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.

Strategies for Engaging in Facebook, Twitter & Other Social Media
Liana “Li” Evans
Que; 1 Original edition (June 28, 2010)
ISBN-10: 0789742845
ISBN-13: 978-0789742841
360 pages
$16.49 (on Amazon)

Author Li Evans has been active in social media and search marketing for more than 10 years; who better to write a book that guides companies through social media solutions that actually work.

Divided into five sections (see below), Social Media Marketing is all about being social in the marketplace; from Twitter and Facebook to LinkedIn, YouTube and Flickr. Evans shows readers how to make the most of social media, including

• • customizing your social media strategies
  • understanding the quirks of your social media audience
  • managing and executing your strategies (don’t let an intern be in charge of the program!)
  • building trust among strangers

What You’ll Learn About Social Media

Section I:  The Basics of Social Media
This is the section that sets up the rest of your strategies; know your goals, know your audience and understanding what social media can and cannot do.  Great section here on ROC (Return on Conversation) not ROI (Return on Investment).

Section II: It’s About Conversation
If you think social media is about selling, you’re forgetting the “social” part.  People don’t go on Facebook or Twitter to buy something, they go to have conversations.  Fortunately Evans saves social media newbies from making the big “let’s go sell something” mistake when they first get involved in the networks.

Section III: Social Media from the Inside Out
Here, Evans helps readers convey the value of social media to the company. It’s all about ethics, interns, consistency, transparency, trust, and defining social media policy for employees.

Section IV: It’s Not About You
Evans writes astutely about keeping your customer’s needs in front of you at all times.  I suspect she’s seen a lot of crash and burns from the “my ego is more important than your needs” crowd.  As she so wisely states “for it to work, you have to be social.”

Section V: How Social Media Fits into the Online Marketing Picture
Don’t fall so in love with social media that you forget it’s just one slice in the marketing pie.  Here, you’ll learn how to create a social media-friendly pressroom, align your offline efforts with your online, and why you really need to be on YouTube (seriously).

Summary Points

1.  If you work for a company that’s just getting started in social media, this is a must-have book.

2.  If you’ve done a little with social media, but more of a shotgun than a laser, this is a must-read book.

3. If your peeps think social media is all about sales, this is a must-read book for them.

4.  If for no other reason, buy the book to read the section on conversations.  If you don’t, you’ll be sorry.  (I’m just sayin’)

If you run an online business, Google alert is the best (free) notification service around.  Using it, you can track topics in The other day I discovered a Google-alert type service for those of us who Tweet (you DO tweet, don’t you?) using Twitter.

The service is TweetBeep and here’s how it works. First, set up a free account by picking a username and password. Then, choose the keyword alerts you want to track, i.e. your name, company name, topic of interest. Unlike Google alerts, don’t use quote marks for exact phrase matches.  You can exact phrase match by ticking the box on your alert. Pick how often you want to receive alerts, and that’s it.

Oh yes – you can also set up your TweetBeep to only receive alerts from specific Twitter accounts – a convenience I like when I’m tracking conversations from a specific individual.

Beginning with the entry for November 26, 1910, which will be published right now, the blog will then follow the expedition day-by-day until Scott’s famous final entry, probably written on March 29, 1912.

Scott’s journal covers the period from November 1910 when the expedition left New Zealand, through the scientific missions of 1911 and the journey to the South Pole, ending with the death of the polar party in 1912, just 11 miles from the next depot of food and fuel.

The Scott’s Last Expedition blog will include links to images from Herbert Ponting’s photographic archive, also held at the Institute.  The entries are also linked to an RSS Feed and a Twitter account that will update automatically when any new blog posts are made.

Understanding the Past Through Technology
The staff of the Institute’s Museum, Library and Archive are keen to see if modern communication methods can provide a better understanding of the past. Reading the journals over a few days is a very different experience from following the daily events of the expedition as they happened.

It is hoped that the blog will enable readers to gain a deeper appreciation of the challenges faced by the expedition and the sacrifices made by Scott and his men.

Librarian and Keeper of Collections, Heather Lane, said: “This is our first attempt to bring the diaries of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration to a worldwide audience by electronic means. As the centenary of Scott’s last expedition approaches, we intend to put other journals from our archive online, to build up a detailed picture of each day’s events.”

Christopher Hughes, who has worked with the Institute to develop the blog, said: “I am excited by the possibility of revisiting a classic work, like Scott’s Journals, with fresh eyes. Technological change means that we are all reading in new ways, and the content is reaching us in many new forms.

“Presenting this great work in a format that people use in their everyday lives should mean that the text comes alive to new readers, and in a short format that blog readers already understand and enjoy. Matching the dates of the text with the historical events also means that those familiar with the story will get a new sense and appreciation of the endurance of the explorers, their true goals, and a deeper understanding of their self-sacrifice. It is a great privilege to be associated with the Scott Polar Research Institute in this project.”

Facebook is like a pub, an informal place where people get together, hoist a beer and shoot the breeze.

LinkedIn is like a Tradeshow – very business-like, watch your language, dress up a little.

Twitter is the famous cocktail party, with lots going on and very high energy

YouTube is like Times Square on New Years Eve – anything goes!

MySpace is like Woodstock - populated by the young and the crazy!

Fortunately, that’s not exactly true.

Where to Start Measuring?

