Fortunately, that’s not exactly true.

As  businesses scramble to set up Facebook, Twitter and MySpace pages, analysts are scrambling to discover how impactful their company’s SMM has been. For some, the answer is “we can’t measure this,” but others believe there are statistics that reflect their SMM’s effect.

As Aaron Uhrmacher, the guru of social media, recently said in an article on Mashable,   “Social media measurement is one of those topics about which everyone has an opinion, but nobody agrees on the solution.”  His suggestion – - as a beginning point – - is to simply decide on what to measure.

What’s Your Social Media Marketing Goal?

If your goal is to increase your reputation–get potential clients talking about you in a positive manner – -  then get out onto the social media sites and monitor what’s being said about you.

In a brief run-through searching Twitter, I found some very mean-spirited comments about a specific entrepreneur’s e-mail campaign. At another site, a customer was complaining that it took days for a company’s customer service department to contact her . . . leading her to wonder if  she was dealing with a real company or a scammer.

In both instances, a social media point of contact–shall we call it a czar?! -  could have reached out to customers via direct message or e-mail and turned a damaging situation into a win-win. After all,  social media is about “social” – - building relationships.

If your goal with your SMM is to measure traffic, then setting up a solid analytics program that tracks incoming links will tell you if your visitors are coming from Twitter, Facebook, etc.

Although Google Analyltics are excellent (and free), we also suggest Xinu, a free site that tells how your website is doing in terms of search engines, search engine optimization, social bookmarking, RSS, and other social indicators.

Measuring ROI on social media marketing isn’t a precise science; but what we know for sure is that businesses and entrepreneurs need to have a success metric in mind before jumping into the game.

You probably already know this, but answering Yahoo! questions is one of the easiest ways to 1) get your name out there; and 2) get a backlink to your site from Yahoo!

I’ve received several "your answer was the best" kudos over the past few months–not because I’m a super smarty pants, but because I take the time to actually answer the question, friend-to-friend, as though there was no business involved at all.

I don’t like to spend a lot of my marketing time answering Yahoo! questions, but if I find I have a spare 15 minutes, I’ll surf through and see if there are questions I can answer.

If you want to add Yahoo! answers to your marketing bag-of-tricks, make sure you use the "advanced search" and check the radio button next to: Open Questions – Best answer has not been chosen. 

Let me know if you already make Yahoo! answers part of your marketing routine – - I’m interested in your experience.

Leo would ask you about writing the book, you’d ask Leo about his interests . . . and a connection between the two of you would be established.  This doesn’t guarantee Leo will buy your book, but it does guarantee he’ll remember you.

Answering potential client e-mails works the same way. While autoresponders are effective tools, I don’t believe they can replace a personalized e-mail when a “Leo” is inquiring about your services. I would rather cut and paste the “canned” info into a personalized e-mail rather than having everyone who asks about my services get an autoresponder response.

Getting personal is part of relationship marketing.

Relationship Marketing in Action

I got an e-mail a couple of days ago asking about my book-to-Kindle conversion and marketing services. Although my response contained the basic “canned” information about my services and fees, I looked for a way (as I always do) to make a more personal connection.

In this case, I noticed from his area code that he lived in a city I had recently visited. In the e-mail I told him that I had just been there, a few of the things I had seen, and how much I’d enjoyed the trip. Can you guess what his response was?

Yes, he signed up for my service . . . . but just as importantly he told me how much he appreciated my “friendly” e-mail. When he needs more Kindle or book marketing services, do you think he’ll come back to me?  I’d bet on it.

One Last Thought: Being Genuine

My “friendly”  response to potential clients is genuine; yes, I believe it’s good marketing, but I also think if you try to cram B.S. “warm and fuzzies” into these types of e-mails, the client will know it’s bogus. I’m pretty good at spotting an insincere salesman, aren’t you?

How do you handle those incoming letters of inquiry? Autoresponder or personal response.  Do you believe you can build rapport with an autoresponder?  Love to hear your thoughts.

That led, as many of these talks do, to a discussion of SEO content.

Like many website owners, our client didn’t want to invest any cash into even basic SEO tweaks, didn’t care about looking at site statistics (and even fought us on installing Google Analytics) . . . but worse (IMHO) was their inability to comprehend that they were writing “vitamin” content instead of “pain pill content”.

Huh?

Vitamin content is good stuff – but doesn’t solve a problem, and pain pill content serves up info that solves a problem.

For example:  If I were writing about flying a stunt kite, vitamin content would tell you the benefits of being outside, the fun of stunt kite flying, or the history of stunt kites.

Pain pill content would show you how to put a stunt together together without tearing out your hair, or how to do loop-de-loops without killing innocent bystanders with an out-of-control kite!

Simple concept, eh? But one we often forget because we get so wrapped up in the theory, not the “how to”.

Want more examples? Check out Leo Babauta’s Zen Habits blog – - notice how many “pain pills” he writes about, i.e. How to Make Gmail Your Ultimate Productivity Center. Since most of us use Gmail, and most of us have time challenges, Leo’s post had information that solved e-mail overload and time deficit – - pretty good post don’t you think?

Does this give you an idea for writing some of your own articles or blog posts? Comment below – what’s your best pain pill?

(And if this “pain pill” concept is yours please contact me – it’s great stuff, but I can’t remember where I first heard about it!)

