#Hang the spring cleaning
##An office, in the basement (obviously)
THE Mole had been working very hard all the morning, spring-cleaning his little website.
First with a content review, then with a relentless focus on tasks; then with a lovely responsive, flat material inspired design; till he had JavaScript in his eyes and stray bits of CSS all over his black fur, an aching back and weary arms.
It was small wonder, then, that he suddenly flung down his mouse on the desk, and typed,
"Bother!" and
"O blow!" and also
"Hang spring-cleaning!" into the //#moans// channel on Slack.
He bolted out of the office without even waiting to put on his coat.
##But what is that?
Something was calling him imperiously.
It was his mobile phone.
[[Answer the phone->Phone Call]]
[[Ignore the phone and mess about in boats->Ignore phone]]
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#Phone call
//"Oh yeah, like, hi. This is Camilla from marketing. Is that, like, the people who look after the website?"//
"Yes. This is the mole. How can I help you Camilla?"
//"Well it's these figures you sent. They're, like, SO wrong. It's very confusing."//
"What figures are those?"
//"The figures about your website. Because we did some advertising right? On Facebook? And Facebook says 500 people came to, like, the website. But your figures say only 250 people came from Facebook"//
"..."
//"So that's, like, wrong and stuff. My manager is VERY unhappy. We need you to explain why your figures are SO wrong"//
[["It's because 'Internet'"->Internet]]
[["It's because 'You should've talked to us first'"->Digital]]
[[It's because 'Something, something, tags, something'"->UTM]]
#Freedom
The sunshine struck hot on his fur, soft breezes caressed his heated brow, and after the seclusion of the web-office he had lived in so long the carol of happy birds fell on his dulled hearing almost like a shout.
He dismissed the incoming call with a happy paw.
And, jumping off all his four legs at once, in the joy of living and the delight of spring without its cleaning, he pursued his way across the meadow till he reached the hedge on the further side.
#Postponed
But then he paused. The call might be important. He better call them back.
So he found a lovely sunny spot to warm his thick fur and dialled.
[[Well what did you imagine? This is a story with a purpose->Phone Call]]
#Internet
"Yeah. It's an Internet thing" said the mole
//"Like, how?"//
"Well, sometimes the JavaScript misses out on the key variable declarations and that can cause a misconfiguration of the inbound object key-value pairs. And that's a real problem with Facebook's closed ecosystem."
//"So, like, you have no idea?"//
"No. And to be honest digital people don't use Facebook."
//"That's amazeballs. What, like, do digital people use?"//
"Google+"
//"Eurgh. Poor you."//
"I KNOW"
And the mole thought about things for a bit.
"Let's have a meeting with the badger. He's bound to know"
"//Totally. I'm fully diarised"//
[[Find out what the badger said->Badger]]
[[Go back to the start->Hang the spring cleaning]]
#Why oh why oh why
The mole was very angry.
He had scraped and scratched and scrabbled and scrooged, and then he scrooged again and scrabbled and scratched and scraped, working busily with his little paws.
And then Marketing just went off and did their own thing.
"This is just typical" he said with uncharacteristic ferocity.
//"Like. What?"//
"What's the point of having policies and procedures if they are just going to be ignored? We have centralised purchasing of advertising for a reason. I mean why Facebook? How does that meet user need? Our website is amazingly optimised. Why do we need to pay to get people to it?"
And the mole sat heavily in the verge. Utterly deflated.
//"Wow. I'm feeling a lot of negative emotion right now"//
And the mole, who was a kind-hearted creature, apologised.
"I'm sorry but I don't know why Facebook and the website don't agree"
//"Do you think that the Badger will know"//
"He will know if anyone does"
[[Go and see the Badger->Badger]]
[[Go back to the start->Hang the spring cleaning]]
#Tagging
"I suppose you haven't implemented Campaign Tagging" said the mole rather pettishly
//"Well we, like, have Tag Manager..."// the voice on the phone was uncertain
"What, for the love of God, is Tag Manager?" thought the mole but he said in a voice that he hoped was confident "Ah, yes that's probably it, you aren't using Tag Manager properly".
//"And can you, like, help with Tag Manager?"//
"Well no. But I know the creature who can"
And so they agreed to meet with the badger. Even though the mole found it painful to agree to //meet with// people rather than //have a meeting// or just //meet//.
[[Meet with the badger->Badger]]
[[Go back to the start->Hang the spring cleaning]]
#Later
The kindly Badger thrust them down on a tiny table and stood awkwardly at the counter waiting for the Barista to call "three lattes for 'bodger'".
In the embracing light and warmth of the famous coffee chain, warm and dry, with weary legs propped up in front of them, and a suggestive hiss of steam behind, it seemed to the mole and Camilla from marketing that the cold and trackless office outside was miles and miles away.
##Wisdom
**"It's really quite straightforward"** said the badger once the pleasantries were dispensed with and the pair had explained their problem.
**"Your data"** he explained to the mole **"is from Google Analytics. Google Analytics only knows what the user's browser tells it"**
**"Where as //your// data is from Facebook and we can expect Facebook to be correct"**
**"What has happened"** the wise old figure continued **"is that some of the clicks in Facebook were made by people in the mobile app. Browsers cannot trace this traffic (because it lacks referral headers). Those visits have been recorded by Google Analytics but as (direct) not Social. The same thing happens in many social networks and also on email"**
"That is interesting"
said the mole, oblivious to the coffee foam congealing on the tip of his snout
"But what can we do about it?"
##Advice
**"Luckily"** said the badger, absent mindedly breaking a cookie with his pwerful paws **"Google has developed a solution. When you paste links into Facebook you add some additional codes, or tags..."**
Camilla was about to interrupt but the badger stopped her with a wave of his kindly claw.
**"This is nothing to do with Google Tag Manager. The tool you need is called URL Builder. It is VERY easy to use. "**
"Well I certainly feel that I've learned something today" said the mole.
**"Excellent and deserving animal!"** said the Badger, his mouth full of cookie and coffee.
Camilla said nothing for she was engaging with colleagues on SnapChat.
[[Go back to the beginning->Hang the spring cleaning]]
<a href="http://www.online-literature.com/grahame/windwillows/">Read the actual Wind in the Willows</a>
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