Is the internet is key to your business success? Do you depend on the internet to drive business? Serve customers? Win new business? Makes online sales? Today, that means getting to grips with a totally new online tool: social media.

Is social media adding value to your business?

The question isn’t about what it is doing for you. Its more about what would you like it to do for you. Does it tick your business objective boxes?  What do you want to achieve: drive traffic to your door - get the right people to take action - reduce business costs?

What are your social media objectives?

Knowing what your objectives are - tells you what to measure. It also tells you to what extent you measure those items and the effort to gather the information. It is a matter of priorities and what’s important to you.

What are your business objectives?

For many companies its about increasing web traffic, increasing sales revenue, improving search engine rankings, increasing lead generation, increasing brand or product awareness or reputation. For others it is about customer relationships, improving customer support, reducing the cost of customer acquisition, and reducing the cost of customer support.  

The social media metrics companies are measuring …

According to Marketing Sherpa’s November 2009 Social Media benchmark Survey, companies are measuring:

1. Visitors and sources of network traffic - 72%
2. Network size in terms of followers, fans and members - 63%
3. Quanity of commentary about brand or product - 56%
4. Sentiment and quality of commentary about brand or product - 50%
5. Search engine ranking position - 48%
6. Leads generated - 48%
7. Progress toward achieving social objectives - 38%
8. Engagement with influential bloggers, journalists, twitterers - 38%
9. Sales conversions and other Return on Investment (ROI) metrics - 35%
10. Competitive share of social media coverage - 19%

What are you measuring - and why?

Here’s my top ten favourite twitter tweets for February. These are items I found interesting enough to tweet about - that may be interesting, useful and valuable to others. Read the rest of this entry »

After months of deliberating whether I should twitter or not - I’ve taken the plunge. Just over a week in - and the experience has been interesting. I’m following folk and miraculously have accumulated some followers too. However, the really useful aspect is instant access to information and views. Read the rest of this entry »

MBA students from the University of Leicester School of Business have successfully completed the 2010 LATI case study project. Seven case studies have been successfuly completed, including full sign-off from stakeholder LATI* members and their customers.  Read the rest of this entry »

The LATI case study project is in its second year. The project is limited to ten students - usually MBA students - who need to apply to get a place on the sought-after course. The project requires real student commitment and dedication to see the project through. However, provides rich rewards for both students and LATI members.  Read the rest of this entry »

The 2008/09 LATI case study project MBA students all graduated last week. I’m delighted to report that four out of my class of ten have achieved distinctions. Huge congratulations go to Edward Kapili, Carmen Lo, Arthur Katende and Rob Crane on achieving distinctions in your MBA at the University of Leicester. Read the rest of this entry »

Ten years ago I worked on the Dubai Marina project. It was fantastic. Probably one of the most exciting projects I’ve ever worked on. I hadn’t visited Dubai in the intervening ten years - and was overwhelmed by the place when I stopped off there a couple of weeks ago. Dubai Marina - is no longer a scale model. It’s more than lifesize. However, is it the city we thought it would be?  Read the rest of this entry »

Hey - I know! I’ve gone quiet. Been writing blog posts and customer case studies and web content for other folk - and lost track of my own. Read the rest of this entry »

Have a look - quickly - before someone decides to cull this site or the domain name expires … a Marconi website that gives a history of the company and the man from 1886 to 2000 has become frozen in time … the clock abruptly stopped for this site in 2001… Read the rest of this entry »

The Ericsson site in Anstey in Coventry is to close. Announced by the national news just over an hour ago - what a huge blow to the telecoms industry in the UK - and the dreadful loss of jobs. I worked with these people for over 12 years. The UK’s leading engineers, scientists, technologists and business people have worked for Ericsson, Marconi and its predecessors - including GEC, GPT and Plessey. Not one left.  Read the rest of this entry »