Today’s guest post is written by Ken Mueller.

Quick, go get your daily newspaper (you subscribe, right?).

Now flip to the back section…the classifieds, and look for the part labeled something along the lines of “legal notices.” I’ll wait.

Ok, now you should see a lot of legal mumbo jumbo in small print about your local city or township having a public meeting to discuss budgetary matters and what-not.

You check that section of the paper every day, right?

Well, believe it or not, government bodies are required by law to pay for those notices.  Here in Pennsylvania, the state code says “public notice must be given for all public meetings” and in most states there are guidelines that dictate such notice should be done via “a newspaper of general circulation.”

The idea is, by publishing the notice in the newspaper, the legislative body in question can’t get away with making decisions behind closed doors. But really, when’s the last time you ever thought to look in the legal notices in a newspaper to stay informed? And what, exactly, is a newspaper of “general circulation” anymore?

One of my clients is a very small township of just more than 5,000 residents. Money is tight for everyone, especially government bodies, and this particular township is required by law to spend about $14,000 a year on advertising. Not a lot of money in the grand scheme of things, but translate that to a major city like Philadelphia or Chicago, and just imagine how much they are required to spend.  As well, the large majority of newspapers are seeing declines in subscriptions.

Let’s do the math:

• Government bodies have fewer dollars to spend
• Fewer people are reading the newspaper

And yet they are still required to spend the money on newspapers to notify the public.

One of the rules of marketing is,

“Fish where the fish are.”

If the goal is to notify the general public of meetings, perhaps it’s time for legislative bodies to get on board with this whole online, digital thing.

Total newspaper circulation in the U.S. is estimated at about 48 million (and declining) while Facebook use in the U.S. now stands at more than 157 million (and growing). More than 239 million Americans have Internet access.

A recent Council of Economic Advisors analysis of LinkedIn trends shows that, while the Internet and online publishing are among the fastest growing industries in the U.S., newspapers are the fastest shrinking industry in the country.

Wouldn’t it make more sense for states to allow local governments to use their online properties such as websites and Facebook, to reach more people while cutting back on spending?

Yes, I know I’m asking for common sense to reign in a realm where common sense is in short supply. And I also know the newspaper industry would fight such a change for fear of losing a large chunk of easy revenue. But now is the time for change. Citizens have greater access to online properties, and the Internet and social media offer greater avenues for participation within the government process. Sadly, governments, like newspapers, are slow to change.

Seems to me if you really want to hide something from the public, the legal notices of the newspaper might just be the place to be.

What are your thoughts? Is it time we unshackle our government bodies from the heavy yoke of mandated print advertising? Do you agree that putting these types of legal notifications online would actually enhance participation in local government?

Ken Mueller combines his 30 years of experience in the media industry at Inkling Media. Follow him on Twitter @kmueller62. 

NP5G9VS73GCF

When the news spread, first on Mashable and then through the more traditional channels, people on Twitter and Facebook were astounded.

Though many didn’t know him in real life, they felt like they’d built a strong relationship with him on the social networks. Both his offline and online friends questioned whether or not they could have prevented it and lots of blog posts were written both about the loss and about using social media to detect life-threatening depression.

Early last winter I was in Orlando on a Saturday speaking at the Retail Packaging Association show. I received an email from a friend, a direct message on Twitter from another friend, and a voicemail from a third friend…they were all worried about a fourth friend who was tweeting and updating Facebook with some alarming things.

That friend did not take her life. I don’t know if it had anything to do with social media or if she got the help without her online friends, but a tragedy was avoided.

Social Media Effect On Suicide

Since the first documented Internet suicide pact in Japan 12 years ago, researchers have been trying to figure out what role the web plays in suicidal behavior.

On one hand, you have people genuinely concerned and taking action when someone makes an alarming or depressed comment on one of the social networks. On the other hand, you have cyberbullying that is creating a higher level of suicides in teenagers than before the web.

A new study suggests social media is only making it more difficult to find answers to those questions.

Just like everything else, social media has its pros and cons when it comes to whether or not someone will take their own life.

There are pro-suicide chat rooms and private Facebook groups and not-so-private Twitter lists. But there also are huge opportunities to use social media to identify people who are at risk.

The Consequences

The study for the National Center for Telehealth and Technology (a health organization that typically works with the military on brain injuries) was completed in response to the rising number of suicide deaths because of cyberbullying.

