• How much time are you investing in social media?
• Do you have a social media strategy – and if so, is it aligned with your business plan?
• Are you reaping the benefits of corporate blogging?

I was delighted to read that almost 70 per cent of businesses plan to increase their social media marketing drive and 74 per cent will give their e-mail marketing campaigns more ‘wellie’ this year.  With 89 per cent of journalists using blogs for research and more businesses attracting new customers from social media, the term ‘Return on Investment’ has been replaced with ‘Return on Engagement’ – because it’s critical that we engage with our target audiences.

Over the coming weeks we’ll be posting a series of hints and tips to give your social media journey a kickstart.

In the meantime, we suggest you ‘listen before you launch’.

• Listen to what your customers and prospects and stakeholders are saying about you online
• Use Google’s blog search tool and type in your business name, products and competitors http://blogsearch.google.com
• Search who is linking to your website and discussing it http://siteexplorer.search.yahoo.com
• Once you know who is talking about you and where your traffic is coming from, you can develop a plan on where to focus your online campaign.