Posted by: Nicole Johnson, Marketing Coordinator

Most marketers are excited about leveraging social networks to connect with their audiences. Sometimes, in their enthusiasm, they forget to take a step back and ask themselves how they plan to measure the success of their new social media programs.

Your company may have 300 people who “like” your Facebook page or 500 Twitter followers, but what does that mean for your bottom line? Are those fans contributing something measurable to the success of your overall marketing objectives?  These are the questions that many marketers aren’t sure how to answer.

A recent study, the 2010 Omniture Online Analytics Benchmark Survey, evaluates ROI on social, mobile and video media, and shows that 55% of respondents cannot effectively measure marketing ROI from their online tactics. The study also found that 86% of respondents consider the ability to track conversions from their online marketing activities as important, but 25% of them are unable to do so.

When you develop a social media strategy, start by setting clearly-defined goals. Once you’ve decided what objectives you’d like your campaign to meet, you can start thinking about how to measure them. Having an effective strategy for evaluating social media marketing programs can give you a competitive edge, so be sure to measure, measure and measure some more.

For information on free tools that can help you measure your social media program, visit Mashable Social Media.

This week, 90octane’s Jim Grinney, Sam Eidson and Brooke Caesar attended the Integrated Marketing Summit in Denver. Sam was a featured speaker on the topic of marketing automation and lead management, and we co-sponsored the event with Eloqua.

We took advantage of the many knowledge-sharing opportunities among top marketers to put together this quick list of hot topics and key learnings from IMS:

1. Marketing plans should start with the desired outcome for the organization. Once that’s established, you can outline the marketing objectives, strategy, programs and tactics (in that order).
2. Keep asking “why” throughout the course of your marketing programs. Asking why specific objectives are being set, for example, provides insight into bigger business goals.
3. Think performance management, not just campaign optimization, to demonstrate how you’re guiding your marketing programs to greater success.
4. Communicate how your marketing success is making a business impact to the C-Suite. They’re interested in customer acquisition, retention and growth, so change marketing reports from being tactically focused (CTR, open rate, impressions, etc.) to speaking the C-Suite language (market share, customer value, category growth rates, etc.).
5. Remember that, these days, consumers control your brand. From brand experiences to social media, viral content can help grow your company. Use these channels to your benefit. read more »

Check out www.facebook.com/90octane for the latest news from conversion-driven marketing agency 90octane. Did you know 90octane regularly participates in charity events like the Crohn’s and Colitis Take Steps Walk? You would if you were checking out our Facebook page. View pictures of our kickball team, the 90 All Stars, and read about our annual Mustache Challenge, where the contestant who grows the most impressive mustache wins $500 to donate to their charity of his (or her) choice. Stay up-to-date on industry news by reading articles we link to and by joining us at marketing events we post to our calendar. “Like” our Facebook page to get all the 90octane updates.

The Online Marketing Summit’s 23-city tour made a stop in Denver this year. 90octane’s Brooke Caesar spoke at the conference and various staff members attended sessions that covered topics such as social media, search, email, demand generation, usability and integrated marketing efforts. Keep reading for some key takeaways from the June 23rd conference.

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Posted by: Grant Garcia, Marketing Coordinator

It’s more important than ever for businesses to effectively interact with their customers using social media. Here are five tips businesses should follow when implementing social media strategies:

1. Remember transparency. Make sure content posted on social media networks is representative of the brand. Most information can be seen by anyone, including people who don’t fall into a target audience group. There are countless horror stories of companies that have posted updates to their pages without considering who was reading.

2. Create value. Posting relevant content can build a business’s reputation as a thought leader and source of valuable information. Remember that it’s important to post content that is useful for the audience, not just content that serves the brand.

3. Encourage involvement. Create an interactive atmosphere where the audience can learn about your business, while also sharing their opinion about industry news. Posting comments and engaging in conversation will increase audience involvement and branding efforts.

4. Listen. Social media channels can act as a valuable source of feedback. Genuine concerns or complaints about your company’s products or services should be followed up on.  Make sure to take customer insights into consideration when strategizing and improving marketing efforts.

5. Post regularly. Maintaining multiple social media networks can be time consuming, but it’s necessary for enhancing customer relationships. Without regular posts the audience will have no reason to stay engaged.

Posted by Chelsea Maxwell, Sr. Marketing Coordinator

Does social media participation have an effect on your website’s overall search rankings? This question is top of mind for companies anxious to drink the social media Kool-Aid, and the answer is both yes and no. While having a presence in the social space will not affect your placement in search engine rankings, it does give you visibility for both real-time and social search.

Google, Yahoo and Bing have all integrated social media into their search environments. This often pushes the “regular” search engine results below the fold in favor of real-time updates, meaning that social search is now taking up prime real estate in the search engines.

Participating in social media and receiving backlinks from social sites can have a positive impact on a website’s search engine reputation. However, remember that jumping into social media before you are ready is never a good idea. Get the basics down first. Then, when the time is right, examine what social outlets make the most sense for your company or brand.