Aug
16
2010

Choosing the Right KPIs for Your Business

I’m often asked what KPIs (key performance indicators) are the most important for understanding how a business is doing online.  My answer is always “It depends.”  There’s not a set of KPIs that works for every business.  Choosing the right KPIs for your business means understanding your business, your goals and what you’re trying to do online. KPIs are the metrics which tell you whether you’re moving closer towards your goal and objectives (see KPIs vs Metrics for more details).
[Read more...]

Mar
29
2010

Connecting the Dots Between Twitter and The Sale #smcd

I gave a talk last week at Social Media Club Detroit (smcd) on some ways to measure how all those tweets, shares posts and comments relate to achieving business goals. While measurement of social media is evolving, some companies have had success in connecting the dots between their social media and business strategies.  I discussed what these companies did as well as how business ROI can be measured and achieved with social media.

Notes from the event can be found here (thanks Nikki!). Special thanks to Portage Media Jeremiah Staes for recording and production of the video. And a thank you to the Social Media Club Detroit for putting on the event and the Detroit Public Library for hosting. If you get a chance to go downtown to the library, I highly recommend it. The building is absolutely beautiful inside and would be a great place to host an event, meeting or group.

For more information on creating a social media strategy and on social media measurement, please consider attending our upcoming online webinars (just need a web browser and an internet connection):

Jan
28
2010

Review: PostRank Analytics

PostRank ranks online content based upon social engagement (how much readers are interacting with the content by commenting, sharing, responding, bookmarking, etc.).  PostRank provides ranking services, blog discover, data services and also analytics.  I’ve had the PostRank plug-in installed for awhile and use it to see how individual posts are doing as well as see what the top posts are.  PostRank Analytics is a paid service ($9/mo or $99/year) which integrates with Google Analytics to provide an overall picture of how well your audience is engaging with your content.  I decided to give it a try to see what type information it was able to provide that I wasn’t getting through the plug-in.

[Read more...]

Jan
21
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – 10,000 Feet View


In our series of posts we’ve gone through the basics of setting up your 2010 Internet Strategy.  From starting with a business goal, to understanding where you need to be online, with some basics of measurement, we’ve given you the building blocks to make 2010 a year your business can grow online.  What does the strategy look like from 10,000 feet?  Let’s take a closer look…
[Read more...]

Jan
18
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – Listening Posts

Your home base and outposts are where you’re spending most of your time and effort online, but there may be other places that you need to spend a bit of time just so you know what’s going on.  I call these places listening posts.  They help round out your Internet strategy by providing you with information and intelligence (think like an spy!).

[Read more...]

Jan
14
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – Measurement

Measurement is vital to the success of any strategy, Internet or otherwise.  You need to know whether or not your tactics are working towards helping you reach your goal and the only way to do that is to periodically measure what you’re doing.  If tactics aren’t working, measurement can both help you identify them and figure out how to improve them.

[Read more...]

Jan
13
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – Content Strategies

A lot of businesses are using social media.  And producing content.  But when you take a closer look at their content (and to a lesser extend, their interactions), it’s all really thinly veiled marketing.  While people may or may not mind being marketed to, it’s usually not what they consider useful information.  If you really want your content to work for you, you need to take a closer look at exactly what you’re saying and how.

[Read more...]

Jan
12
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – Ways to Use Outposts

You’ve done some research and have decided on 3 or so outposts (see Friday’s post for more on outposts). There may be some confusion about the value of having outposts.  Luckily Chris Brogan recently wrote a great post on how outposts improve your ecosystem.  What I want to focus on today is some examples of how you can use your outposts – I think seeing a few examples may help clarify what a good outpost is and how you can use it.

[Read more...]

Jan
08
2010

Your 2010 Internet Strategy – Outposts

An outpost is a place online that you use to connect with potential customers in order to eventually direct them to your home base.  This isn’t just a place where you’re advertising or where you have a profile.  An outpost is a place where you’re actively participating and where you’re creating content (or directing content from your home base).  Outposts are an important part of your internet strategy because they are places where people will find your content or information for the first time and may lead to opportunities you wouldn’t have had otherwise.

[Read more...]

Jan
06
2010

Getting Your 2010 Internet Strategy Off to The Right Start – Home Base

Now that you have your business goal, you can start to think about ways that the Internet can help you achieve that goal.  To start off, it will helpful to identify your home base online.  Identifying your home base will make it easier to figure out how to use all those social media accounts and online marketing to drive the right traffic to the right place.

[Read more...]