Coincidentally, I’ve been hit with a pretty singular view of the concept of engagement on a number of occasions this week, so I thought I would take it up myself.

The riff running through all of the conversations is that numbers are not the point in marketing, it’s the quality of the numbers that count, the engagement that counts, the level of the conversation that counts if one is to measure the success of one marketing effort or the importance of one blog over another. Don’t get me wrong, I’m huge on engagement, but engagement without velocity is a lot more work. Sometimes the seemingly seedy, or is it bogus, task of building velocity is what really stops people from building much engagement.

Okay, here are some posts that got me started on this:
• Three Statistics that Lie
• Are RSS Subscriber Numbers Bogus

Both of these stories, and the resulting comment fest, come at the about the same point from somewhat different angles - are big numbers, particularly numbers that are hard to gauge, like RSS subscribers, important if those numbers are not engaged. (FYI: Duct Tape Marketing does have big RSS numbers inflated somewhat by the fact that some RSS services like Google Reader bundle my blog automatically for people who choose the small business option.)

The problem I wrestle with in this argument is that it must start with the supposition thats every blogger and social media player has the very same goal. Remember marketing is about ROI and long-term results, whatever you deem they be. With that in mind, there’s no play book for what’s more effective or even how to measure what’s right or more valuable. (There certainly are rules for what’s right and wrong, but that’s not what we are talking about.)

What matters always, always is the completion of meaningful long term strategic objectives. So, the discussion of who’s blog readers are more engaged or if 500 hyper engaged readers is better than 50,000 kinda engaged readers somehow starts sounding a bit like the discussion of the best college football team every year. Until there’s a playoff, and everyone has the same goal, the discussion is silly.

From my perspective, a sale is a really big measure, a media mention is big measure, engagement is a big measure, people contacting me in hopes that I might feature their book or product is a big measure, getting a Google search term on page one is a big measure, the attention of an advertiser is a big measure, a really smart person agreeing to be a guest on my podcast is a big measure, many of these goals are achieved by working really hard to build things that can’t always be quantified scientifically, things that build velocity, such as Diggs, Facebook friends, saves to Google, StumbleUpon traffic, Twitter followers, RSS subscribers, and comments.

The point is that in the old world of marketing you simply couldn’t afford to pursue tactics that didn’t produce great ROI, in the new world of marketing you can often very easily afford to throw some things, on message, in the direction of tactics that might not produce one result, but just might, just maybe produce another, if you were actually able to measure it. Integration, velocity, opportunity and brand are the go words for me.

And just to make this entire thing muddier:

Storytelling ROI: Social Engagement Metrics for Bloggers (Interesting metric of engagement from AideRSS)

As web visitors become used to the interactive features found on many social media sites the expectations for such increases for all.

Audio, video and the ability to rate, review and comment are on the way to becoming standard features.

Small business marketers can take advantage of this trend towards interaction by using some very simple tools found at a site calledJS-Kit.

JS-Kit offers simple cut and paste javascript implementation of features for comments, reviews, ratings, navigation and polls. These functions can be built into just about any static HTML web page and add instant interaction without the need for serious programming or software upgrades.

Currently all the services of JS-Kit are free, but there are some hints that a subscription model is in the near future. Either way this is a great set of tools.

Below is an example of the review function. This tool allows visitors to vote on and comment on this post. Click the review link and you can see how it works. You could customize this and automatically add it to every post (although most blog software already allows comments) but the real power I think is to add this type of functionality to your static product pages or articles and encourage customer reviews.

Janine Popick, CEO of Vertical Response, was my guest on the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. We spent some time talking about effective ways to utilize email as a marketing tool, dos and don’t dos and new CAN-SPAM legislation that takes place in a few weeks. Check out the VR Lounge - a unique social community from this unique email service provider.

You can read the entire FTC document if you want to hurt your head but it looks the two biggest changes impact folks that send offers in combination with other senders and some fairly technical language about opt out that can be handled best by using a one click very simply opt out method - a best practice anyway in my opinion. (This is not legal advice though!)

