The curly task of measuring ROI from social media initiatives may have just gotten a whole lot easier with Google Analytics.

The website tracking arm of Google announced new analytics features yesterday that will enable webmasters to track users who arrive from social sources and if they are converted towards a desired goal, such as a purchase, or move on without converting.

For the better part of a decade, law firms have successfully used blogs to bring in high-quality work. Now, there is new industry research that measures the impact of blogs as business development tools.

Most marketers today recognize the value of third party data-lifestyle characteristics, purchase behaviors, psychographics, demographics, and more in optimizing their display advertising tactics. The industry has evolved to the point where online and offline data and associated analytics are an accepted practice in helping marketers reach their target audience with a personalized message online.

As social media is now the number one online activity, according to comScore, it’s crucial that brands have a social strategy that is tightly integrated across all of their digital presences. Unfortunately, instead of integrating across all of their web properties, ecommerce sites and social presences, brands are too often employing strategies in silos, and not maximizing integration.

Cutting edge apps, software, websites and gadgets are sparking big changes in the workplace. Consequently, traditional performance reviews are no longer making the cut, and with good reason.

How are social and digital tools changing performance reviews? The following key players in the social goal and performance space talk about the effect of digital tools and the future of performance management.

We all know that it’s not the number of social media fans you have, but the relationship you have with them that is important. While we need to hit a critical mass of fans to justify a large marketing expenditure on social media, the research shows that the benefits of an active fan base are clear. Chadwick Martin Bailey found that Facebook fans, at 51 percent, and Twitter followers, at 67 percent, are more likely to purchase from a brand after following it on social media.

Australian agencies have led the number of nominations in  number of categories for the global Festival of Media awards, including engagement, creative use of media, digital landscape and use of mobile.

But local media agencies missed out on nominations in best use of social media and in the effectiveness award.

If you are not taking a step toward your goals with the time, energy, and dollars you are spending to market your organization, you might as well be taking a step away from them.

David Campbell, founder of Saks Fifth Avenue, said, “Discipline is remembering what you want.” It is so easy to take advantage of an opportunity that pops up out of nowhere, but that might not be aligned with your goals.

As social media usage continues to rise, it’s only natural that statistic correlations will be made about the individuals who use the medium. This isn’t a bad thing; it’s common to deep-dive into demographic information and behavioral data. While there will always be exceptions to the “correlations” that emerge from such data, universal truths about social networking usage and user behavior can be valuable.

Marketers know that Twitter is a valuable tool used to reach out to thousands of customers. But it’s not just the output of content that’s valuable — the people and other businesses you follow on social media are of equal worth.

Unless your account is private, you have no control over who is following you (unless you block them). However, you personally select your followers. But as a business with thousands of followers, is it wise to follow every single person who follows you?