I grew up in the direct marketing industry, whose efforts live and die by measuring ROI. I learned early on that before you can begin to develop a marketing campaign, you need to get clear on the one key objective that will drive all your investment decisions. Without this objective, you have nothing to steer your planning or analytical efforts.

How do you measure your primary goal?

Step 1: Determine a call to action goal. Many marketers recognize social media as a platform for engaging customers, which is great. But that needs to be taken one step further. What is your motive behind engaging the customer? What ultimate action do you want them to take?

Step 2: Determine which social media sites  will be utilized to touch the individuals or groups that will be measured. For example, Facebook, Twitter, or Linkedin.

Step 3: Determine a method for comparing the activity of the individuals or groups touched via social media tools against a same size similar  sampling not touched.

Step 4: Determine costs associated with the social media efforts.

Step 5:  Calculate P&L for the social media groups versus non-social media.

Step 6: Analyze the lifetime value contribution of the social media versus non social-media sampling.

I believe the challenge with measuring ROI lies in creating the methods for capturing and analyzing the data. It is a matter of getting your arms around what you want to measure and how to go about doing it. These answers won’t lie clearly in front of you, but that doesn’t mean the answers don’t exist. My experience is that you need to come up with creative ways and be willing to put some labor into the analysis.

Photo credit: Denis Vrublevski

In the 1930’s, 1940’s, and 1950’s kids would flock to Hollywood, California in search of their dreams of stardom in the moving pictures aka the movies. These kids, like Norma Jean or John Wayne, would hit town and immediately begin the process of “being discovered.” The  4 steps they would often take can be equated to today’s job seeker or entrepreneur in their quest to find a job or “stardom” in their field.

1. Go to the Studio

Future Starlet or Star: Often the first (wannabe’s) strategy would be to go straight to Warner Brothers, 20th Century Fox, or other big studio and beg for a meeting or interview from a movie mogul, director, or talent scout. Banging on doors, collecting names, finding information to follow up was often the best these kids would manage.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur on Linkedin: Often the first strategy is for job seekers and entrepreneurs to begin to show up on Linkedin, the modern day equivalent of the Hollywood studio. Here are a few steps to take “on the set”:

• Create a powerful profile on Linkedin
• Utilize the Linkedin internal search engine to find names, facts, and contacts of people and companies looking for their talents.
• Connect with targets by joining groups
• Showcase talents by answering Questions and asking Questions

2. Get Discovered

Future Starlet or Star: The next step was for these kids to go hang out in the drugstore soda fountain or by the pool at the Beverly Hills Hotel. This was their form of networking to showcase their “look”, their style, or their originality.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur on Facebook: The next strategy for a job seeker or entrepreneur is to build a Facebook profile. Here they can place pictures, videos, and samples of their writing. They can include links to their Linkedin profile as well as other information resources. Like the Hollywood actor in waiting, job seekers and entrepreneurs can showcase their expertise, originality, and focus.

3. Go to the Right Places

Future Starlet or Star: The next step would be to go to the Brown Derby for lunch or dinner. Ease drop on conversations, ask doorman or bartenders for tips on who’s in the place, and try to find the right people talking about the industry.

Job Seeker’s and Entrepreneurs on Twitter: Twitter is the place for people to find conversations about their industry, jobs, opportunities, and regional areas. Here a person can politely “inject” themselves into conversations, RSS subscribe to conversations, and begin to communicate and network with their targeted audience(s).

4. Hire a Manager, Talent Scout, Press Agent

Future Starlet or Star: Finally the wannabe would begin looking for help via an agent or other representative. The difficult process of trying to break in on their own becomes overwhelming.

Job Seeker or Entrepreneur establish their blog: Tired of sending out resumes, paying for advertisements, and waiting by the phone, these people establish their own blog. The blog becomes their press release, their talent scout, their agent, and their delivery system. It is the hub and centerpiece of their campaign to build a new business or find a new job opportunity. The steps include:

• Writing Articles: showcase talent and expertise
• Sending Articles: leaving links to their articles on other industry, company, or niche blogs
• Creating Video: video clips of themselves giving tips or explaining a process
• Recording Podcasts: recording their own “radio show” filled with information and expertise design to help people while showcasing their talents

Since Dean and I started providing Linkedin.com profile writing services, we’ve been hearing the same question posed by nearly every person we’ve worked with—What can I do to create a profile that really makes me stand out?

