It’s time for the last part of creating a digital program: Measurement. The steps, as  we  use them for clients, are: Listen, assess, engage, measure, and refine/improve. You can find the tools and tips for listening, assessing, and engaging  here ,  here , and  here. There is a lot of discussion about  return-on-engagement  or influence being the right measurement tool. But, as a business owner, I’m here to tell you that’s horse hockey. And those aren’t wholly measurable to numbers. You need access to: Google analytics. Clicky. We track them through the process. MORE >>

Companies engage increasingly in social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and other forums and platforms. They go to step into conversation with their audience to offer better service and support and to strengthen the band between actual and future customers. Social media is a great way to grow brand awareness for the business and to expand the reach to get more customers. But social media can also be a trap for those who are not familiar with managing their reputation online. With or without your involvement. So you can respond professionally and show your opinion. MORE >>

Living in New York, I take every opportunity I can to go to Broadway shows. It really is one of the best parts of living in the city. And when I go, I want everyone in my social media world to know what I’m seeing, so I always take a minute before the curtain opens to check in via Foursquare. Last week, I went to check in at Godspell and found a little orange button in the top right corner of my screen that said “Special Here.” ” I opened it to find a message telling me to find the worker with the Godspell t-shirt in the lobby of the theatre who was carrying an iPad. MORE >>

Tweet Marketing has come a long way. First different forms of advertisements, a boom of billboards and innovative television commercials and now with integration of social media and web 2.0, marketing has been given a totally revamped identity. Marketing today is more of an interactive and a two way dialogue, between brands and customers, which can be termed as “inbound marketing”. Why is inbound marketing better? Inbound marketing focuses on earning, not buying, a person’s attention, which can be done through social media and engaging content, such as blogs, podcasts and white papers. MORE >>

Why is it advantageous to use social media as a lead generation tool? Good question – one I plan on answering in the following post. Let’s rock it! I’ve had conversations in the past where we have discussed the value of social media from customer communication to lead generation. Remember that social media is a communication tool not necessarily a sales tool. Your customer is your best sales person and you want to use social media to enhance that relationship. You want them to sell their friends. We are all searching for ways to better market to our customer base. MORE >>