Launching: Crossover Coaching

This week Betsy Linnell Marketing Management completed a Business Launch Plan for Crossover Coaching. Owned and operated by Caterina Alberti CEC, Crossover Coaching brings a unique approach to business coaching recognizing the inter-connection between an individual's business and personal lives. To find out more about Crossover Coaching, check out Caterina's new blog or follow her on Twitter.

Measurability of Social Media

With any marketing initiative, the ability to monitor and track effectiveness is critical. The emergence of social media channels has given marketers some new tools to work with which is very exciting. It's tempting to just go for it and get out there! Hold on - just for a minute. These tools are cool and it's fun to participate in this new channel, however you can spend a lot of time (time = money) to the detriment of your marketing and business objectives. So, my message today? Social media channels have a place in your marketing plan - but the basics of marketing still apply.

Start with your objectives - Realistic, understandable, measurable, beyond normal, achievable and time bound. Ex: Increase awareness levels for XYZ brand by 20% over the course of ABC marketing campaign by December 31, 2009.

From here, build you strategies and assign tactics that fit and will achieve your objectives. Great.

Now comes the challenge - measuring the impact and effectiveness of your social media tactics. Here are a few thoughts:

• Track the increase in fans, followers, comments etc. This is pretty straight forward and can be effective to measure things like "awareness" or "engagement". It can also be valuable for future initiatives since you are increasing your audience.
• Be bold. Implement an offer, promotion, contest exclusively through one of more social media channels. You obviously need an audience for this to be effective, but you will know really quickly if your offer is compelling and resonates with your customers.
• Use one of the new tracking tools that are available such as Viral Heat, an analytics tool to track and measure your efforts in the social media space. http://mashable.com/2009/07/07/viralheat/

So, add social media channels to your marketing toolbox. Ensure that they fit with your objectives and determine how you will measure and track your success.