If you’re planning to attend SES Chicago, and you haven’t quite clicked on that register button, STOP! WAIT! HOLD ON!  because if you enter this little discount code 20SERE you’ll save yourself 20% on an SES Chicago conference pass (that’s over $350 on a platinum pass).

And if you’re going you should check out our session on Bringing PPC In-house.  We’ll be co-presenting with American Public University System (APUS) and discussing how we successfully helped them bring their PPC in-house.  Or stop in and see our sponsored session Social Media Strategy & ROI Measurement where we’ll discuss how to build a Social Media Strategy working backwards from a solid measurement framework.

Also catch our Director of Social Media, Li Evans, as she introduces the session Introduction to Search Engine Marketing, as she speaks on Images and Optimization and as she discusses Ghost Blogging, Tweeting, Content Production – Ethical? Does it Matter?

Below are more details on our In-house and Social Media Measurement sessions:

Bringing PPC In-House
While a PPC campaign can be a more cost-effective operation if executed in-house, the complexities of staffing and managing an in-house PPC program can be more challenging than you might think. In this session, we’ll discuss how to create the right combination of people, tools and resources for maximum efficiency and success. Determining when it makes sense to in-source your PPC, developing an effective bid strategy, and selecting suitable ad tracking software are just some of the key factors to be discussed.

Moderator:
Paul Elliott, Partner, Rosetta

Speakers:
Nathan Linnell, Director of Analytics, Serengeti Communications
Hee So, Senior Internet Marketing Coordinator, American Public University System

Social Media Strategy & ROI Measurement
According to Forrester, Social Media will be the fastest growing interactive marketing technique over the next 5 years and account for the third largest spend category. Unfortunately, most marketers struggle with how to measure Social Media and demonstrate its effectiveness. This leads to difficulty securing budget for the channel, which in turn leads to weak or inconsistent strategy.

In this session, you’ll learn how to create a successful Social Media strategy, working backwards from a solid measurement framework. We’ll show you what to measure and how to measure it, and share our secrets on high-ROI Social Media.

In the meantime, download our white paper on Social Media measurement at http://www.serengeticommunications.com/measuring-sm.

Speakers:
Nathan Linnell, Director of Analytics, Serengeti Communications
Nan Dawkins, Founder and CEO , Serengeti Communications
Liana Evans, Director of Social Media, Serengeti Communications

If you’re in New York on November 5th, or just want a great workshop, we’re doing a training on Social Media – Planning Strategy, Monitoring & Measuring Your Way to Success as a part of Search Engine Strategies’ SEM Training New York: Full or Half Day Workshops.

We’ll take you beyond the fundamentals of understanding just what social media is. If you’ve got the grasp of what Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Flickr and Linked In all are, then you are ready for the next step. That next step is all about Strategy, Monitoring and Measuring.

1. Over at Take it in-house, we just posted an audio interview with Philip Maher, founder of Intuitive Investments and former Director of Interactive Strategy at RH Donnelley.
2. Check out Li Evan’s latest article on Search Engine Watch, Can Social Media Be Measured?
3. And if you haven’t downloaded it yet, grab our newest white paper on measuring social media, Social Media Impact: Unicorn or Elephant?

The penultimate speaker at the unconference was KD Paine, who I had the pleasure of sitting next to at the dinner the previous evening and conversing about the topic of her presentation today – measurement and value.

The value of measurement is finding out what works and what doesn’t.
How do you know what social tool to use? Measurement. Find out what the impact is. You need to be absolutely clear abouut what the Return is before you can calculate your ROI. Know exactly what you’re trying to measure before you measure it.

1. Figure out your goal(s)
2. Figure out your audience
3. What are the metrics that you want to report on?
4. What are you benchmarking against?
5. Don’t count eyeballs – measure engagement / leads. What is the value to you?  Are you being positioned the way you want to be positioned?  What is the conversation?
6. So what?  Analyze the information, explain why data shows what it shows. Then determine whether it’s working or not, and whether you should keep it going or not.

Q. How do you measure success?
A. Know the value of your customers / average transaction / members / ideas / etc.

Q. How long do you give before measuring impact?
A. Measure before you start (baseline). Most things have an immediate hit (most comments are in after 3 days), but she monitors for 14 just in case. Quarterly benchmarks don’t really tell you much, you really need to measure for another 3 months to compare. A better way is to use comparative measurement to see how you stand in your industry.

Q. How do you know when a blog needs to change or end?
A. Look at comments per post. 12-13 is average engagements, 35 is highly engaged. Also look at your traffic to see whether you have any traction. State Farm had a blog that had no comments, so they discontinued it. They relaunched a year later and instead of measuring comments, they instead measured employee morale and saw a nice increase