part of

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business. But marketing is, is part of relationships, relationships are part of marketing. It's all about your brand, your personality. So what I'm going to be doing from this episode forward is talking to all the amazing marketing experts in my network and those that maybe you know, someone who's awesome at marketing that wants to be on the show, definitely send them my way. That being said to you, the listener, I just want to say thank you, thank you for your patience while I kind of figure out what the heck

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I'm doing with this show. But I want you to know that I appreciate you and I'm thrilled to have you here for another amazing episode. That being said, if you do want to connect with me LinkedIn is the channel that you'll find beyond just search for Lori Highby, you can simply click the Follow button. As I post daily information about marketing strategy tips, all podcast episodes in it any upcoming events, you might see me that if you'd like to connect, just make sure you send a note that says you reference or if you

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heard me on social capital, I can't wait to hear from you. Social capital podcast is sponsored by Keystone click strategic digital marketing agency that believes in order to successfully market to your ideal customer. You have to first understand your customer. Learn more about Keystone click at Keystone click.com All right, let's get into today's amazing marketing guests. That is Kate Belinsky. With over 20 years of experience in marketing, Kate is passionate about helping businesses cut through

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complexity and busy work to create intentional growth strategies that actually make an impact at what matters most. In addition to running her agency, Kate also teaches students the fundamentals of marketing at Husson, I'm going to totally butcher that I just asked her how to say that university and eastern Maine Community College. She's an avid adventurer and occasionally dust off her journalism skills as a business and travel freelance contributor. Kate, welcome to the show.

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Unknown: Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate being here.

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Lori Highby: All right. So your zone of genius is actually quite broad, I would say you do a lot of things in the marketing space. But one thing that conversations that you and I've had recently, and you've shown a lot of expertise on is what's happening with Google Analytics and and GA for So what exactly is happening with analytics, and what does that that timeline looks like.

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Unknown: So if you own a business, or do marketing, you've probably heard about the transition from Universal Analytics to g4. It's not anything new. Google actually released g4 Back in 2020, they told us this was going to be happening last year, they kind of started really poking and reminding us every time you logged in, it would say, Hey, we're transitioning to g4. And now it is officially happening in July. So as of July, you're no longer going to have access to your Universal Analytics property. And so it's very

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important that businesses set up their G for property. So where we are in the timeline now, right around March, Google started kind of doing it for people. So you may have logged in and seeing that Google has created your property for you. Some accounts may not have had it created for them yet. But it's really important that everybody kind of logs in and sees where they're at, because there are some critical action steps that you want to be able to take. So that come July, you're not left without the data that

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you need to make key decisions for your business.

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Lori Highby: Right. So what exactly does this mean, for businesses like what what should a business do?

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Unknown: So what it means for businesses just to kind of take a step back really quick. So Universal Analytics and G four are essentially different data models. So while Google does give you the option to let it migrate your Analytics account into g4, it is advised that if you're using it for anything that's not super simple, like just tracking pageviews, or sessions, kind of some of the more simple metrics, it really you should go in and make sure that you're creating your data and your reports yourself.

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Because Universal Analytics is mostly focused on pageviews sessions, user interactions with individual pages on your website, whereas G four is a little bit more focused on events. So everything in g4 is an event. And it's important to know how to create those events so that you have the right kind of data and know what is happening with your website.

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Lori Highby: Yeah, this is totally different shift. I mean, I don't even know the answer to this question. But do you know how long Universal Analytics has been around? Yeah, it's been a very long time.

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Unknown: Very, very long time, I believe it was like 2011 2012, that it was released, it went through a couple updates and whatnot. But the big changes, really, the reason that Google built a completely different product and a completely different data model over the last two, three years, is because marketing has changed so much, just think about the huge shifts that have happened in how people use the internet, how we use our phones, we're using multiple devices, there's many more touch points that

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happened within a marketing event now. So it's not as cut and dry. And then the other thing that g4 is a little bit better with is if you have a website and you have an app, they're better integrated. And that data kind of is more connected. So it was kind of time to reevaluate how that software was created. So that we were measuring the things that are more important for making marketing decisions with the way that humans kind of use technology, the website, the internet.

