What should you be measuring? We thinking about it in two ways, content and context.

Content is what you say. You want to measure what seems to be most interesting to your target audience, and are they interested in our content. Context is how we frame our content. This could be anything from keywords, posts, headlines, vehicle…what makes the content interesting. Context is the key to making others want your content and share it with others.

The goal is to track both content and context so you get an idea of the effectiveness of various ways to frame your messages. That is where optimization really begins.

So how do you measure social media? Their is an overwhelming number of URL shorteners with tracking built in so you can measure clicks. Many of them focus and measure different parts of the social media spectrum like micro blogging (twitter) or links (like anchor text in social media sites). You can also use Google Analytics to measure site referrals, even pages within a URL.

Tons of good options exist but we will focus on one for now to make this very simple. Bud URL is simple and effective for measuring both content and context. Bud URL truncates those big URL addresses you want to point to and gives you a shortened version that is tracked. The shorted URL can then be inserted into any social media vehicle, Facebook anchor text, Twitter tweet, and email autoresponder…whatever.

The analytics dashboard is really easy to use and understand. You’ll get valuable information about what content and context is working for your marketing effort and how to keep improving your effort. Combined with Google Analytics, you will have a very good handle on what is working for your social media marketing efforts.

Experiment with different programs if you like, but the key is to do it. Measurement will make you a better social media marketer by improving conversions and the quality of your list building efforts.

What do you think?

Imagine you have content distributed all over the web and you continue to do this every week (and you should). Facebook pages, HubPages, Twitter, article directories….the list is endless, especially when you add the local and market focused social nets, blogs, and directories. If you did not have a strategy for managing the content and how you want to engage and move customers around your distributed content this can quickly become a giant mess. Even worse, the power of these efforts working together will be very diluted.

What to do? Track and plan…

1. Make sure you have tracking in place so you know where your content is and how well that vehicle is performing. Links within sites you are publishing content to should have tracking code (bit.ly is one of many solutions for this) so you can measure your return on time and money. You can also look at your Google Analytics reports and look at the reference sites report to measure how productive your social media efforts are by channel (e.g Facebook, ezine articles etc).
2. Social media marketing is as much about SEO as it is about increasing your digital footprint to generating leads and traffic. So, planning out anchor text cross linking in advance will really help make sure that you (or whoever you outsourced social media page creation and maintenance to) maximize this opportunity. Remember you want to send “link juice” to your social media authority sites as well as your website. Think of it as a nest that becomes woven together into a solid cross linking strategy.
3. Be consistent with your linking strategy as you publish new content every week to the various sites. Make adjustments to what content topics you focus on as you learn from your tracking.

Putting it all together is where the magic happens for your business. This will separate the companies that throw-up a Facebook page and think they are doing social media marketing from the businesses that are using it as a serious business building tool.

What do you think?

Unfortunately, traditional media offers only a “start and stop” ability to stay in contact with customers and prospects. A television spot captures attention for 30 seconds, but can quickly be forgotten. A direct mail piece is opened, read and perhaps even saved, but just as readily finds its way into the trash bin. Today’s newspaper ad is tomorrow’s birdcage liner.

The process of building the relationship becomes a series of blips, forcing marketers to start over again and again. A costly and time consuming process that requires us to be intrusive and inefficient.

Internet marketing, however, offers the advantage of never disappearing or fading away. Because of the enormous breadth and depth of the world wide web, anything and everything you post on-line stays there forever. More important, all this information can be searched and found at any time.

This presents a fantastic opportunity for marketers. Instead of pitching the same story over and over again, we can build a more complete and compelling picture of the products and services we are trying to sell. The entire narrative is preserved and works to point new customers to you, 24/7/365.

This opportunity also comes with a burden. The information you put on-line must be sufficiently persuasive and helpful to stand up to scrutiny over a longer period. This applies to everything from web sites to blogs, Facebook pages to Tweets. The content becomes more critical than ever because it is always available to anybody with a web browser.

(So you might want to rethink the idea of putting the 20-something kid in the mailroom – the one with the piercings and tattoos – in charge of your social media effort. Just because somebody knows how to Tweet and use Facebook does not automatically make them qualified as an effective marketer.)

More attention than ever must be paid to the story you are telling. Your reputation does not ride on a single, soon-forgotten commercial or direct mail piece, but on the cumulative effects of all the information you post. You must be prepared to tell a better story, over a longer period of time, to take full advantage of the power inherent in the web.