It found that, while it’s a difficult subject to study (“only” one million people worldwide commit suicide), there are several consequences when it comes to Internet use and increased suicide rates:

• Cyberbullying has been tied to increased suicide risks, particularly among teenagers (and you thought high school was bad)
• Social media helps form suicide pacts among complete strangers with only this one thing in common
• There is information on “how-to” methods for committing suicide
• Video sites, such as YouTube, are increasingly playing a role in providing pro-suicide and self-harm content

There Is Hope

But it’s not all bad. Like the example I used of my friend who was quickly reminded of all who love her through more traditional means and social media sites, it’s now easier to spot those who might be at risk in order to take action.

We’re much more attuned to cries for help and pleas of desperation on the social networks, which makes help come that much more quickly.

Facebook, Twitter, and even YouTube are being used to share information on how to spot people at risk, what to do about depression, and how to know when it’s time to bring in help.

Use social media for good. If you ever have a friend who demonstrates life-threatening depression (online or off), call your local authorities, alert the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and get them some help!

P.S. I know this isn’t a happy topic, but the study made me realize it’s an important issue to discuss.

Today’s guest post is written by Jim Dougherty.

When I was a young Lieutenant in the Army there was a crusty Sergeant who enjoyed making my life difficult by telling me why I couldn’t do things.

He would always preface his thwarts with the phrase “by regulation.” One day my boss asked me about a project I was working on and I informed him that “by regulation” there were some restrictions to what I could do.

His response was simply, “What regulation?”

When I discovered the cited regulations didn’t exist, I gained a healthy appreciation for skepticism.

These days my skepticism kicks in when I read sensational articles around “social media.” With all of the nuances of different platforms, social media is a huge umbrella that encompasses some very specific tools.

Someone in the public relations field may associate Twitter with the term, where someone in the SEO field may think Google+. Someone selling direct-to-consumer may think Pinterest, while a small business owner might think Facebook. A recruiter may associate the term with LinkedIn.

Considering the range of services informing our perspectives, “social media” becomes quite an opaque concept.

Don’t Accept Everything At Face Value

And here are two reasons why:

1. IBM recently released excerpts of their study which was widely reported in the media. Forbes ran the headline “IBM Study: If You Don’t Have a Social CEO, You’re Going to be Less Competitive.” Fox Business ran the headline: “How Corporate Culture Will Change in the Face of Openness.”

   Both touted the astounding fact that 53 percent of CEOs expect to be using “social media” to connect with customers in five years (up from 16 percent today). Also discussed was the prevailing sentiment that social media would replace a portion of customer facing in sales.

   Here’s the problem: The research is based upon a survey of 1,700 CEOs where the questions revolve around the role of generic direct-to-consumer “social media” that less than 16 percent of the CEOs surveyed use. It’s also presented for the purpose of selling IBM social tools without revealing the methodology for the research.

   What is the true significance of a survey of CEOs predicting use of tools they don’t use or understand? Probably not much. In 2017 I expect it will be just as inconceivable as it is today that you’ll be able to direct message Jamie Dimon about your Chase checking account.

2. In another example, Satmatrix released a study recently showing B2B lags behind B2C in social media adoption. The caveat? The respondents were drawn from a community around Net Promoter Score (NPS), a measurement typically used to sense consumer sentiment guaranteeing that B2C would be overrepresented in the survey.

   Here’s the problem: All of the questions asked were about generic “social media” and were organized to sell their NPS social products. Does B2B lag behind B2C in social media adoption? Probably, but if you compare B2B initiatives on LinkedIn rather than within the wider swath of “social media” you would get a better sense of how businesses are interacting with other businesses in the social space.

It’s sensational and provocative to make sweeping generalizations about social media (or anything for that matter). As my experience in the Army taught me it’s important to dig a little deeper if it informs our decisions better.

Tacit acceptance of something that has been printed or repeated makes us vulnerable to spin. And spin sucks.

Jim Dougherty writes about social media and technology on his site Leaders West and for the Bay Observer blog. You can follow him on Twitter @leaderswest.

He and I were talking to Bob Reed about the book publishing process – Mark having just published Return On Influence and Geoff Livingston and me having just published Marketing in the Round.

I said people think the writing the book part is hard, but it’s really the promotion and book tour part that is hard.

He asked me if I was exhausted yet (I said yes) and I asked him the same question.