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Lori Highby: Yeah, I mean, seriously, it's, yeah, when he's 2011. I mean, the internet internet marketing, I mean, it's called the internet marketing anymore, right? How, excuse me, how people used the web, and marketed was completely different. I mean, that's over 10. It's over a whole decade. And I mean, yes, there was some evolution with the platform. But I appreciate and I mean, this was a huge overhaul, obviously. And even for the last few years, the messaging around marketing was really it's been like focused on

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micro events. So it totally makes sense, actually, to look at your data from an event perspective, as opposed to, you know, what, what they've been doing, and it mean for this legacy system? So let's talk about let's talk about analytics as a tool a little bit. And because you talked about this, like it helps you make better decisions, right? And that just from your perspective, as how important is it as a tool and what's, what are some pros and cons with with leveraging it as a tool?

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Unknown: So analytics, to me is really the hub of how you get information if you're in digital marketing, right? It's really how you get the information and know what's happening. It allows you to see how many people are coming to your website, where they're coming from, what pages they're landing on what pages they're going to next. If you're tracking something like a lead or a purchase, you can look through behavior flow and see exactly you know what path that person is taking. And through that

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information that you gather, you can then make decisions not only about what you do on your website and the user experience on your website, but where to invest marketing dollars in terms of you know, are you doing PPC campaigns, are you running social media is most of your sales or most of your activity coming from your email list? It really can give you perspective on where to focus, what areas to kind of try to improve and give you a bigger picture of How all of your marketing is working by having

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that all kind of plugged in together.

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Lori Highby: I love that. All right. This is a great time to pause for a quick commercial break from our sponsor.

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Unknown: Social capital is sponsored by Keystone, click OK to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Keystone click is a strategic digital marketing agency focused on helping their clients generate and nurture opportunities online. For social capital listeners, they've created an awesome guide to profits booklet featuring 42 tips on how to build brand awareness, generate leads and nurture those opportunities online is at Keystone click.com backslash profits to download your own guide today.

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Lori Highby: I want to ask a fun question for you. If you could go back to your 20 year old self, what would you tell yourself to do more of less of or differently with regards to your professional career.

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Unknown: So I have always been somebody who loves learning things I'm naturally curious. But I also have a little bit of shiny object syndrome, I guess you could call it. And I am constantly learning and reading. And while that is a very good characteristic to have. Sometimes I feel like in the past, I've almost information overloaded myself. And so now what I try to do is really be more strategic and focus on what it is that I'm trying to learn rather than kind of trying to get through 52 books in a year, you

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know, a book a week, I try to slow down and really then implement some of the things that I learned I really love. I think it's a Tony Robbins quote where he says knowledge is not power, knowledge is potential power. Action is power, right? So if I could tell my younger self, anything else that would be to learn but focus more on learning through experience, so you truly learn it and not just can pass up pop quiz about it the next day.

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Lori Highby: Oh, I am so on board with that. There's there's something I don't know what I when were while but I see this memory show up on Facebook every once in a while. But I think I was just like consuming so much information, attending all the seminars, reading all the books, and it's like, I've learned the things but nothing's changed. Because I just gotta go and do the thing now. And once you do the thing, that's when you're gonna see the change. So it's like, you can hear the same thing. 50 times

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read the same message 100 different ways. But until you actually take action and do something, that's where you're really going to learn actually.

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Unknown: Exactly, yeah, it's good to kind of take in one like write read one book a year, if that's all you read, but you really hone in on that and spend that year implementing what you learned. Yeah, it's, the value is just exponential.

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Lori Highby: Totally. All right, I'm gonna give you the opportunity to interview me, what's something that you'd like to ask me?

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Unknown: Oh, I didn't know I was going to be doing fun. So I know you've been in marketing for a very long time as well. If you could kind of start over what are some of the things that you would change or focus on or do a little bit differently? Having had some of the experiences that you've had? Are you thinking more like,

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Lori Highby: from an agency owner perspective, or just as a marketer perspective?

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Unknown: Either or, I mean, I don't, I don't want to make you talk about some of your biggest marketing mistakes. We've all had that right.

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Lori Highby: I'm an open book. I am sure I've talked about it. But oh, that's such an interesting question. You know, one of the big things that I talk about when I mentor young, eager marketing students and aspiring professionals in marketing, and I am sure this is true in a lot of other industries and trades, you can go really wide or you can go really deep, you know, you can be a generalist or a specialist, and that's a topic that I, I often really, press and personally, I am a fan of the generalist

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route, because like you, I like shiny objects, I want to, you know, learn the best practices for all the things. And I think, you know, from a strategic standpoint, it's really good to understand big picture strategy, and that's kind of how my brain works. But I also kind of question or wonder if I would have pursued more Have a specialist route, like how things would be different? I have fears and reservations around that. Because if my specialty could have easily been an area or a channel or a

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skill that's somewhat obsolete now, I mean, you know, you see how fast things have changed, as we talked about with, you know, it took a while for Google Analytics to kind of, for Google to realize, like, oh, the tool doesn't serve the purpose based on how things are functioning nowadays. Well, you know, so anyone that's a UA expert has to relearn the entire skill set now. Right? And I mean, but a generalist specialists there's, there's a constant learning, I guess, in both, right? I don't know, that's

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a long winded, roundabout way to answer that question, I guess.