As  authors, businesses, solopreneurs, and entrepreneurs 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 SMM, 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 readers or 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 author’s e-mail campaign.

What to do? The author could have reached out  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 Analytics 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 I know for sure is that authors and entrepreneurs need to have a success metric in mind before jumping into the game.

Authors – do you need help with your book project? Contact me for information about my coaching programs. Get started today and get that book out into the marketplace.

1. Facebook Marketing
    
2. Content Rich
    
3. Get Content, Get Customers
    
4. Twitter Revolution
    
5. Facebook Me!
    
6. Waiting for your Cat to Bark?
    
7. Don’t Make Me Think
    
8. Letting Go of the Words
    
9. Killer Web Content
    
10. Tribes

What Are Twitter #Hashtags?

To quote our friends over at Mashable, "Hashtags are essentially a simple way to catalog and connect tweets about a specific topic. They make it easier for users to find additional tweets on a particular subject, while filtering out the incidental tweets that may just coincidentally contain the same keyword." (click the thumbnail for real-time results of the hashtag search #patrickswayze)

Because Twitter users search hashtags for content from people they don’t follow, using hashtags gives you another way to reach out to more people, as well as communicating your message to your current followers. Just be sure, though, that your hashtags are relevant t your topic, your site, or your business. Some spammers use popular hashtags (think: #MichaelJackson) just to get to the top of search results.  Don’t do it.

Hashtags are an excellent (and effective) way to tracking conversations in topics of interest. For example, if you’re doing a survey of popular questions or posts about your industry, use Twitter Search to monitor topics and conversations.

An Effective Use of Your Own Hashtag

Create a hashtag for your business or your personal brand. This allows you to search for your hashtag to see what’s being said about you AND gives you the opportunity to spread your brand.  For example, if you sell DVDs, you could tweet something like t

his:

"What artist is most overrated? Tweet using #jacksdvds for a chance at winning your choice of a free DVD."

Twitter Desktop Client for Tracking Hashtags

I personally use TweetDeck – - a desktop software that allows me to run several columns, including columns that I’ve set up to track certain hashtags. I strongly recommend TweetDeck. (By the way, it’s free)

Want to know what the Royals are up to? (think garden parties, charity events, church services) Pop over to their British Monarchy page on Twitter. Already pulling in more than 2,7000 followers, the Royals follow no one (what a surprise) – - but do keep the rest of the world up-to-date on day-to-day life with the Prince, the Duke, the Queen, et al.

Don’t expect any re-tweets or trending topics from Queen Elizabeth II or Prince Charles. A palace spokeswoman says the account won’t be used to air personal opinions.

Darn.

I’m working as fast as I can to complete the new "me" – - – since I now have my vanity Facebook url, I thought it was time to spiff up the rest of the me. You might already have noticed the new header and menu bar . . . . stay tuned amigas and amigos.

Hey – I’m curious – - did you get your Facebook URL?  If so, leave a comment below with your new URL  – - gain a few new friends, fans, or followers.

How would you explain Twitter to an 87-year-old who has never used a computer? (Comments welcome!)

If you’ve been online more than 10 minutes, you’ve heard that Twitter is THE social networking tool of the century.  Hype?  Nope.

Twitter is a bonafide tool for relationship building and marketing, built within the confines of a seemingly impossible 140 characters. If you can’t say it short, you can’t say it.

In a Twitter-nutshell, Twitter allows you to “follow” the people you feel are worth reading, and people can follow you if they think your Tweets are worth following.

The smartest Twitter gurus Tweet a brilliantly balanced blend of humor, links to something of interest on their own site, a link to their newest blog post, or a link to something interesting they’ve read online.

Is Twitter a platform for blatantly pushing your services on your followers? Not unless you want to be thrown out of the virtual party

My Top 3 Twitter Services

1.  Although you can Tweet directly from your Twitter account, my favorite Tweeting platform is Tweetdeck. This Adobe Air desktop platform. Tweetdeck allows you to take all of your Twitter feeds and break them down into categories – making it a lot easier to read your favorite Tweeters.  It also creates a category for displaying direct messages and replies.

2.  I’m also in love with TwitterButtons. Sure, you can put Twitter’s default blue bird as a link on your own site, but why not jazz it up a little? You can see my Twitter button of choice up there in the right column. I know. . . there are so many great Twitter apps – why bump one of them in favor or TwitterButtons? Because I’m a sucker for a fun photo.

3.  And speaking of photos and photo sharing,  you have to use TwitPic. This free service lets you share photos on Twitter with your friends–with no signup required. You can also post pictures to TwitPic from your phone, TwitPic API, or through the site itself. Twitpic works great with Tweetdeck.

I’ll do follow-up posts on other Twitter apps – but wanted to get my Top 3 out on this beautiful first day of the New Year.

I’ve been playing with Twitter for several months and my experience is a positive one. I landed a client via an online colleague’s "followers", and have recently picked up several followers who are interested in my writing, marketing and consulting services.

If you’ve never Twittered, get over there and open a free account.  Then have some fun with these Twitter tools: Twitter Widget: Adds a card to your Twitter photo, name and latest post. (here’s a sample) Ten Best Twitter Tools for WordPress: Includes scripts to Tweet from your sidebar or add your RSS feed to Twitter. Twitter Fan Wiki:

Dozens of cool applications for Twitter. Includes tools like Outlook add-ons, desktop Twitter clients, and Firefox add-ons.