I believe in social media marketing.

I believe it works very well when used correctly.

I believe it’s been worth trying without solid metrics, but it’s also time to start pushing harder for metrics as well.

I believe social media metrics are necessary and important for some businesses to really begin taking it seriously, and for those already using it to validate why they jumped in.

I hope to begin unraveling the notion that social media is without metrics beginning now.

The LACE Method for Social Media Metrics
I recently launched the LACE method you see below with a client and I’m beginning to implement it with other clients as well. I’m already finding it to be helpful in setting expectations and goals from the outset of a social media initiative. Here are the four parts of the LACE method for measuring social media:

L - Leads: One of my clients has an active sales staff that is now beginning to use Twitter and Facebook. Their own internal lead tracking software is going to reveal over the next several months which leads came through social media. If you don’t have leads tracking software yourself, your blog or website analytics will provide a lot of the data you’re looking for. For instance, did other blogs, Twitter, accounts, websites, etc. refer people to you? If so, that’s in your web analytics. Those were leads for you. Whether or not you did anything with them is up to the quality of your website or blog. You can also ask customers how they heard about you and even provide surveys after a purchase or initial contact. All of this provides lead data that can be traced back to social media.

A - Awareness: Awareness is simple in theory. It’s all about the right people knowing you exist. You can measure how many people know you exist by the number of mentions about your company, products, and leaders with various social media monitoring tools like Twitter Search or Technorati for blog monitoring. You might even want to check discussion boards at BoardReader.com. There are other social media monitoring tools available [Shameless plug: my company does this too] but the idea when you start is to determine a baseline of mentions over the last 30 days to 12 months and then build from there. After doing a social media strategy for six months (maybe less) you will be able to quantify whether more people know you exist than when you started.

C - Customer Service: One of the most overlooked opportunities with social media is the chance to meet very real customer service needs. I first started thinking about this last summer and since then we’ve seen companies like Comcast and Southwest Airlines actively monitor and engage customers in social media by meeting their customer service needs. When you engage a current or potential customer through social media, you’re saying a lot about your brand, products, services, and company. This is an easy way to win big with the people who are most likely to talk about you anyway. It’s also important to remember that if you don’t do customer service well, people will use social media to fire back at you. Just ask United Airlines. They broke a guy’s guitar and he took to YouTube, and then it just grew from there. Now there’s a catchy little tune called “United Breaks Guitars.” Seriously, it’s catchy. Kind of like a jingle…but in reverse.

E - Engagement: Engagement is all about conversation. In the same way you can measure awareness, conversation can be measured. Engagement is the active side of the monitoring work. Whereas awareness doesn’t require you to actually talk to anyone, engagement only works when you do. One of the two currencies of social media is conversation, so don’t take this lightly. In the same way that you can begin with an awareness baseline when you get started in social media, you can determine your engagement baseline. If in six months of starting your social media work you’re not having more conversations with people, you’re not doing something right.

Undoubtedly there will be more on this as I continue to refine the LACE method of measurement. If you decide to try it out, please let me know in the comments, via Twitter, or by email. I’d love any feedback that will help move this entire discussion forward.

The image struck me right away because, in a single image, I realized there is a whole other category for social media’s relationship in the world of marketing from the one I personally hold. Here’s what bothered me right away with this particular image:

• It implies that social media isn’t a marketing strategy.
• It implies that social media is one of three coequal online strategies.
• It implies that these three things coexist nicely.
• It implies that they are all necessary.
• It implies that these three things are separate and distinct.

If I had to redraw this image is would simply have a maroon circle that says “social media marketing strategy” and leave it at that. That’s how I see it. Your web strategy has to be more social now. Not because you even choose to, but because that’s what it means to be online.

Why Web Strategy Is Unnecessary
I don’t personally hold a separate category for “web strategy” apart from “social media strategy.” It’s all the same thing in my book because social media just means you’re online in the current (and highly evolving) online climate. “Web strategy” existed when there were webmasters in organizations. They were the only people who could make things magically appear on the World Wide Web.

That’s not the way it is today though. Everyone in your company can publish online and everyone in your company is a marketer. This is happening every day whether you intend for it to or not. They are already creating your web strategy even if you didn’t plan for it. The degree to which you formalize your social media strategy and leverage the marketing opportunities is up to you.

When you say web strategy, you’re talking about how you want to be online. When you say social media strategy, you’re talking about how people already are online. Only when the two are the same will you see it start to work.

My Bias Toward Internet Marketing
I have to confess right off the bat that I feel like the term “Internet marketing” has been hijacked to mean affiliate marketing, online multi-level marketing, and things of that sort. Internet marketing is probably one of the better terms that could be used to describe social media marketing. It’s broad enough to not get tied into a single kind of tool or technology. Unfortunately nobody uses the phrase to mean that so we have to say “social media strategy” to make it distinct and assure people that we’re talking “new web” rather than “old web.”

