So, What Do You Do for a Living?

Examples of the meme "What my clients think I do, what my boss thinks I do, what I think I do, what I really do," as adapted for the life of a digital analyst.

When I’m out on the road and too tired to open even one more email, I love to look at examples of that great meme: “What my clients think I do, what my boss thinks I do, what I think I do, what I really do.” They’re funny. And they pretty much sum things up.

When asked, “What do you do?” about 10 years ago, those of us who called ourselves Web analysts would mumble something about measuring the success of a website. If pressed, we could wax rhapsodic about click-throughs and pageviews and optimization.

Unchecked, we might slippery-slope our way into tales of click-path optimization, multivariate testing, and semantic analytics. We would then find ourselves talking to glazed eyes and stifled yawns.

Rachelle Maisner gave us this wonderful little “what we really do” gem:

14-02-11-what-do-you-do-a

But as our jobs got more complicated, the conversations got more difficult. Instead of being a “Web analyst” we became “digital analysts.” In 2008, the Web Analytics Association became the Digital Analytics Association and the “what we do” meme changed for the more sophisticated.

Tina Costanza gave us an updated self-awareness vision:

14-02-11-what-do-you-do-b

Explaining the integration of social, mobile, and offline data in a crowd of civilians would find us talking to the tops of heads of those checking their phones for anything more interesting – like a meeting schedule change or a push notification from Candy Crush.

So, once again, it’s time to update the image we’re broadcasting to the world. It’s time to own the complexity, the sophistication, and the wide variety of what we do for a living and our love of doing it.

And so, as a service to my colleagues, I offer up this little ditty with apologies to Gilbert and Sullivan called, “I Am the Very Model of a Modern Data Analyst.” It pretty much sums things up:

Subscribe to get your daily business insights

Whitepapers

US Mobile Streaming Behavior
Whitepaper | Mobile

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

5y

US Mobile Streaming Behavior

Streaming has become a staple of US media-viewing habits. Streaming video, however, still comes with a variety of pesky frustrations that viewers are ...

View resource
Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups
Whitepaper | Analyzing Customer Data

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics for Media Groups

5y

Winning the Data Game: Digital Analytics Tactics f...

Data is the lifeblood of so many companies today. You need more of it, all of which at higher quality, and all the meanwhile being compliant with data...

View resource
Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its people
Whitepaper | Digital Marketing

Learning to win the talent war: how digital marketing can develop its peopl...

2y

Learning to win the talent war: how digital market...

This report documents the findings of a Fireside chat held by ClickZ in the first quarter of 2022. It provides expert insight on how companies can ret...

View resource
Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy
Report | Digital Transformation

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Experience Economy

1m

Engagement To Empowerment - Winning in Today's Exp...

Customers decide fast, influenced by only 2.5 touchpoints – globally! Make sure your brand shines in those critical moments. Read More...

View resource