Arikan gets down to details and succeeds at creating a true reference material for real-life, hands-on marketers in the online, direct and brand marketing fields who are interested and learning how to leverage the power of multi-channel metrics to make better budgetary and performance-based decisions.

While Arikan says his primary audiences for the book are mid-level marketers, I recommend it to marketers even at the C-level, perhaps especially at the C-level.  The book is really about how we get to a place where we’re all speaking the same performance-based language and are able to make the most out of our marketing money and efforts as a result.  It’s not the fastest or easiest read, but it is actionable in terms of its insights and recommendations.  You come away with something to talk about concerning what multi-channel marketing is, what cross-channel marketing is – and what it isn’t.  You realize that there’s a lot of untapped territory out there in analytics land, and with a few lessons about measuring multi-channel performance and optimizing based on ROI and diminishing returns, you might just strike it gold.  I’ve had quite a few interesting conversations with potential employers, using Arikan’s insights as a subtext, and I dare say that this is the stuff the future is made of.  And you don’t need to be a digital marketer to get excited about defining and using multi-channel metrics – in fact, you might be even more exciting if you play for the brand or direct teams.  This book helps paint a picture of marketers playing on the same team, regardless of their disciplinary focus, if they work for the same company and have the same overall objectives – oh, and they should.  Good stuff!

I feel pretty strongly about this topic because, yes, our new social movement (made possible through a proliferation of interactive forums and viral/UGC tools) has affected me both personally and professionally.  Personally, I feel that if I’m not sharing enough about myself with my “friends” and contacts that I’m at risk of fading into the background, not existing on some level (which is crazy, honestly).  There is a definite social pressure to contribute, to give feedback, to tell everyone what you’re up to, all the time.  I do my best to keep up, and admittedly, I’ve started two blogs, I have a Facebook page, a Twitter page and a LinkedIn account.  I do these things for a number of reasons, but one of those is most certainly that I stay a part of the conversation so as not to be left behind.  Brands, businesses and individuals the world-over are doing the same for some of the same reasons assumedly.  However I think what Chris Brogan is getting at, on a deeper level, is the idea of this evident social shift where we are so open about everything (primarily our opinions, what we think about anything and everything) that there is an underlying theme of silence as suspect – or dare I go so far as to say – evil to some degree.  Now, what concerns me about this has concerned me for quite a while, but quite honestly, I’ve been reluctant to share my thoughts because it literally felt as though I might be totally alone in my opinion (evidence further supporting it, oddly enough). 

Whatever happened to keeping silent unless you had something really great to say?  You know, the image of the old woman crocheting with her head down and rarely saying much, but when she did, it was full of deep insight and wisdom?  Remember when New Order said “enjoy the silence… words can only do harm… words, like violence, break the silence”?  (Granted that song has been criticized for its undertones of disrespect for women, but here I think the lyrics and the time in which it was written are quite appropos.) 

I just see that our society is so much more overt and extroverted than ever before.  There appears to be very little respect for being a “man/woman of few words” anymore, and to be introverted/shy or reluctant to comment is just, well, CRAZY.  And it isn’t is it?  I still think it’s a good idea to keep your thoughts to yourself in many cases, and by all means, if sharing means hurting yourself or someone else – keep it silent. 

To argue the other side, perhaps in this very open/interactive community where sharing, openness/transparency and authenticity are so important, perhaps it’s more important than ever to think before you speak or post.  After all, everyone’s on now.  Everyone’s listening.  It’s a lot easier to be made painfully aware of the foot in your mouth.

While I see the importance of listening to and giving feedback when helpful and necessary, I’m still waiting to see what the next shift in societal communication is going to be.  I have a feeling we’ll be a little less careless with our comments.  Maybe introversion will come back in fashion after all.

