A Hammer Isn’t a House – Don’t Confuse Tools with Metrics

Social Media Metrics Sequence

Last week I spoke about The NOW Revolution at a dinner for 50 or so social media and email marketers, all employed by major corporations based in NYC. It was a great time. Steaks were eaten. Wine drank. Books signed. Interesting conversation participated in. What struck me most, however, was a chat I had with […]

Social Media Measurement – A 6 Step Process

Can you measure social media? Of course you can. But social media measurement is not always easy. For a full and very specific account of how to measure social media in your company, pick up a copy of The Now Revolution, or Social Media ROI (by Olivier Blanchard). However, here are the basics to consider, […]

A New Way to Calculate What Facebook is Worth to Your Business

Facebook Valuation

Facebook for business is email newsletters 2.0. You’re trying to accomplish the same things on Facebook that you are in email, aren’t you? You want to keep your business top-of-mind among people that are already aware of you, and encourage those people to buy again and tell their friends. The number of Facebook “likes” you’ve […]

The 5 Dangerous Realities of Social Media for Business

The 5 Dangerous Realities of Social Media View more presentations from Jay Baer (summary of my keynote at Get Social PRSSA) The Crossroads: Social or Media? As social networking has soared to become the largest voluntary behavior this side of teeth brushing, the money guys have shown up on the scene – right on cue. […]

6 Critically Undervalued Social Media Success Metrics

People who say social media isn’t measurable aren’t looking very hard. The truth is that there are at least 25 viable metrics you can use to evaluate the success of your social media efforts. The challenge isn’t measurability, it’s knowing which measures are meaningful. Here are the 6 critically undervalued social media success metrics. Daily […]

The 4 Marketing Metrics Mandates

4 marketing metrics mandates

There are four mandates that companies are adopting when they are examining and analyzing the success of their online marketing and social media programs. I recently gave a presentation to the Measured Marketing Roundtable at Techpoint, Indiana’s technology and economic development association, that outlines these new metric must-dos. The 4 Modern Metrics Mandates View more […]

When Will the Social Media Losers Emerge?

social media losers

Today, social media is like a soccer league for seven year-olds: everyone gets a trophy. The vast majority of press coverage and conversations around social media centers around the fact that businesses are DOING social media, not necessarily doing it EFFECTIVELY. Do you know why every article or blog post with even a scintilla of […]

Digital Sharecropping – Why Most Facebook Customization is Wasted Effort

Part 3 of a 3-Part Rant The time, money, and overall exertion being spent on customizing Facebook fan pages is largely misspent. Just because you CAN replicate much of your corporate website functionality on Facebook, doesn’t mean you SHOULD. Your Facebook fan page is not a collectible automobile. You do not get extra brand advocacy […]

Mistake Math – Why We’re Valuing Facebook Fans All Wrong

Part 2 of a 3-Part Rant Brands are shouting from the rooftops about how many Facebook fans they have – and the number of “likes” does help you spread your message through the news feeds of your fans (more on that tomorrow). But let’s recognize it takes literally one click of one finger to “like” […]

How Size Matters in the Social Media ROI Debate

Guest post by Simon Gornick, a content consultant specializing in short form slogans, and owner of The Tagline Machine. ROI in social media is a luxury. And the only brands that can accept that are likely to be big ones with multi-platform marketing budgets. The larger the brand, the more likely they are to use […]

Is Our Addiction to ROI Killing Social Media?

Social Media ROI Addiction

Guest post by Matt Ridings, founder of MSR Consulting, a Digital Relationship Marketing Agency in St. Louis. He’s @techguerilla on Twitter. I had an interesting phone call with a prospective client. I didn’t know him, and hadn’t worked with his (large) company. He was looking for a social media vendor, and was referred to me […]

Do You Have the Guts to Expect Social Media Failure

The fastest way to get your company to be on the social media sidelines is to get your company involved in social media. There’s a huge gap between the perception of social media as an instant, free, can’t miss marketing opportunity and the reality of social media as a long-term, time-intensive customer loyalty and brand […]

Social Listening and Analysis for the DIY Inclined

If you are conducting any level of online reputation management or campaign tracking using social media data sources, you have to get beyond the obvious. The point of tracking software isn’t to determine how many tweets were sent mentioning a company, it’s to figure out what those tweets say, and what the business ramifications are. […]

The 3 Amigos: Email, Blogging, Social Sharing

For a while now, there’s been too much talk about social media vs. email vs. search. All of these tactics can work together seamlessly to create a robust, optimized content marketing engine that pays real dividends in increased website traffic, and conversions. A collaboration between RESMARK Systems (a provider of hospitality software), Western River Expeditions […]