Bob asked some really interesting questions, which led to this: The rights for Mark’s Tao of Twitter has been bought by McGraw-Hill (his Return On Influence publisher) in order to get a second edition out very quickly.

Why?

Because a competitor is publishing a Twitter book and they want to beat them to the punch.

Is Publishing Dead?

And just when you thought publishing was dead…

It took a full year to get Marketing in the Round out, from signing the contract and writing the book to editing and actually printing it.

A full year.

In the blogosphere, we’re accustomed to instant gratification. If I publish this blog post by 7 a.m. CT, I’ll know by 9 a.m. whether or not it hit a nerve with readers. And, if it doesn’t, I always have tomorrow to write something better.

But, with a book, it takes a full year to get any sort of feedback on what you’ve written, which is kind of crazy in today’s instant, real-time world.

Enter publishers buying the rights of self-published books. Admittedly this isn’t something I saw coming, but it’s brilliant on the part of McGraw-Hill.

You see, the book is already written. It’s already selling. The author already has a built-in audience for this particular content.

In Mark’s case, he wants to extend Tao of Twitter beyond his own network. And the publisher wants to beat a competitor to the marketplace.

Suddenly a year is shortened to less than three months. No, it’s not real-time yet, but it certainly is a way to look at publishing that doesn’t take 12 months and almost reinvents the industry.

Why Should You Care?

At last week’s Ohio Growth Summit, Anthony Iannarino and I debated the merits of the publishing world.

We come at it from different perspectives: He self-published, “How to Crush It, Kill It, and Master Cold Calling Now!“

I went the more traditional route.

He talked about how effective self-publishing has been for him. Not only does he make more money per sale, he gained everything I said was great about having a publisher: Instant credibility, increased speaking fees, more clients.

And now you have Mark’s example of selling the rights to a self-published book in order to widen his network and get out into the mass audience.

What About Next Time?

I’m not sure I’d do it differently next time. I have learned a ton about organizing a book, writing a book, putting your ego aside while your book is edited, publishing a book, and promoting a book.

I wouldn’t have that knowledge or expertise without it.

But I like this idea of self-publishing something that is ahead of its time in order to sell the second edition rights to a publisher that wants to stay ahead of its competition.

Of course that means your crystal ball has to be functioning and you have to be willing to take the risk. But perhaps it gives you the best of both worlds.

Today’s guest post is written by Merritt Allen.

As a lifelong Jeopardy! fan and former third-place contestant, I was surprised at how engrossing the 2012 Teen Tournament was.

Typically, I ignore the Teen Tournament, turning up my trivial nose at post-2009 pop culture and 7^th grade biology questions.

But this year’s tournament was compelling for three primary reasons:

1. Harder material (which means smarter kids; show writers and producers match material to intellect based on pre-show screening).

2. Washington, D.C., locale lent itself to good host-contestant interchange.

3. Joe Biden presented an entire category of questions.

Now, I have watched probably 80 percent of the nightly Jeopardy! broadcasts since the current show began airing in 1984. And I have never seen Presidential or White House involvement like this.

The contestants and 28-year host, Alex Trebek, toured the White House as part of the tournament, met Mrs. Obama, and sampled vegetables from the garden. That is a pretty awesome event for the high-schoolers selected as contestants. And they talked about it.

The best part, though, had to be the Vice President presenting all the questions in the category, “Cars in America” on the show broadcast on May 9:

“The Chevy Coach dates from around the time this became the world’s largest car company; with cars like my favorite, the Corvette…it held that position until 2008, then filed for bankruptcy, but now it’s back on top.”

Whoa! A blatant pitch for the Detroit bailouts! On a game show! For children! Will today’s politicians stop at nothing?! Pundits chewed over that the following day, of course.

But isn’t the Jeopardy! Teen Tournament the kind of thing you would want the White House to support? No matter who lives there? I remember my first trip to Washington in high school and I would have loved a personal White House tour and visit with the First Lady – Rosalyn, Nancy or Barbara.

Oh, Obama Administration, you support teen intellectual development – how evil!

Not.

And the Vice President presenting “Cars in America?” Hey, I can’t begrudge anyone product placement that brilliant. That’s the political equivalent to a Red Bull can showing up on an episode of The Big Bang Theory.

I found myself dazzled by how brilliantly the White House managed the Jeopardy! opportunity. Right tone, right spokespeople, right audience. You don’t have to love the current administration to respect really good PR when you see it.

