This report by Pew Internet & American Life Project illustrates how important search engine marketing remains in today's online world. According to the report, released in January of this year, 89% of online Americans "use search engines."

In fact it is the 2nd most frequent online activity overall, behind only email (91%). The 3rd most frequent activity was "research product," which 81% of online Americans reported doing. 

For comparison purposes, 47% reported getting info about a job, 38% of all respondents reported using instant messaging and 35% reported using a social networking site. These numbers are from all responses combined. Once repsonses are separated by age group, the younger generations obviously had a much higher percentage of adoption on social networking and instant messaging.

Still though, using search engines was still the 2nd highest reported activity in each generation.

This report is a good reminder that even in the rapidly evolving online landscape, where communication is being redefined on a daily basis, effectively marketing online means incorporating a solid search engine marketing foundation. It also means understanding what people are finding when they search for your company.

One of the greatest things about search engine marketing is that it allows you to be at that exact place and time where prospects are searching for what you have to offer. 

Search engines are still the biggest portal through which internet users are finding information on the web. What are they finding when they search for your company? And, when they search for your product or service, are you there to greet them?

Tracking the effectiveness of a social media campaign is challenging, yet critical. It's easy to see how big of an audience you've attracted by simply looking at how many followers, fans or blog post views you've accumulated.

But is your amassed audience actually listening? How much of your audience is actively participating in your conversation?

"Engagement" is defined differently according to the particular goals of each social media campaign, but here are a few general suggestions to think about. This is by no means a comprehensive list, but hopefully it will get you thinking of different ways to track the effectiveness of your social media efforts.

Blogs

• Comment to View Ratio: Divide the number of comments your latest post received by the number of views. Focus on increasing the percentage of viewers who are compelled to leave a comment.
• Trackbacks:  Trackbacks are a way of monitoring who is linking to your blog post. For a full explanation check out this Wikipedia entry. If your post is being linked to by a bunch of other bloggers, your content has been deemed useful.
• Drill into Analytics: Dive deep into your analytics tool. Is there a traffic spike from Facebook? Someone probably posted your blogpost there, an indication of engagement.

Twitter

• Clickthroughs: Some URL shorteners will track how many times your Tweeted link has been clicked. I use BudURL, which offers a bunch of statistics. This definitely helps you track active engaging.
• Responses to Questions: How many answers do you get from questions you pose on Twitter? This is very subjective, maybe your questions are very niche. Still though, conversation is two-way, so how many responses you get is much more indicative of participation than followers.
• Retweets: This is when one of your followers forwards your tweet to their followers. It looks like: RT@seanoakley. An easy way to track is just use twitter’s search, and enter RT@yourprofile.

Again, certainly not a comprehensive list. But hopefully it's given  you a few ideas on how to track engagement. Of course, once we've figured out how to track audience participation, the real goal is to increase it. I'll save that for a later post.

Have a way of tracking engagement I didn't mention above? We'd love to hear your thoughts, please leave a comment.

Photo Credit: Tim Morgan on Flickr

Today is Congruent Media's 6 year anniversary. I wasn't with the team at the beginning, but from the many stories my teammates have shared, the company has come a long way since it's first humble office in the old Broom factory building on Fleet St. 

Since then we moved to an office in Little Italy, then completed the loop by coming back to Brewer's Hill at our current residence in the Natty Boh Tower. We also expanded by opening an office in St. Paul, MN a year and a half ago.

I keep trying to convince Dan and Jeffrey to open an office somewhere in the Caribbean. I of course would take one for the team, and travel down there to open it. Unfortunately, my attempts at convincing Dan and Jeffrey have failed.

All poor jokes aside, we never forget to whom we owe our consistent growth and continued success: our wonderful clients and many friends. We've been priveleged with some remarkable clients, and cannot thank you all enough. We're looking forward to delivering comprehensive online marketing solutions to you for many years to come.

Happy 6 years Congruent!

Google announced this week that they have begun to show Google Profile results at the bottom of search results pages for US names.  Detailing the way it works in this post on their blog, Google is making it easier for you to control what people find when they Google your name. I mean, surely you've Googled your own name, right? 

Google has also started providing links on the results page to search for a name in popular social media sites: Facebook, LinkedIn, Myspace, etc:

Google Profiles have been around for awhile. They are a simple, clean, one page summary you can edit about yourself. It's tied into your Google account, and the profile allows you to write a brief bio, link to all of your social accounts, show off pictures from your Picasa account, etc:

But while Google profiles have been around for awhile, giving profiles such visibility in search results is a new and meaningful development. Yes, the stated motivation for displaying your profile is to provide you with more control over your name's search results. But there has long been the question about Google's absence in the social networking scene. The social networking site Orkut is a Google project, but has really only taken off in Brazil. 

Profiles, along with the networking features in Reader, Picasa and other Google apps is definitely a move towards a social network. Giving profiles a prominent display on search results pages is obviously a move to spark more user adoption.

But beyond social networking, Google Profiles is really another step towards Google providing you a comprehensive online identity, which is what I believe is their ultimate goal.

Anyways, don't want to go too far off on a tangent. If you don't have a Googe Profile, you should set one up. It's painless and easy. Just do a google search for "me" and follow the instructions.

Being aware of what's showing up when employers, prospects and colleagues search for your name is an absolute must in today's world. And having more control over what's showing up when they do search for your name is an opportunity you do not want to pass up.

Yesterday morning an MTA bus crashed into the side of Brookshire Hotel Suites in downtown Baltimore. This story quickly made it's way around Baltimore, and of course, I heard about it first on Twitter. (Even before Facebook.)

