This intersection of social media and merchants using location-aware technology for advertising and mobile device usage (SoLoMo) offer opportunities to retailers and consumers alike, but email is still a tried and true and cost effective channel to engage your audience. If you missed the Neolane Customer Forum in Boston this week, you missed hearing an array of great speakers, interesting topics, free user training, wonderful hospitality and an amazing venue. If you missed, here are my Top 3 Noteworthy Takeaways : The email channel is not going anywhere. MORE >>

And web sites such as Facebook & LinkedIn are doing a very good job tapping into their user data through techniques such as social network analysis. . Traditional customer analytic environments can benefit from those Social Network Analysis (SNA) techniques as well but what is SNA and how can it be used within traditional customer analytic environments?  Metrics created during the development of social network analyses may be used directly within customer analytic environments.  Facebook is going public this week with an initial valuation approaching $100 Billion.  MORE >>

Online social marketing campaigns, used to drive traffic to a site in order to increase online engagement, have been around for a while but they are rarely an optimized process driven by ROI metrics.  Therefore, many social online marketing campaigns are analyzed using a cost per click (CPC) metric ( total campaign costs divided by number of click-throughs ). . This evolution, and the resulting data architecture, enables the user to calculate true ROI on all online social marketing campaigns (as well as many other benefits that I will not get into here).    . MORE >>

This is especially true as social media rises to the top of a customer's experience with your brand. The CMO must prove ROI for more traditional, measurable investments and create meaningful metrics for softer returns, such as brand awareness that results from blogging or other social media marketing activities. Quaero recently sponsored Forrester's Marketing Forum 2011. And if any of you were able to attend our reception or visit our booth, you'll agree that the event was a particularly sweet success; Quaero treated attendees to more than 2,000 pieces of gourmet chocolate!). MORE >>

That is no longer the case, thanks in large part to social media. They’ve been talking about the storm since last Thursday, providing preparedness tips and weather updates (via ads and social) while readying their Rapid Responder trucks to assist those who need batteries. The Home Depot announced extended store hours this weekend in New England via social and have been actively monitoring activity through a Hurricane Command Center. The perfect social storm So why the widespread interest? Simple: weather is content and people have a voracious appetite. Take Duracell. MORE >>