If you’re smart, you’ll find a way to incorporate the Jeopardy! tactics into your own campaigns!

Do you agree?

Executive director and founder, Merritt Allen leads all the strategic communication, media relations, campaign and issue management efforts at Vox Optima while also being the only adult supervision at her service-disabled veteran, woman-owned PR company. Merritt can be reached on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook or you can shoot her an email.

It reportedly is just like Instagram, but with a few improvements: It allows full-bleed photos, you can comment and “like” right from the app (instead of going into the Facebook app), it has a few filters, and it moves much faster than the Facebook mobile app.

The Billion Dollar Question

But why build a photo-sharing app when you just dropped a ton of cash on one last month?

It turns out the Instagram deal isn’t quite finished. The FTC is probing the purchase because of competitive reasons. They’re looking into what Instagram could have accomplished on its own and whether or not the deal will hurt competitors, giving Facebook the monopoly in mobile photo-sharing.

They also were likely already working on the Facebook Camera, when Instagram was acquired.

In fact, Facebook Photos product manager, Dirk Stoop confirms, “Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom and his team had nothing to do with building Facebook Camera.”

But the Real Reason

But neither of those are the real reason Facebook went ahead and launched its own mobile photo-sharing app.

Instagram has more than 50 million users, which is great for Facebook. But they have nearly a billion users. And getting those not using Instagram to use the app is likely not a worthwhile venture.

It also means the current Instagram users won’t switch to Facebook Camera (let’s be real; it’s just not as cool).

It’s Not for You or Me

If you’re already an Instagram user, don’t bother with Facebook Camera. It’s not for us.

It’s for the Facebook user who isn’t a social media or technology geek. It’s for the 950 million Facebook users who don’t need another social network nor have the time to download Instagram, attach it to several social networks, begin to build a community there, and flip the photos over to Facebook.

It’s for the Facebook user who is moving away from his or her desktop connection to the phone, to share life’s little moments every day.

I wish I could remember who said it, but somewhere on Facebook this past weekend, a friend’s status said, “Isn’t it funny how we used to avoid our friend’s slideshows after a vacation and now we hungrily search out those photos?”

Things are changing. Mobile is where it’s at. And, rather than try to force 950 million people to use Instagram, why not give them something already incorporated into the social network they’re accustomed to using?

And so begins summer in Chicago – the best season this city has to offer. And many days of cycling, which means an awkward tan requiring me to always wear sleeves and skirts at least knee length.

I hope you have fun plans for the weekend and will get some sun, some exercise, and some family time. I’m going to plant my vegetable garden and see some movies.

For some weekend viewing and conversation, I give you Gin and Topics.

5. Norman Rides a Bike. No one else may find this as funny as I do, but I saw it on The Today Show, so surely someone will think it’s hilarious. This dog actually rides a bike – pedaling and all. It’s freaking amazing!

4. The Ultimate Chick Flick. Steve Farnsworth sent this to me and I laughed. Out loud. It’s funny because it’s true!

3. iPhone Stolen on Disney Cruise Continues Uploading Photos. While it’s very sad this woman’s iPhone was stolen on a Disney cruise, it’s pretty apparent the thief is an idiot. He’s using the phone to take photos, which are still being uploaded to her account. So she created an album on Facebook of her favorites, calling the guy out by name. Awesome.

2. Cat Adopts Baby Squirrel. This is awesome. A cat adopted a baby squirrel, fed it, took care of it, and even taught it to purr. You can skip to 1:08 (the first minute is just the news reporter) so you can see how this came about. Thanks to Jason Konopinski for the share!

1. From Love to Bingo in 873 Images. Michael Schechter sent this to me and it is A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! Getty Images created a video of the circle of life, using stock images. I wish I had this kind of creativity. It’s very, very cool.

Have a really good weekend, everyone!

I’ve followed him on Twitter for many years so I knew what to expect. But you know when you meet someone and you like them as much, if not more, than you do online?

That’s Mike. Before I actually met him, though, I heard over and over again how well-respected he is in Ohio and, particularly, in Columbus.

That’s putting it mildly. I’m pretty sure I’ve never seen a man more well-respected.

As you know, I do a lot of speaking. And I go to a lot of conferences. But I’ve never been to a conference where I was treated better.

To start my trip there, Mike kept tweeting things like, “Tracking @ginidietrich is like watching the Santa Tracker” and “Everyone welcome @ginidietrich to Columbus.”