When I heard the story being repeated on the evening news last night, it dawned on me exactly how slow traditional news is compared to the lightning speed of word of mouth on the internet.  I'd already heard and seen a picture of the event at 8am yesterday morning thanks to @davetroy and his own snapped picture of the event.

Blogs, which break news quickly, almost in real-time, have long applied pressure to traditional media. Well, Twitter and Facebook actually do break news in real-time, often with accompanying on the street pictures. This isn't some amazing revelation, it just really sunk in last night while I half-listened to the evening news rehash a story considered ancient in social media terms.

The internet is an incredibly dynamic, constantly flowing stream of information. Increasingly this stream is the first place people turn for news, knowledge, advice or anything else. And people are becoming more dependent on the on-demand availability of information. As marketers, it's important that we engage by helping people in their search for information.  

By adding value to the stream, you engage and create prospects, customers and relationships. By interrupting the stream with irrelevant messages or delivering self-centric promotions, you alienate people.

And never forget the lightning speed of online word of mouth. As a marketer, it can either be a powerful ally or relentless foe.

One last note - in trying to find an actual newspaper story about the bus crash to link to for this post, I googled "bus crash brookshire suites." The 4th search result was the very tweet from Dave Troy mentioned above. It ranked higher than news stories by wbal, wjz and abc2news. Once again illustrating how much the search engines love social media.

Yesterday, after months of hard work, we launched GreenBean.com - a new mobile marketing platform based on SMS text message coupons. Through the GreenBean site, consumers can sign up to receive text message coupons, or Beans as we call them, from their favorite stores and brands.

You create an account at GreenBean.com, input your cellphone number, and choose which Beans to have texted to your cellphone. No programs to download, no phone settings to adjust... if you can get text messages, you can get beans. After you've picked which Beans you want, they're sent via text message to your phone. Now just take your cellphone to the store, and present your Bean at the time of purchase to receive your discount.

You can also subscribe (think email opt-in) to a specific brand or stores' BeanFeed to receive the newest coupons and promotions as they are posted. No worries, you can cap the number of Beans you receive, and decide how frequently you want to receive beans.

The whole CM team is stoked about Greenbean. It offers people an easy way to collect and store coupons on their cellphone, saves them from having to scour Sunday papers and eCoupon sites for the best deals on their favorite brands, and, well, when was the last time your cellphone gave you a paper cut.

Plus, more text message coupons means less paper coupons. Less paper makes mother nature healthier. And of course, it's simply cool...I mean, seriously, paper coupons are so 20th century, and you're living in the 21st right?

For marketers and advertisers, Greenbean combines all the effectiveness of permission marketing with the unprecedented timeliness of delivering promotions directly to a consumer's hip, or wherever else you carry your cellphone.

Go sign up today and see how it works for yourself!

So we received a postcard the other day that had all of us raising our eyebrows. The piece certainly grabs attention, and standing out amidst the daily stream of direct mail pieces we receive every day is certainly a challenge. We just wonder whether this piece sparked the same reaction in recipients that the sending company was aiming for.

Here's a picture of the postcard. Decide for yourself:

Of course the piece is a picture of, and play on,  the recent US Airways plane crash in the Hudson River.

Your thoughts? Your reaction?

Well, this edition of Friday bookmarks is coming to you from a purple covered Baltimore as we gear up for a huge game this weekend. It's been a particularly interesting week because one of the partners here (Jeffrey) is a Steeler's fan, so there have been quite a few interesting emails floating around.

It's also been another interesting week for useful nuggets around the net about interactive marketing. Among this week's bookmarks you'll find:

• A Pew Internet and American Life Project study on adult adoption of social media;
• A list of 50+ different website analytic tools to try out;
• Burger King launches a Facebook friend sacrifice campaign, and is subsequently shut down by FB;
• A step-by-step blog post on creating a high-value keyword list, in 5 minutes!

You'll find these stories, and many more, in this weeks bookmarks at: http://delicious.com/congruentmedia/1.16.09

Hope you enjoy and have a great weekend!

Oh, and let's go Ravens! Sorry Jeffrey, but here's what you can expect to see Sunday:

Smart CEO recognized Congruent Media with an Emerging Growth award in conjunction with the publishing of their list of the 50 fastest growing companies in the Baltimore region. To celebrate the occassion, Smart CEO hosted a dinner banquet at the Baltimore waterfront Marriott.

Needless to say, the CM team was there.

It was a great time, and a perfect opportunity for the CM team to get together afterhours to relax and mingle with other emerging companies in the area. We're all certainly proud to have been recognized for our hard work. But we haven't lost sight of the fact that we're lucky to have a great collection of clients, who deserve a lot of the credit for our growth.

Here's a Flickr set of pictures from the night. Feel free to browse. You'll find some gems in there, like this picture of Dan sporting the Future 50 helmet. Enjoy!

Happy end of the week to everyone! It's time for Friday Bookmarks. There's a bunch of great articles and news pieces in this weeks bookmarks, including:

• Dell reports making $1 million off of Twitter engagement
• Small Business end of year checklist for search engine marketing
• Great article on segmenting search respondents with 2-step landing pages
• Tangible example of Facebook Connect and how it will change the online landscape

So take a trip over to http://delicious.com/congruentmedia/12.19.08 to check out these great articles, and many more from this week.

Also, if you want to know what Friday Bookmarks is all about, here's the original blog post explaining it all. And as always, if you have a article, news piece or anything you want to share just leave it in the comments below. Better yet, you can connect with us on delicious and send us your favorite bookmarks.

Have a great weekend!