Yesterday, Derek released The Action Machine, a "get more done" timer that allows users to create specific tasks, set a time to accomplish them, and then be alerted when the time is up.  If you’re thinking "oh great, just another timer", hang on – cause Derek’s software goes above and beyond. (Price is $27) Here’s the deal:  I work on multiple projects throughout the day (like most of us).

For some of my projects, I need to keep close track of my hours because my clients have specified how many hours they want to allot for certain tasks. For other projects (like my own marketing or business development), I could spend hundreds of hours without accomplishing much because I bop from task to task. Unfortunately, I am not the world’s most organized person – I’m far better on the creative end of the process. That’s why I was so drawn to The Action Machine.

The Action Machine really forces me to 1) decide what tasks I need to accomplish today; 2) give them a finite beginning and end; and 3) do them! Today was the first day I put the software into use and I’ve already accomplished several tasks that have been hanging for a week or so. If you click on the screenshot to enlarge, you’ll see that not only did I get my laundry done ! – but also worked on client projects and this afternoon will start the timer on some of my own business projects.

You can use Derek’s default task list that includes items like "eat lunch", "read", "check e-mail", or "grocery shop"; or you can add your own items to the list, delete the default and create a new one, or use a combination of Derek’s list plus your added items. Watch the video to learn how to add occasional or one-time tasks to the timer without making them a part of the default list. Like Search Automator Pro, The Action Machine is a simple piece of software that allows users to complete complex tasks. Everything Derek creates is easy-to-use, highly functional, and priced so low that I’m not sure how he feeds the family! And, because I am an advocate of transparency in business, the link to The Action Machine is an affiliate one. And whether you purchase through that link or not, I hope you pop for the $27 bucks and use this piece of software to increase your productivity.

Leo, the owner of the wildly popular ZenHabits blog, has written one of those classics that apply to both our business and personal lives. In brief, The Power of Less is a treatise on the small steps (see my blog post on the Kaizen way) we can take to simplify our lives and in the doing find far more joy and success than all of our manic behavior could produce.

The book begins with Leo’s own story of being an debt, overweight, smoking, workaholic who rarely saw his family. His life was chaotic and he never had time for the things and people he loves. (Sound familiar?) Then, he made the choice to simplify his life in small continuous ways; first he quit smoking by focusing all of his energy on that one goal.

Then, he attacked other goals, one at a time, like becoming a runner, eating healthier, starting a successful blog, and getting out of debt.

One by one the goals were met (and exceeded).  Leo has run two marathons, has doubled his income, became a vegetarian, decluttered his home, lost 45 pounds, and spends quality time with his family.  Today,  Leo’s blog  is one of the top 50 blogs in the world, with more than two million readers a month. If that doesn’t make you want to adopt his principles, nothing will!

The Six Principles of Simple Productivity
The Power of Less is divided into two sections; the first walks readers through the six principles of simple productivity:

1. Set limitations
2. Choose the essential
3. Simplify
4. Focus
5. Create habits
6. Start small

Part II details practical tips for implementing the six principles in key areas including e-mail, health, time management, filing, Internet, and decluttering your work space.

Simple Doesn’t Mean Easy
While the principles are simple, it doesn’t necessarily mean they’re easy to implement.  Anyone who has started a new habit (like a diet) knows that for sure. However, with small continuous improvement, the principles are achievable.

For example, Leo has weaned himself off e-mail to checking only twice a day. I probably check e-mail 100 times a day – - and just as a nutritionist wouldn’t ask us to cut out every unhealthy food in one day, they would encourage us to cut-back. For me, that would mean (first) KNOWING how many times a day I check e-mail, and then (second) cutting back a little, then a little more, and then a little more. Until I reach a point that e-mail doesn’t rule my existence.

The Principle of Choosing the Essential
While all of the principles serve as stepping stones to a life of more, the one that hangs me up the most is the principle of choosing the essential. And it’s a bugaboo that’s been with me life-long. As Leo says, once you know the essentials you’ll be in a position to eliminate the chaos of incoming information, commitments, and clutter.

Thankfully, the section on choosing the essential has a series of questions to help define what’s essential – and this is the section I’m currently re-reading – because it’s the most difficult for me. I know absolutely that once I have those essentials defined, the remaining principles will be far easier to integrate.

The reason this principle is so important to me is that in knowing the essentials, I’ll know which projects or tasks have the highest priority – because they’re the ones that will have the biggest impact on the essentials. For me, this is the key to having the life of what truly IS more.

Putting the Principles Into Action
As a life-long “clean desk” advocate, I was ahead of the game on the decluttering principle, but way behind on e-mail, Internet, commitments, and health.

Fortunately, simplifying these areas are a matter of making small continuous changes (the Kaizen way), instead of radical ones. For instance, one of the life issues discussed is making time for what we love. As a self-employed person, I get so caught in the flow of work that I forget what I really love.

However, once prompted by The Power of Less, I really thought about what I love – then I made a list, and one-by-one will begin implementing them in my life.(and being a true Kaizen-ista) will NOT try to take on all of them at once!)  By the way, my list includes learning to kayak, to play the harmonica, and hiking.

A Perfect Time for a Perfect Book
As I wander the Internet, I hear over and over the desire for simplification. The entrepreneurs I know have all hit the wall at the same time – - they’re on information overload, have massive (and unattainable) to-do lists, poor health, wretched time management, cluttered desks and minds, and no fun.

If ever there was a time for The Power of Less, it’s now.