AND THEY DID!

The community rallied on Twitter and sent me welcome tweets all night.

When I arrived at the conference, parking was a nightmare. Mike took my keys and found me a parking spot so I could head into the conference and attend some of the breakout sessions. Not only was I astounded, I was grateful there still are gentlemen in this world (and I’m totally OK with that).

Then he tweeted, “.@ginidietrich is in the building!” He made me feel really special, which explains part of the reason he’s so well-respected.

When he got up on stage to introduce me for the closing keynote, he relayed a story of Denai Downs Vaughn, who he met at a conference Carrie Wilkerson put on in Dallas last year. He said he was working with Denai to figure out how to get her to Ohio to participate in the conference in 2012.

Last November, Denai was killed in a car accident. Mike stayed up all night, after hearing the news, mourning and writing.

Yesterday he honored Denai as a keynote speaker and the room stood and applauded.

Mike is a force to be reckoned with and “well-respected” is putting it mildly. He joked he would never again do this conference, but I can guarantee it will go on next year, like it has the past eight years.

If you’re a business owner or thinking about starting a business, I cannot recommend you attend more. In fact, I tweeted:

You can find Mike on Twitter, Ideas to Deals (his blog), and hanging out on the Ohio Growth Summit blog.

Today’s guest post is written by Susan Young.

Content curation is the hot ticket item in social media and business these days.

Content curators — or editors — find, sort, categorize, and distill the big data and vast amount of content that’s available.

While Google alerts will locate and list stories and articles, and platforms such as Paper.li may work for amateurs,  good content curation requires the human factor — someone with a pulse — to make sense of the collective information chaos.

Content curation is so much more than simply compiling lists and dropping articles, blog posts, and images into pretty templates.

It is a big time business.

Author Steven Rosenbaum writes in Curation Nation

When you add a human editorial layer, a curational perspective that organizes gathered content and community participation, you get real results.

Savvy companies and communications pros understand what it takes to curate content well.

Good curators:

• Know their audience, readers, and brands
• Keep abreast of trends, twists, and turns in a specific niche
• Pay close attention to articles, chats, interviews, videos, and conversations to discover the ‘buzz of the hour/day’
• Discern the junk from the gems
• Monitor trade associations and industry events
• Recognize news when it happens because their radar is always on and they trust their intuition
• Feel generally curious and enjoy soaking up information like a sponge
• Compile a series of valuable and reliable information knowing their readers trust their judgment and enjoy the blend of quality content they gather
• Understand that by doing these tasks on a regular basis they become a credible source of content and news within a specific area
• Become the people who decide what is news

As a result, the curator becomes the ‘go-to-guy.’ When superior news judgment is reflected in the curation process, including attribution to sources and links to original sites, others come to depend on this ‘go-to-guy’ as more than just someone who sends emails every morning.

Setting the record straight: Curators vs. aggregators

Blogger Clinton Forry says the distinction between aggregation and curation is that aggregation is automated and gathers records based on metadata or keywords. Aggregators can’t evaluate individual pieces of content and make editorial decisions. This is where talented curators shine.

By nature, our brains are drawn to finding and organizing patterns. Humans are funny like this. We can read between the lines, draw inferences on mood, influence, and power, cross reference content, and (attempt to) determine intent and authenticity. Aggregation doesn’t allow for this.

Curators are editors who readers come to like and trust. Curators use their brains; they tap into emotions.  Automation and algorithms are based on mathematics, not passion or news judgment.  Editors recognize a well-written story. They fact-check. They have reliable sources within the niche who offer insightful content.

All of these elements, separately and together, gradually build rapport, credibility, and loyalty between the brand (curator) and the reader.  That’s when the editor becomes the ‘go-to-guy.’ He/she has the information other people need and want for their own success.

How does your organization pull together valuable information for your employees, clients, and prospects? Who is the ‘go-to-guy’ in your company?

Susan Young is a social media, news, PR, and communications consultant. She works with organizations to create compelling content to increase online visibility, credibility, and revenues. Her latest achievement: Being named one of the ’75 Badass Women on Twitter’. On Twitter @sueyoungmedia.

He relates a story of a small business owner who went to a conference and the social media expert who spoke advised attendees use all of the social media networks because “you never know where your customer is going to be, so you need to be in all of the places.”

