Yes, there are lots of variables, like the key words, style and content of the specific ads, that can influence effectiveness. But across the board we saw no drop in traffic whatsoever, and, more importantly, no reduction in leads. In fact, by  blogging and tweeting more often, we've doubled traffic across all of our sites and according to Leadlander  the leads we are getting are actually more qualify.

Now obviously if I had to pay someone to spend an hour or so a day blogging or tweeting the ROI calculation would be different, and obviously my time isn't exactly "free," but as a way to test the effectiveness of one of our marketing efforts, it's pretty clear that the ROI isn't there.

LeadLander Daily Report

TODAY'S TIP: View contact info by clicking on the link to Jigsaw in LeadLander.

Yes, all these pictures were  taken at various speeches I've given in the last few years, but there's one other element they all share. They all came from my favorite boutique, which should be called

"La bonne volonté" but is, in fact,  my local Goodwill store. Now, in the interest of transparency, Goodwill is a client of ours. But I was a big fan of Goodwill long before they became a client. I just realized that as I'm trying desperately trying to reduce my carbon footprint, one way I could do that was not to buy yet another piece of clothing that was manufactured in China or Honduras and traveled god knows how to my local Macy's. I think of it as recycling chic.

If you know your labels, and as the daughter of an edit

or-in-chief of Harpers Bazaar I better --- you can score some amazing deals. Nothing makes your day like finding a $500 suit for $19 and then finding the shoes to match for $5. Most of these outfits cost less than $50 and the most expensive element is probably the earrings. 

Goodwill is yet another in a long line of non-profits that is effectively using social media to change and upgrade its image. And, as it happens, one of our recommendations to Goodwill was that they needed to use visuals more in their social media efforts. I decided I better practice what I was preaching.

This should probably be on the Sweet Scoops blog, but since they haven't started it yet, here goes. First of all SweetScoops is what I call "the No Confession Confection" -- a creamy wonderful frozen yogurt that tastes like really rich premiuim ice cream but has half the calories.  So when I'm feeling like I really need to indulge my sweet tooth, I pick up some of their Ginger or Mudslide or Blueberry and feel wonderfully self-indulgent, but not nearly as guilty as I normally would.

Which got me, a wickedly lapsed Catholic, thinking about guilt and indulgence and all those decisions we make every day that seem to be all about achieving some balance between the two. Normally, when I have a bunch of writing to do and I have 5 hours on a cross country flight, I'll whip out my computer and write like crazy until I run out of battery power. That's what the "good" Katie Paine would do. The "bad" Katie Paine would watch Mamma Mia the movie. A movie with no redeeming intellectual value, but with a bunch of music I adore.

So last week I had this conversation with my friend Pam that took place while I was making my annual batch of apple Thyme jelly:

Pam: "Why can't I grow time"

Katie: "That's an incredibly profound question"

Pam: "Not really, I plant it every year and it never comes back"

Katie: "That's even more profound. What would happen if it did? "

What would happen, I wondered if somehow the time you "Spend" could actually be redeposited in your life. You wouldn't have to make nearly as many decisions.

• A time to indulge in desert and a time to "eat healthy."
• A time to watch a movie  on the flight home, AND time to plow thru 300 emails.
• A time to read that "bodice ripper" AND time to read a report.
• A time to listen to all those podcasts of "Wait Wait Don't Tell Me AND a time to return all those phone calls
• A time to the green house AND clean the bathroom
• A time to feed your funny bone watching all those Jon Stewart episodes you tivoed AND time to feed the cat
• A time dream your next garden AND time to weed the one you have
• A time to run thru the mountains, or back roads or streets of town you’ve never been to before AND time to run thru spread sheets 
• A time to sail away AND a time to make sales.
• A time to write a friend a hand written note AND time to write up the meeting notes 
• A time to comfort a friend in trouble AND time to stay up on your contacts on Twitter
• A time to walk with a friend AND time to talk to a client.
• A time focus on the beauty of an autumn afternoon AND time to focus on the numbers 
• A time pay attention to wildlife (#NWF)  AND time to pay attention to profits
• A time to forage for new plants AND time to forage for new clients
• A time to make pickles & piccalilli  AND a time to make speeches
• A time to stop everything and get out and listen to a friend play your favorite music and a time to stop everything and finish the damn report.

This is what my life is made up of, and I thank Sweet Scoops for taking decision #1 off my list.What's your life made up of?

I'm currently getting ready for a marathon trip that includes Boston for a BankerStuff event, the SNCR Symposium and Awards Gala, PRSA International, a day of consulting at PARC, another SNCR Meetup, an all day offsite board meeting, an IABC and SMC Louisville event, and finally a reception for recipients of the Seacoast Concert for a Cure funds. 

For those agencies, clients and providers out there that are now left in limbo,  making money off of a practice that has now been rejected by leading experts in both Canada and the US,  I can only say:  "move on."

The Canadians did. They went thru this debate five years ago, when they rejected AVEs and settled on the MRP Standard . Today, when I speak in Canada, I am constantly amazed by the intelligence and sophistication of my audience and the questions they ask. They don’t bother with questions about “what’s the AVE of a blog” but rather challenge me with questions about correlations to outcomes.   

If anything, this vote comes at a perfect time. PRSA is pushing a set of guidelines that specifically address PR’s contribution to the bottom line – whether in terms of sales, revenue, cost savings or stock price. Check it out.

At the same time, with the rise of social media, AVEs have little meaning when the value of the most traditional media is dropping daily, and the power of individual blogs, many of which don’ t accept advertising, is growing exponentially.

The good news is that every week, a new and better way of demonstrating contribution to your organizations bottom line presents itself. Sodexo measures its Twitter success via $300K in recuirtment cost savings.  Non-profits are correlating success in fund raising to social media programs. Southwest has seen such success from its social media efforts that it can quintuple the size of its department.

So why do clipping firms and PR agencies have such a hard time weaning themselves from this outmoded metric?   Like any bad habit – heroin, porn – pick your analogy --  it sometimes takes tough love to go cold turkey. With luck that’s what the IPR vote will accomplish. 

So rather than seeing this as an earthquake. I prefer to see the vote as PR's emancipation proclamation. As of Friday October 16, 2009,  we are free from the shackles of a slavish devotion to silly numbers, false metrics, and thinking that outputs are all we do.

We can now focus on those things that really matter. Quantifying our real contribution to organizational success.