Our answer is first a reminder that Linkedin.com is a social media site, where there is less of an emphasis on selling your attributes and more focus on demonstrating your value. Sure, you need to highlight your key accomplishments as reasons why you should be hired, and define specific things that make you unique from most candidates. But the compelling power of social media lies in its multi-media dimension, so take advantage of that by adding dimension to your profile.

Here’s a simple example: Which of these profile headlines are you most motivated to click open?

If you are like me, I say the third headline pops out as the most compelling. Why? Because there is a photo attached.

• A photo puts a friendly human behind a name and job title.
• A photo adds warmth and color to an otherwise neutral box.
• A photo delivers the message that you are putting yourself out there, not standing back in the shadows.
• A photo demonstrates confidence that you feel good about yourself.

One concern about adding a photo to a Linkedin profile that I often hear is the age factor. Several people have told me that they don’t want people to know how old they are, so they refrain from a photo. My response to that is two-fold:

1. They’re going to find out anyway if you ever meet them live.
2. Without a photo, you give up the benefits listed above.

With that said, is there any reason why you shouldn’t put your photo up?

This post was inspired by a very insightful McKinsey Quarterly article, Six Ways to make Web 2.0 Work, that I discovered in a Linkedin Facebook group that my friend, Karen Brennan turned me on to. It brought me to realize that there’s something inherently different about Web 2.0 and previous technologies that most of us haven’t stopped to acknowledge. Understanding and embracing this difference will separate those who will be successful with Web 2.0 from those who will won’t.

What’s the difference?

The difference is that we’re used to technology being an automation tool, improving productivity and streamlining manual processes.  Web 2.0 is a completely different animal; it requires a high degree of participation on the part of users to be effective.

This is a shift that requires acknowledgment. We need to move on from thinking that technology is all about saving time. We now need to recognize that Web 2.0 requires involvement in order to pay off.

How do you begin to make the shift?

Step 1: Be aware of the Web 2.0 tools available and understand their benefits. This chart from the McKinsey article defines the wide range of categories and their benefits to users:

Step 2: Understand what can be gained by employing these various categories of Web 2.0 tools. Another McKinsey chart does a great job of describing capabilities and potential users. (I apologize for the fuzzy appearance; I decided that a fuzzy chart did a better job in educating than no chart.)

In summary, the next time you catch yourself thinking that Web 2.0 tools require too much work and time, consider that they are now the most effective tools for doing your work. Make the shift to investing in Web 2.0 and slowly move away from your investment in the old ways.

Tell us about your Web 2.0 success stories so that we can all inspire each other.

Whether you are a job seeker, entrepreneur, or company the first step in engaging with your targeted audience is to become a go-to source of valuable information. The idea is to stand apart from your competition and be relied upon and trusted by your network. The best method to begin this process is to understand how to find information that will make a difference to your network and establish you as that go-to source. The first step is to research, read, collect, and aggregate information.

Step 1: Set up a Google Reader

RSS logo courtesy of RSS wiki

Google Reader allows you to aggregate RSS feeds from blogs and websites that contain valuable information. The reader is a storage area you can set up like your own custom newspaper. Tip: You can share parts or all of your Google Reader with your audience. This is a great method to help your network discover new information and what you are reading.

Step 2: Join Twitter.com

Twitter, first and foremost, is the resource where I find 80% of my research and value content. The strategy is simple:

• Identify your industry, niche, people, associations, companies and news sources
• Utilize the “Search” box and input names of people, companies, industry, or company names
• Follow those sources of information. Ex I follow @guykawasaki, @peterkim, @chrisbrogan because they write blogs, offer value, and offer free download resources
• Once you begin following someone or organization of interest go to their Twitter home page and check to see who they follow. This is called mining your resources resources.

Step 3: Global Social Media Network

Blogger Ray Schiel authors one of the best resources for anyone interested in valuable information on social media, blogging, and Web 2.0. Go to Ray’s “Resource” page to find the following:

• A list of 105 Corporate blogs from Rubbermaid to Clorox to Hewlett Packard
• 75+ Corporate Facebook pages, how they are set up, and how they engage their audience
• Dozens of Podcasts
• A list of over 150 entrepreneurs, companies, global corporations in every niche on Twitter