This makes my blood boil. Clearly the speaker does not run a small business or have to make payroll or deal with HR issues or make rain or report to stakeholders. If he or she did, they would never advise this.

Play Where Your Customers Play

One of the things we do, when we begin work with clients, is put them through a five-step process. It’s also the process I use when teaching business leaders how to get started on the social web.

It’s not complicated. You start by listening, then move to assessing the conversations, then engage, then measure your results, then tweak and improve, and then you start all over again.

And, if you have time for only one thing, listening is the most important of the process. It’s the foundation for any communication program, not just for using the social web. It allows you to understand where your customers are participating online, the conversations they’re having, and what matters to them most.

Listen

The easiest way to listen is to use Google alerts.

It always surprises me how few people use this free tool from Google. You can set up alerts for your name, the company name, your competition, and the industry…at the very least. If you do those four things, you’ll receive four emails each day. In that email, it will outline where conversations about your search topics are happening online: The web, blogs, comments, discussion groups, social networks, videos, and books.

After a week or so you begin to see a trend. You’ll notice whether people are talking about your search topics on blogs or on the social networks. This begins to give you some intelligent information about which one platform you should use.

Of course, if you have the budget or receive more than 500-1,000 mentions per day (my Google alerts usually have no more than 10 each day), you’ll want to pay for a listening program. Tools such as Spiral16, Radian6, or Sysomos are the best.

Assess

Then you can begin to assess those conversations.

Let’s say, for argument’s sake, your Google alerts show you a lot of chatter is happening on Twitter. You note that in your brain as one of the tools to consider.

Now you can assess where the people you’re already connected with are participating online.

There are four tools you can use to do this:

1. Fliptop. Fliptop is a tool that will let you upload email contacts from your computer, an email marketing platform, social media, or Salesforce. It will give you 100 free social profiles; anything beyond that is a paid option. It’s an easy way to test the software to see if it’s something you’d like to consider paying for and using. It returns demographics, title, company, all of the social platforms the person uses, and their Klout score.
2. Qwerly. Qwerly is a little more sophisticated and should be used by someone who understands APIs and how to insert a key into your Web properties. This is a paid tool that takes the person’s name and location, and returns their bio, social networking profiles, usernames, and influence score (such as Klout).
3. Gist. Gist is a tool you insert into your email server (such as Outlook or Gmail). Every time you email someone, it returns information such as their most recent blog post, what they’re reading, their shared photos, and their social networks.
4. Xobni. Xobni is the Batman of email. When installed in your email server, it returns so much information it’s almost scary. It gives you the social platforms, just like the other tools, but it also shows you which attachments you’ve exchanged with that person, what time they’re typically on email and responding, how many emails they’ve sent you or haven’t responded to, and more.

Engage

So now you have Google alerts that show (for sake of this blog post) there is a lot of chatter about your company, brand, competition, or industry on Twitter.

Then you find, once you upload your contacts into Fliptop, that most of your existing contacts are participating on Twitter.

It probably makes sense for you to start with Twitter. Not to be on every platform, but based on your research, to start there.

But, of course, you have to have content to use on Twitter. Content that is housed on something you own: Your website and/or blog.

Jay Baer offers the best image I’ve seen on how to begin to engage online.

In the days of old, we would use written customer testimonials on our websites. Now you can take that same philosophy to create videos of your customers telling your company story. Those videos are uploaded to YouTube (which helps with your search) and embedded on your website and/or blog.

Then that link is used to build engagement through content on the one social network (Twitter in this case) where you’ve decided to participate.

Measure

Now it’s time to pay attention to whether or not your efforts are working. We use both Google analytics and Clicky at Arment Dietrich, but use InfusionSoft for Spin Sucks Pro and Hubspot for clients to generate leads, measure results, and figure out what’s working and what’s not.

You want to have a benchmark as you’re starting out. Your benchmark may be zero and you may be guessing at what you should measure (hint: It’s not web traffic) and that’s OK. Start somewhere, give it 75-90 days, and move to improve from there.

If you need help in setting up a measurement program, pick up Marketing in the Round. The last three chapters focus on how to do this.

Improve

And then you’re going to improve. You now know where your customers and prospects are participating. You’re creating stories and content that allow you to engage online. You’re measuring your results. And now you know where you need to improve.

We always recommend clients (and conference attendees) start by crawling, then walking, then running, and then flying.

There is no reason on earth you need to be everywhere at once or start with more than one thing.

Start small and grow.