She takes her argument to the extreme by somewhat tongue-in-cheekily suggesting that we should get rid of the witness protection program these days, since the modus operandi of today’s society, especially society on the web, seems to be transparency, openness and authenticity at all costs.  And I have to give her a big, emphatic nod because I too think that we’ve really gone so far in the direction of open and honest communication/representation that there is no longer enough appreciation for the exercise of privacy, even when it is necessary and prudent. 

Sure, I think in an ideal world we’d all be able to express our opinions openly using our real names and home addresses no matter what the forum or context.  But let’s be realistic and come down to earth.  No doubt, the web has certainly placed a lot of responsibility on individuals, organizations, celebrities and, especially brands, to practice what they preach and to be open, honest and collaborative wherever possible - for these practices build trust, loyalty and the oh-so-valuable community involvement we so need to succeed. 

However, I think we need to be careful not to be careless in exposing too much information about ourselves for a couple of reasons.  One – as Angela Connor implies, we can put ourselves at real risk of harm by those who would seek to take advantage of or hurt us because of our opinions and revelations.  And two – because anonymity does serve the purpose of making people feel safe who otherwise might feel discouraged or afraid to speak up – even if their viewpoints are needed to paint a full picture of an issue.  Anonymity can actually promote healthy conversation by allowing even unpopular views to be voiced and giving people the safety they need to comfortably lend valuable and interesting sentiments (whether they are valuable to the greater good or simply valuable to the speaker voicing them).

“The P2P business doesn’t hire though job sites or advertising. It hires by inviting candidates already connected to the company through social networks, both online and offline. New hires rarely have more than two degrees of separation from their new boss and team, meaning they are either connected directly to at least one of them via a social network or came personally recommended by someone connected to a member of the team. In other words, the P2P business hires people it knows, respects, trusts, and has a relationship with instead of relying on a “human resources” bureaucrat to pluck complete strangers out of a resume pool.”

So, does this mean that if I am in the job market now (as I am) by way of a relatively recent corporate downsizing, I can/should only get hired by companies with which I am already connected and communicating at the hiring manager or HR manager level via the company’s blog, Facebook or Twitter page?  That’s absurd.  To think that companies and job seekers should look no further than their backyards (or their bedroom walls, from the job seekers’ perspective) is radical and discriminating, at best.  Am I to already be a fan of every organization that I would ever consider working for in the future?  Wouldn’t that require psychic abilities to tell the future and know my future potential to a great level of detail, today, without having lived it yet?

I do think that looking to a company’s existing fan base and social connections may be a good place to start recruitment efforts, but I do not think that it can be the only method for recruiting new talent, even in a very progressive organization which is actively embracing social media throughout their culture.  It leaves too many potentially great candidates and candidate pools out altogether.  Not everyone who posts a resume on Monster or responds to a recruiter’s email regarding a new position with a new company of which they may not be already familiar is automatically unfit or not as well suited as someone who is already a fan of the company. 

I would suggest, alternatively, that a contemporary corporate recruitment strategy that leverages existing social connections and outreaches to new/potential connections  - is a much better, more democratic approach.

Here’s just one of my favorite little nuggets from the document:

“One of the biggest barriers to developing a smart social marketing program is predicated on adapting the way you think about marketing. While over half of all social marketing programs fail to thrive (Gartner, Oct. 2008), the successful ones have the same elemental truth in common: they understand their target audiences’ passion points and have developed an interactive experience that enables consumers to express themselves.”

If you have information on how to tactically develop and deploy a social media campaign in one or more of the following areas: video, social networking sites (e.g. Twitter, Facebook), blogs, mobile apps or community features on a destination site, please send me the link(s)!  Thanks.

Here’s an informative nugget from the paper, which actually shows a well laid-out online marketing report, stacking up the organization’s various online initiatives and comparatively evaluating online KPIs to help inform subsequent budget decisions.  So simple, it’s brilliant!

“Only businesses that invest the appropriate time and resources to develop reliable analytics practices can successfully and effectively measure and demonstrate the returns on their online marketing investments. For those businesses, successful social media measurement looks like the image below.