“The free bird thinks of another breeze And the trade winds soft through The sighing trees And the fat worms waiting on a dawn-bright Lawn and he names the sky his own. But a caged bird stands on the grave of dreams His shadow shouts on a nightmare scream His wings are clipped and his feet are tied So he opens his throat to sing. The caged bird sings with A fearful trill of things unknown But longed for still and his Tune is heard on the distant hill For the caged bird sings of freedom”.
Maya Angelou must have ended up in a Silly Series.
Now we turn the spotlight on Pritesh Patel, Jim Sterne’s doppelganger.
Who is Pritesh Patel?
This Pritesh Patel is one of 513 (yes, fracking 513!!) other Pritesh Patels on LinkedIn. I am the Digital Marketing Manager for Pauley Creative, a B2B digital marketing agency serving companies within the construction sector – mainly product manufacturers. Very niche. I went to school with another Pritesh Patel and during an Achievements Evening at school, where all the kids would get certificates for outstanding performances in subjects, I purposely collected the other Pritesh Patel’s award for Best Progress in Reading and Writing. I was the only school child who ended up with two certificates. I am friends with him on Facebook and, to this day, he is still asking me if I took his award. Pffff….Loser!!! It’s a dog eat dog world my friend and I have the bigger teeth!
You studied Visual Communication in university. Is that the one where you learn to tell people things with your eyes?
No. It’s a just posh alternative for ‘colouring in’. I also did a Foundation Degree in Art and Design and once had to paint a plant using just fish oil and tomato ketchup!
If I have 23 sycamore saplings and you have 15 biscuit crumbs, how many crystal prisms can you fit in a phone-box?
Ok, let’s visually communicate this answer……
Social Media is nature’s way of pandering to the self-absorbed. Discuss.
Social Media is a great way of telling someone how you pee!!
Yelp = I’ve peed here a bunch of times, the toilets are ok
Flickr = Look at the photo’s of my pee taken with my Nikon D3100
Slideshare = Why I am great at peeing
Twitter = I’m peeing right now
Foursquare = I am peeing here
Facebook = I just peed
Quora = Why am I peeing?
LinkedIn = I pee well
YouTube = Watch me pee
Digg = I dig my pee
StumbleUpon = Discover my pee
Wikipedia = Wiki-pee-dia < See what I just did there?
It’s not always about me though. Sometimes I like to talk to others and ask them what they think about me.
Who is your superhero-sans-cape in the web analytics community and why?
Oh my god, I think I could make a comic book from the amount of superhero’s in the Web Analytics community. Wouldn’t that be great? I’d have @usujason as lead character wearing his Tutu (no cape required here folks) and before he goes out fight crime he’d shout “It’s not about you, it’s about the community” and off he dances into the sunset!
No seriously, Jason was the first person I followed on Twitter in the #measure community and his challenging nature and passion for analytics got me into it and his passion for it still shows today. Wouldn’t it be great if we could create a ‘Celebrity Deathmatch #Measure Special’? @minethatdata vs @avinash? Each would have their own finishing move, Kevin’s would be called ‘The Revenue Lifter’! Oooooh bring out the frackin’ popcorn Emer!!
How advanced do you feel the digital analytics industry is in the UK versus the US?
It’s about on par I think although I think the US make much more noise with regional events and major events for marketers and analysts than the UK. However, from a B2B perspective I think digital analytics is only just really taking off as marketers start to combine offline with online as marketers learn about the influence of online before a relationship starts offline.
What is your wish for 2012?
EU Cookie Directive U-Turn. Nuff said.
[Exxx: click here to download a pdf containing the guidance from the ICO]
You recently took part in Movember. Could you share a picture of the resultant face-garden?
Analytics is a notoriously difficult industry into which to break (much like trying to avoid ending sentences in prepositions). What is your advice to budding enthusiasts?
It’s definitely the industry in which there is a demand for and its certainly one which is moving at a faster pace as each year passes. My advice is that marketers need to know how to work with data, and only focus on the data that matters and to then turn that data into a story. It’s too easy to be overwhelmed by stuff that doesn’t really matter and get excited by pie charts and graphs when really the story could be told using just a few sentences.
In a movie about your life, who would play Jim Sterne?
Me, if there was ever a movie about me then I’d like to do an Eddie Murphy style movie and play all the characters including Jim Sterne. Don’t you think Jim and I look very similar? Spooky!