GenNext Media Lab Guest Author

Bob Sheehan is the founder of Coastline Advertising and a Surefire Social Certified Coach. As an advertising executive with broad experience in advertising and marketing, Bob is focused on generating actual measurable results for clients in a wide array of businesses. Bob has become a leader in contractor coaching by catering to the needs and wants of our clients.

Here’s what we do know…

1. Business that are considered leaders in a market or niche will survive and may even thrive.
2. Companies that have a steady stream of new, low cost, quality leads will always have new revenue to count on.
3. Executives and business owners that are considered authorities in their field will always be in demand.

As a business owner or executive you have more control over these things than you ever did. Social media is accessible to anyone. Their is no economic barrier, most of the ways to participate are free or low cost. The barriers to success are education, passion and persistence.

I’m always amazed when I meet a struggling business owner that tells me they don’t have time for social media marketing. Or an executive that lost a job, or is worried about losing a job in this economy but does not try to find ways to make themselves more important to their industry and company.

The fact of the matter is you can create a secure future for your business and your career if you put the effort and time into learning new marketing tools. Just start learning about, and doing these things and you can not only survive, but thrive:

• Start blogging and commenting on other thought leader blogs immediately. You can literally set up a blog in 15 minutes. If you have been working at something for any amount of time you have knowledge and a point of view. Share it and get others to participate. This will make you a perceived authority in your market. Potential customers and employers really like that because it takes the “risk” out of buying into you. Once your blog is set up, start commenting on other important blogs in your market or niche. Make sure you set up profiles where you can so people can look you up when they want to see your picture or get to know you after you comment. Copyblogger has some great tips on what to write in your blog.
• Write one 500-600 word article a week and publish it to article directories like ezine articles. These articles will be picked up by websites that are looking for content to publish. The article pages on the directories are also indexed by search engines…so make sure you use one anchor text link in each article and put a two sentence bio at the bottom of each article with a link to your website. You get two for one here, SEO for your site and you build authority in your market. All the directories have great tutorials about how to write an article.
• Over time you can learn about and implement many other social media strategies like Facebook, Twitter, Squidoo, video distribution…the list is endless. But don’t get overwhelmed.

If you are not blogging and writing articles, just get started now. That alone will get you noticed and put you ahead of most of your competition. Be consistent and persistent because it will take a few months to start to get noticed.

What do you think? Can you do this?

As the web gets more social, winning friends online can make you immensely influential. It all goes back to that basic truth about building authority:

What others say about you is more important than what you say about yourself.

So, the goal in your social media marketing program is to make friends with influential people in your niche or industry who trust, like and talk about your business and expertise. Make friends with social media power users in your niche/market who can promote your content on Digg, Reddit, and Delicious. Make friends with people on Twitter who can retweet your content to their followers. Once that happens, other followers will start doing the same, and the benefits of authority really start to compound.

Key here is to target your activity in social media…go deep within a community versus covering lots of ground but not really getting to know anyone in the community (especially the people who run the community). Spend time searching the major social networks as well as local blogs and social networks to identify a handful of active communities you can participate in. You can search by geography as well as market niche and interest.

Start targeting influential communities and participate. Listen and try to give something to the community before you start to sell anything. Take conversations offline at the right time so you can discuss how your can help each other grow your respective businesses. That’s how this stuff works….

Building authority in the new distributed web is critical to the success of your Internet marketing efforts. Let’s look at the definition of authority for a minute to better understand why:

au-thor-i-ty noun: [1] A citation (e.g. from a book) used in defense or support; [2] the source from which the citation is drawn; [3] and individual cited or appealed to as an expert.

On the web, the way Google and other search engines see authority is through links from other sites to your site. How influential are those other sites and how many of them link to your site also play a big part in your perceived authority by search engines. So this concept of building authority is very important because while you build authority on the web, other sites will be linking to your site and your business will win search engine rankings (SEO). It becomes self perpetuating…very cool if you can do it.

Here’s the way Brian puts it in his report;

“In order to get the power to influence or command thought, opinion, or behavior online, you need to become an authority that others cite (link to) in their online content. Which means, of course, you need a content-rich website that demonstrates your authority in the first place.