Internet marketing as most people know it has very little application to real business. The people who seem to do well appear to succeed by convincing others that they’re Internet marketing experts and hold the secrets to success that just happen to be in their latest ebook available for $19.95. I put “Internet marketing” in an mental folder marked “Other” and just leave it there. It doesn’t even enter into the conversation about marketing online for business.

8 Reasons Why Social Media Is The Best Marketing Strategy Online
Social media is probably the best marketing opportunity you’ve ever had. Here’s why:

1. You can access all the tools you need for nearly free.
2. You can find the right people you want to reach more easily than ever.
3. You can know exactly what your customers are saying about you without wondering anymore.
4. You can earn people’s attention by creating content they find valuable.
5. You can connect with people directly even when they don’t contact your customer service department.
6. You can engage and empower your biggest fans.
7. You can influence your greatest detractors (or at least the people listening to them.)
8. You can generate leads, close sales, network with more knowledge, spy on your competitors, be your own media outlet, and manage your company’s reputation.

Internet marketing strategies don’t do this. Web strategies (in the old sense) don’t do this. Social media marketing strategy does this. It’s your web strategy and your marketing strategy. It might change your business strategy. It probably should become your customer service strategy and your PR strategy. Social media isn’t just tools and technology. It’s the way to be online today because it’s the way people are online today.

The sheer collaboration and coordination effort that went into making this video is pretty incredible. One of the coolest parts about it was that the band tapped into their own fan base to pull this off. I think you’ll agree this is one of the more creative videos out there.

Which would you rather have, one front page to your website or 200? Would you rather have one place for people to go to learn more about you or dozens (or thousands)?

In the new web order, the front page is increasingly unnecessary. It’s not dead. It’s just not as important as it used to be. Here’s why: search results are driving people inside websites. Every page within your site could (and should) be a highly specific front door to the site.

Why I Love Blogs
This is one reason I love blogs as a web presence. Every single blog post is a hook in search engine waters that stands alone. For instance, when someone searches for the phrase “social media Nashville,” a series of blog posts from my blog are the second most popular result.  Or take a post I wrote about how to use icons in Twitter. A search on the phrase “Twitter characters” has this post as the second result.

All of this is just a sample of front doors to my site via search. This doesn’t include other blogs and websites that link to specific posts. Each one of those references from other sites creates even more front doors…front doors I didn’t create, but that were created for me.

The bottom line is that every post creates a new front door to the site that didn’t exist before. If you needed any other reason to start a blog, this is it.

I have been blogging for just over three years and have over 550 blog posts. That’s 550 different ways for people to find out about me. That’s over 550 front doors to MicroExplosion.com. That’s where I want my time and energy spent. Not fussing about one big front door, but creating hundreds and hundreds of smaller front doors for the kind of people I hope to reach anyway.

Just Saturday former NFL quarterback, Steve McNair, was killed here in Nashville. The details are still coming out, but the reports indicate he was with his girlfriend when he was shot, and she’s dead too. McNair was married with four children.

McNair was an absolute stud on the football field. He’s revered as one of the guys who played through pain and injury for the team. He was the kind of guy you wanted on your team. He was well regarded in the community too. People liked him on the field and off the field. He was great at all of his business, but in the end, his personal life led to his death.

Michael Jackson died a week ago. We don’t know everything that happened on Jackson’s final day, but it seems he had medical professionals around him who would provide him with powerful sedatives when he requested it and that appears to have been the cause of death. Jackson was known to have an addiction to pain killers in the past.

Jackson was an absolute wonder for music, videos, and live performances. He holds music industry records that may never be broken and is widely credited as being a major influence on many artists, musicians, and performers today. He was great at his business, but in the end, his personal life led to his death.

It’s easy to find people saying great things about McNair and Jackson’s professional lives. We’re not, however, hearing too many people talking so positively about their personal lives, and I can’t help but want to use this opportunity to evaluate my own personal life. Maybe you should as well. After all, we could be great at whatever we do professionally, but our personal life might not be so personal someday. Even worse, it could cut our lives shorter than they should be.

I’m convinced my personal life matters much more than business because, in the end, it’s more important than anything I may do professionally. I just don’t want to waste my life.

With all of this in mind, watch the video below. It wasn’t intended to be a parable about social media in business, but I think it works really well.

The new tools and technology are red.

The new marketing mindset is blue.

Change is purple.

Ironically, this is a great endorsement for Seth Godin’s book Purple Cow.

Blip from Sean Mullen on Vimeo.

In the same way that you look for good conversations at a party, people seek the same thing online.

In the same way you avoid people who dominate the conversation at the party, the same thing happens online.

In the same way you remember the meaningful encounters at the party, the same thing happens online.

In the same way you stop paying attention to the people who only talk about themselves at the party, the same thing happens online.

If you have ever been to a party, you already know the rules for social media. You’ll either be someone people enjoy talking to, or someone people avoid. Maybe it’s time to look through your Tweets and Facebook profile as if you’re on the outside looking in. I just did. I think I’m doing all right on Twitter, but I need to do better on Facebook.