This week’s post is not my commentary. It is a plea for help, a request for information, from you my blog reader.

My problem is I have to write a column on measuring return from social media — and, I am ashamed to admit, I don’t know squat about how to do it.

Are you an active social media user on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, or other, more targeted sites?

If so, do you track ROI? How?

If you do not measure social networking ROI, why do you spend time doing it?

I’m also curious how many hours a week you spend marketing yourself with social media.

I really want to know, and my readers do too, I believe.

Thanks!

Do you have a dozen different projects going on all at once?

According to MaryEllen Tribby, that may be an awful mistake.

Example: An entrepreneur is selling health information. Her first product is a special report on vitamin C.

Then she reads something interesting about vitamin D. And starts to write a vitamin D report, too.

Before you know it, she has four or five information products in various stages of completion.

You know how much money a project in progress makes you? Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Zero. Zip.

MaryEllen says it?s far better than to start and finish one project, and get it out into the marketplace.

That way, you can start earning revenues that fund the development of project number two while keeping your cash flow positive.

How about you? Are you good at completing and launching products and projects? Or do you just keep starting more and more without ever finishing any of them?

From my colleague Michael Dalton Johnson of SalesDog.com come these 5 rules for improving your outlook on life:

1–Don’t compare your life to others. You have no idea what their journey is all about.

2–Don’t have negative thoughts of things you cannot control. Instead invest your energy in the positive present moment.

3–Make peace with your past so it won’t spoil the present.

4–No one is in charge of your happiness except you.

5–Life is a school and you are here to learn. Problems are simply part of the curriculum.

These all ring true for me. How about you? Any you would add to the list?

Like you, I get a lot of invitations to attend teleseminars and webinars, and lately, I’ve been paying more attention to the price.

The cost to attend those events for which there is a registration fee (many are free) seems to range from $19 on the low end to $149 at the high end. Length is either 60 or 90 minutes.

As a tightwad consumer, I prefer free or $19. But many customers are gladly shelling out $49 to $79 and occasionally more.

Topic doesn’t seem to be critical, as I recently saw two different promoters charge widely different pricing ($29 vs. $149) for the same topic (for a marketing oriented webinar)!

As a marketer, what do you charge for your teleseminars and webinars — and why?

As a consumer, what price are you willing to pay?

I admire Joe Pulizzi, but his latest article about succeeding as a freelancer leaves me wondering if he’s lost his marbles.

In it, Joe says, “I don’t hire any freelancer that doesn’t blog.”

Huh?

He goes on: “Understanding what it takes to create a successful blog, learn the value of social sharing, and be able to define ideas succinctly is a must have for any marketer.”

What about the ability to be persuasive, increase response rates, and generate more sales and revenues?

If you are a freelancer who doesn’t blog (or even if you do), do you agree with Joe that a freelancer who does not blog is out of touch?

If you hire freelancers (like I do for my online publishing business), do you insist that they have a blog? If not, what DO you look for?

New media pundits are fond of pointing out how consumers would much rather get product info from peers than marketers. And on the surface, it makes sense.

But in reality, it’s not working out so well: according to a survey by ChoiceStream, nearly 6 out of 10 Internet users are not happy with the product recommendations they receive from fellow consumers at e-commerce sites.

One solution: establish yourself as an expert in your field, so visitors to your web site will trust YOUR recommendations even if reviews from fellow consumers are suspect.

Make sense?

Word-of-mouth marketing has always been more powerful than paid advertising, simply because people believe their friends more than they believe advertisers.

Social networking multiplies your ability to share your opinion about a product exponentially.

According to a study by Jupiter Research, online social network users are 3X more likely to trust their peers’ opinions over advertising when making purchase decisions.

People talk about products on social networks. The social networking site myYearbook found that 81% of survey respondents said they had received advice from friends and followers related to a product purchase through a social site.

Of those who received advice, 74% found it to be influential in their purchase decision.

It would seem that marketers who can successfully integrate social media with traditional marketing would wipe the floor with the rest of us, don’t you agree?

An article in BtoB (1/18/10, p. 21) says, “Given the plethora of webinars these days, it isn’t altogether surprising that some companies report a decline in attendee registration.”

I love webinars as an offer, especially in e-mail marketing. But can BtoB magazine be right? Is the market becoming oversaturated with webinars, just as some people say it is already oversaturated with white papers?

And if so, what offers can we use in BtoB lead generation in lieu of webinars and white papers? What other offers are in your bag of tricks for B2B lead gen?