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Unknown: Right. So I love that answer. Because I feel like whether you're specializing in a service, or a product, or you're specializing in an industry or a niche, I feel like that is something that a lot of marketers or people who have marketing agencies think about. And you hear, it's very common. Now you hear that phrase, the riches are in the niches, and everyone is telling you to niche down. But to your point, I'm in a agency networking group, and I have heard people who were very niche down in

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industries that struggled during the pandemic, I mean, they had a very, very hard time and wished that they had not been niche down. So I think that to your point, there's, there's pros and cons to both, for sure. And I to myself, kind of wonder, you know, which one is the better way to go? But, well, yeah,

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Lori Highby: I mean, there's some skills, you know, like, you think of some really high end development, you know, some very specific code bases that, you know, only certain, a small segment of the population know, how to work within, like a legacy code base, and therefore, their services come at a premium price, you know, so like, wow, you know, if I would have done that, could I have retired by now? You know, I mean, or, or, you know, I mean, there's a lot of what is I guess, you know, but I guess my natural

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curiosity, I'm always curious and always want to know, what's what's happening, it kind of makes me think of, and this is, so a random tangent, but I'm going to just go down that path anyways. One of the things I heard about retirement, that's why it triggered is like for someone to be successfully retire, they have to have at least three hobbies, otherwise, they're gonna, like, be bored and not know what to do with their life. And, and I've learned from others that some people are struggling to figure out

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what those three very unique hobbies are. I'm like, Are you kidding me? I have so many hobbies, I have to like, pick and choose what not to do. So I'm not worried about that at all. But that just kind of like, Is my generalist mentality to some extent, like, oh, you know, I went skiing once. I'm like, Oh, I really like skiing. Should I buy skis work? Can I go skiing? You know, I'm just like, going down all these random rabbit holes, and oh, I like to paint. I haven't tried oil painting. I want to try it. So

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I'm gonna buy all the things do oil painting, you know, it's just whatever. Yeah,

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Unknown: I 100% know what you mean? Because I feel like I'm the same way. And it's the same even if I did somehow retire early, I feel like I would never retire because I also have all these other things that I would want to kind of do as like other many businesses write a book, I'd love to have a travel blog I'd love to. So the reason that I do some of the freelance writing is because I am so naturally curious, and it allows me to kind of get connected to sources so I talked to somebody earlier this week about

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beekeeping and now I know all about beekeeping and if I didn't travel so much I would definitely have a beehive next week so it definitely there my I think probably my biggest regret in life is that I only have like one life to live because I truly there are so many things that I want to do and that I want to try and yeah, I to never really got it when people have such a hard time finding hobbies but I guess we're guess we're just read the weird ones.

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Lori Highby: I'm all okay with that. I'm not worried about that at all. I am enjoying all of the new life experiences and trying to get as many of them as possible. I know you are too.

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Unknown: And I when I hear you talk about cycling it makes me want to you know do cycling so yeah, well,

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Lori Highby: usually Premier League Do some bike riding together then?

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Unknown: I will do that. That sounds awesome.

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Lori Highby: All right. So okay, if anyone was interested in getting in contact with you, what's the best way that they could reach you?

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Unknown: So they can email me at Kate at katebielinski.com Or they can find me on LinkedIn. Also at Kate Bielinski

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Lori Highby: Awesome. All right. Thank you so much for being on the show today, Kate, it was great conversation, and I'm excited to be back on the show in general.

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Unknown: Thank you so much for having me. It was a blast.

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Lori Highby: All right. Well, this wraps up episode of social capital. A huge thank you to Kate for taking the time to connect with us. As mentioned before, let's connect on LinkedIn and I'm definitely looking forward to hearing from you all right. That's, that's what it's all about. We are wrapping up this show.

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Unknown: That's all for this episode of the social capital podcast. Visit social capital podcast.com are shownotes more episodes, and to see who will be on the show next. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next episode.