Your content actually demonstrates your expertise, compared with a website or bio page that claims expertise. This is a crucial distinction, because it truly levels the playing field and allows anyone to come along and build authority that outpaces even recognized and credentialed experts in a particular niche or field.”

The truth about authority perception by humans or machines is what people say about you is much more important than what you way about yourself!

How do you get people talking? Have a point of view and let people know through content you publish on and off of your webiste. Use a blog, articles, guest blogging, commenting, videos, podcasts…the list is endless.

The key is creating content now. Imagine, you have been working your entire adult life building your business and developing a great reputation. Then, some upstart comes into your market and starts publishing content, doing webinars, and suddenly, they are the perceived expert in your niche. Not fun…

We will have a webinar on this shortly….stay tuned.

So, how do you know which directory will be the best fit and produce the best results for your site?

No need to get stressed out. Next time your stumble-upon a reputable looking web directory, ask yourself the following questions:

• How long has the directory been online? Many Internet marketers feel that a domain that has been present for longer than 2-3 years will produce better rankings with Google.

• Is the directory selective with URL submissions? The more selective the directory is, the less links they will have. Don’t submit your site to a directory that appears to be a free-for-all of links.

• Lifetime or monthly cost? Many paid directory sites do, either, a lifetime subscription (flat fee) or charge you by the month. Generally sites that charge for a one-time submission fee are easier to manage and more reputable. Best of the Web is a good example of this.

• Will the directory allow you to edit your submissions? Think about all the changes your business has gone through. Whether it is your target audience, URL’s, keywords, etc. Choose a directory that will allow you to edit changes from the initial submission.

The key to entering your URL in a site directory is to do your research. You do not have to spend hours of time looking up reasons to join a site, but simply browse around the directory and look for any red flags.

It is extremely important to evaluate these directories and spend your time and money in a place that will give your site results. Think: smart marketing.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Your favorite directories?

Everybody says it’s easy to get started. That’s true, if you are a teenager, pop singer or NBA player who simply must use social media to let everybody know what you are doing every hour of the day. Basic use of social media is a fairly simple process. (It must be – have you seen some of the idiots who are tweeting?)

But it’s not easy for a business to launch a social media program that has substance and staying power. In fact, it is a mistake to take the social media plunge unless and until you have a plan in place and you are committed to making it an integral part of your overall marketing mission.

Sustaining the Effort.

The problem most businesses face with social media is not the initial entry. The challenge comes in sustaining the effort over time in a way that has an effect on the marketplace. Your social media presence will only deliver customers if they are presented with interesting and valuable information, and a reason to act on that information.

Strip away the newness and technology of social media and what do you get? Additional ways to put your company’s message in front of people. That’s why it is called “media.” And, like any other media, you need to fill the pipeline and keep it filled.

Would you reserve a full-page newspaper ad every week and then run the same ad over and over again? Of course not.  Similarly, you don’t want to create a corporate Facebook page and leave the same basic information up month after month. If anything, content gets old faster in the social media environment.

Getting Off on the Right Foot.

When you are ready to incorporate social media into the marketing mix, make sure you devote the resources it needs to succeed. Decide which of the many channels of communication are most appropriate for your needs; it will probably be several different platforms. The most popular (for good reason) are Facebook fan pages, Twitter, LinkedIn (especially for professional networking) and company blogs

In setting up your various accounts (all free) be sure the information and graphics you use adhere to corporate standards. Don’t get sloppy just because the media is new and free. Whether it is a blog header or profile information on Facebook, do it right to make the biggest impact.

Content is Key.

Even before you set up your Facebook page or send out your first Tweet, establish a schedule of regular updates and assign the responsibility for making them happen. This is where many businesses fall down. They get all excited about sending out a Tweet, getting fans on Facebook, or posting a blog entry that they forget that it is not a one-time event, but a process.

This is where professional help is needed. Either hire somebody in-house or contract with an outside writer to keep your messaging fresh, consistent and credible. Just as with any other type of advertising, it is the message that gets people to take action, not the fact that it came via e-mail or Twitter.

Customize your message for your business and your audience. Test out coupons and sales via Twitter. Get customers to share their experience with your company on your Facebook site. Make yourself an authority and expert in your field by posting compelling blog entries. Be interesting and people will be interested!

No Quick Fix.