Get more information on fighting spam from ESPC

Janine also mentioned a free webinar that may be of interest. It’s a session on getting the most out of Google Apps - July 9th at 10am Pacific Time. Yes, I’m pretty sure some information about using Vertical Response will be spread but the session features Google product specialists and should be a nice way to pick up some tips on integrating these free tools. Register here

I read a post recently on Techcrunch that prompted the question in the above title. Most of the comments on the Techcrunch site were very anti-voicemail. It seems, particularly in tech circles, that email, IM and Twitter are the preferred method of contact.

So, what about small business. Is leaving sales or service related voicemails a waste of time or worse - something akin to spam?

I must admit that my own use of voicemail has dwindled significantly over the past few years. The use of text messaging, mobile phones with visual voicemail and email that comes to the phone has put me out of the habit of responding to and leaving voice messages.

However, there are certainly prospects and occasions when it is a necessary tool. Having said that I do believe you must be more strategic in your messaging. As silly as that might sound a messages that goes something like, “call me when you get a chance” or “just checking to see if you got my email” are really a form of spam.

For voicemail to be effective in terms of marketing you must use it to share some form of vital information or pass on specific details that may or may not involve a reply or further action from the recipient. Anything less and you may just be adding to information overload we all suffer from.

The use of services such as Jott or Spinvox that can turn voicemail into email messages is definitely on the rise and may be the best way to bridge your use of voice messages to a more suitable format.

I’ve written before about the potential of the online suite of tools under the banner of Zoho.

I really have not used them all enough to give glowing reports, but I’ve got to say I am totally impressed by the pace at which they seem able to release new tools and enhancements.

They match up nicely with Google Docs and Microsoft Office Live Small Business on the word processor, spreadsheet, presentation and database fronts, but then also throw in a CRM, Project management, Organizer, Mail and Chat.

They recently added an HR function called people and online invoicing. You can access the tools from your mobile phone, full API access, there are plug-ins for Outlook and Microsoft Office, and even one that allows you to post your documents to Facebook.

For someone who truly want to do it all online this is probably the most complete tool.

I would love to hear from anyone who has gone online 100% through tools like this to run their business.

With skyrocketing gas prices in the US people seem to be doing what they can to save a little gas here and there. My wife and I are hopping on our bikes for grocery runs and walking to the nearby coffee shop. Returning to good, wholesome basics is what we’re doing. Stuff we should be doing no matter what the cost of gas!

It’s funny but that seems to be the lesson we all need. In times of economic uncertainly people tend to refocus on blocking and tackling, doing the basic stuff you should always do. When the market is rockin and gas is cheap it’s easy to get lazy. Let calls go unreturned, let relationships drift, let the blog posting wither, chase the next new thing.

The best thing about a slow market is that it slaps you upside the head and forces you get back to basics.

So, instead of focusing on the external circumstances beyond your control turn your focus to the internal realities within your grasp. Hug your customers!

• Call five customers just to find out more about how you can help them deal with a downturn
• Reach out to five potential strategic partners and start a discussion about banding together
• Visit a local floral shop and send five bouquets of flowers to five referral sources
• Sit down and write five hand-written notes thanking five people for something
• Take your banker, accountant and five suppliers out to lunch to talk about ways to cut expenses

And. . . go pump up the tires on your bike.

Seriously, my friend Andy Sernovitz did write a great book called Word of Mouth Marketing.

Now he’s hosting a small-group word of mouth marketing seminar. Usually he only does private training for companies at a very large price, so this is a rare chance for 50 people to get the best introduction to word of mouth that there is.

Word of Mouth Marketing Crash Course - Chicago, July 30th

I’ve arranged for a $250 discount for my readers. Use code “weloveducttapemarketing” when you register. - http://events.gaspedal.com

Andy promises you will learn a repeatable, proven marketing framework that is easy to execute, affordable, and provides measurable results within 60 days.

I wonder if you could help me an experiment by answering the following in comments.

1) What’s the hardest part about marketing for you?
2) What’s the easiest part about marketing for you?

I’m curious how often the same thing will be one for some and the other for another.

I’ll go first
Hardest - 1) Remembering it’s always about the money
Easiest - 2) Remembering it’s never about the money

Not as simple as it seem perhaps.