Gotcha!  By simply reading this article you may have self identified yourself as one of the 40% of marketers who are experimenting with social metrics, learning which works best for you.  Or one of the 37% who struggle to find good ways to measure social activity and its impact.  This all according to a Forrester Research, Inc.  study of Technology Product Management & Marketing Professionals.

Measurement is always a challenge, but it’s more of a challenge if you don’t start with clear expectations of what the social media effort is supposed to do.  Forrester suggests a good way to think about it.  They suggest creating a value chain for social media tactics or ideas.  It goes like this:

Using (specific social activity/approach)      , we help (primary audience) accomplish (target social objective) and make (specific process or goal for the audience) better as measured by     (relevant measures and metrics) which is worth (bottom-line business value)    .

This looks easy enough, and it is easy to write.  The problem is defining the bottom-line business value and sticking to your guns in holding social media accountable.

Nearly every business should require a “bottom-line business value.”  Most marketing activity is judged by its contribution to sales.  Maybe the objective is more and better leads.  More loyal customers.  You could even argue that engaging a customer in a dialog helps you understand their mindsets better.  All legitimate ways of thinking about it.

So, you dive in.  Start a Facebook page.  Put some posts up. And there’s silence.  Deafening silence.  Hello-is-there-anybody-out-there silence.  You’ve seen those pages.  Maybe you have one.

You know if you ran a traditional media campaign and nothing happened, leads dry up, sales are stagnant, awareness doesn’t change that the campaign would die a quick and brutal death.  If you sent a direct mailer that didn’t produce, you’d never send the same mailer again.

But with social media, we have a hard time holding it to the same standards of results.  Why? Is it that we fear that if we’re not doing it someone will think us not current?  Is it that we would admit that we don’t know how to get the audience to engage?  Is it that a failed social media effort wouldn’t look good on our next review?  Or is it that we can’t bear the thought that our target audience is just not that into us?

There continues to be dialog about social media versus traditional media and how social replaces traditional…at least that’s from people who make their living with social media. Traditional media advocates are silent in fear of being labeled “old school.”

We think it’s the wrong argument. We think that social media has much more in common with traditional media than the new gurus would have you believe.

The key difference is the fact that two way communication can be much more powerful for good or bad. A bad magazine ad wastes money. A bad discourse between a brand and it’s social following can destroy the brand.

We’ve all seen companies who rush to Facebook or Twitter effort does nothing more than pimp product or company information. It’s amazing to us how the appreciation for the audience’s interests is ignored for self interest. More, they intrude on a space reserved for “friends.” Not for long though, the ignore button is easier than a DVRing past commercials. These efforts usually have few fans and most of the fans they have will be already connected with the organization sponsoring the effort.

The discussion between social media and traditional media should really be about how to integrate the two and magnify the effectiveness of each. At what stage of affinity does social media really kick into the equation? Does it happen at the awareness phase? Or, closer to the “I’ve bought and I love/hate it phase?” Which media is better at which point of affinity?

If you have a product that has caught fire and your customers can’t wait to tell others about it, social media can create awareness and demand. If you have a product that is a hard to love necessity of life, not so much.

If you’re struggling with the argument of social media versus traditional, take a moment and create a scale that goes from totally unaware to loyal customer. Ask yourself which media strategy makes sense at what point of the continuum? How do you move a prospect from totally unaware to in love of your product? Then make it all work together by connecting the dots between all the options you have on the table.

If you do that rather than rushing into ineffectiveness, you’ll have a cohesive plan that makes the most of your marketing dollar.

We thought it would be interesting to talk to a few golfers about Tiger Woods and his current situation…especially as it relates to a lucrative Nike contract. So we went to the Longview Golf Centre with a camera and a list of questions. This video is what a few golfers said about the situation. We’d love to hear your thoughts.

What would you do if you were the Marketing Director of Nike Golf?

At ZLRIGNITION we’re big into audience research.  We think that if you put your customer first in communications, your communications will be more effective.  And we don’t think it’s a numbers game.  Knowing that 64  percent of the audience bank where they bank because of convenience doesn’t exactly lead to more dynamic or creative communications for the bank.  Afterall, you can’t move the building to be more convenient.

Conversations lead to more dynamic insights that lead to more creative and effective communications.  That’s why we think social network sites have a great future in customer research.  Imagine a community of customers discussing your advertising, product or company.  How much could you learn from that?  Then imagine that you can communicate with them personally for more insight.  How much could you learn from that?

The best thing about research using social networks is that it can be ongoing and inexpensive.  You can test ideas.  Test creative.  Or just seek understanding.

There are some dangers though.  The biggest of which may be the insincere, but vocal, participant with an agenda.  You can weed them out and control them in a focus group, but they are difficult to control in a social network setting.  If they are articulate enough, they can skew your result.

If you’ve grown weary of this recession, join the club.  Here’s a suggestion.  Take advantage of it.

There are deals to be had, and market shares to be won.  All it takes is a little courage and a vision.  Here are five ways you can take advantage of this economy:

1.  Expand–there are plenty of good people on the streets who are tired of their livelihood being dependent on the whim of the economy and somebody else.  You can find partnerships to expand your distribution, open new locations and sell to new markets.  And you can do it for a fraction of what it would have cost you a year ago.

2. Negotiate–If you’ve got a budget left, now’s the time to put your agency to work negotiating better deals with the media.  Don’t be afraid to walk away from your favorite station and you can multiply your share of voice.

3.  Zag–Now’s your opportunity to be different.  Avoid sameness.  Do creative that’s loud in the market place.  Make your little bit of money work like a lot of money.

4.  Shake new trees–If the trees you’ve been shaking don’t seem to bear any fruit, shake new ones.  Think about new markets, new prospects, smaller prospects, bigger prospects.

5.  Increase your marketing budget—What?????? In this economy????  Are you nuts????? If you could, wouldn’t it be a great idea.  So if it’s a great idea, why not do it?