Don’t expect a flood of response right away. Like anything else that is new, you’ll need to promote your social media presence and build up an audience before you start converting them into customers. But the advantages social media bring are enormous: instantaneous delivery of your message across multiple platforms, the ability to test various messages, measurement and accountability. Don’t waste these excellent tools by using “cheap lumber” in the form of poor and inconsistent content.

GenNext Media Lab Guest Author

Bob Sheehan is the founder of Coastline Advertising and a Surefire Social Certified Coach. As an advertising executive with broad experience in advertising and marketing, Bob is focused on generating actual measurable results for clients in a wide array of businesses. Bob has become a leader in contractor coaching by catering to the needs and wants of our clients.

As the social media guru at GenNext, I can attest to the sweat, pain and tears (maybe a little exaggerated…) we have gone through looking for a social media platform that can fulfill all of our needs.

The key to finding this, we have learned, is simply through trial and error. But first you must establish the features your business needs to run an organized and manageable social media marketing strategy.

So ask yourself, what is your ideal social media platform? Here are the things that were essential to us:

• Scheduled Updates. Based on analytics, we schedule our tweets/updates to go out at particular times of the day, when they will have the best conversion rate. Therefore, if I want my blog post to go out at 3:00 p.m. sharp, I can schedule this in the morning and know that it is complete.

• Combined URL Shortner and Analytics. A URL shortener is a must for Twitter updates, but they mean nothing if you cannot track who is clicking on them. We use analytics to monitor our target audience to shape our marketing strategy to what our customers are looking for.

• Monitoring Twitter Mentions. In order to stay up-to-date on people mentioning your business throughout the distributed web, it is important to have an automatic system that informs you of when you are retweeted, direct messaged or commented on. We like to engage our audience and let them know that we are there for the social marketing needs.

Can you find all these things in one site? We did. HootSuite is a great organizational platform that fits all of our social media needs. But it might not work for your business. So, ask yourself, what are your social media marketing needs? Let us know…we can lead you toward a platform that will fit your business.

1. Giving something for free like a PDF or Video. Make visitors sign up to your opt-in form before you let them download it.
2. Include a newsletter sign-up link in your signature of all of your emails.
3. Send an opt-in email to your address book giving them something valuable (Link Bait) and ask them to join your list.
4. Host events- Art galleries, software companies, retail shops, consultants (lunch & learn) can all host an event and request attendees to sign up.
5. Incentivize employees – Give a reward for collecting email addresses for qualified leads.
6. Referrals – Ask you customers to refer you, and in exchange you’ll give them a discount.
7. Giveaways – Send “bulky mail” and ask for their email address as well as their postal address.
8. Do you have a snail mail list without emails? Send them a direct mail (use a postcard) offer they can only get if they sign up to your email list.
9. Include newsletter sign up or other “link bait” opt in forms on every page on your site.
10. Use exit popup windows – When someone attempts to leave your site, pop up a window and ask for the email address in return for “link bait”.
11. Include a forward-to-a-friend link in your auto responder emails just in case your recipient wants to forward your content to someone they think will find it interesting.
12. Include a share, post and forward-to-a-friend on every page of your site.
13. When telemarketing, don’t let your callers hang up until they ask if they can add them to your newsletter.
14. Trade newsletter space with related businesses, include a link for their opt-in form and ask them to include yours in their newsletter.
15. Put a fishbowl on your counter and do a weekly prize giveaway of your product – then announce it to your newsletter. Add everyone who put his or her card in on to your newsletter list.
16. Host your own group on Facebook, LinkedIn, Biznik and other social networks and invite people to it and post new links and invite others to do the same. You can also promote your own newletter list as long as you don’t over do it.
17. Post your blog and a link to your newsletter into Facebook, LinkedIn and other social networks.
18. Have newsletter and “link bait” sign up applications on your Facebook Fan page and other social network sites.
19. Tweet your content (link bait) and newsletter topics to get sign ups.
20. Put an offer on the back of your business cards to get people to sign up for your newsletter.
21. Offer a birthday club where you give something special to people who sign up.
22. Tradeshows – Bring a clipboard or sign-up book with you to tradeshows and ask for permission to send email to those who sign up.
23. Join your local chamber of commerce, email the member list (if it’s opt-in) about your services with a link to sign up to your newsletter.
24. Trade shows – Collect business cards and scan them into a spreadsheet. Make sure you ask permission to send email to them, then mark the card.

What did I leave out?