Maybe  I am spending too much time on Twitter, or maybe more people really are talking about social media.  Either way, it is a conversation every small business owner should get involved in, exploring options and making an informed choice on how and when to get involved.

Chad, at Three Hats Marketing had a good post this morning containing five points to use as a starting point for your conversation.  He recommends:

1. Know thy audience

2. Understand your purpose

3. Pick the right tool for the job

4. Don’t bite off more than you can chew

5. Know what success is

This last question really contains two sub questions.  And these are the same questions you should ask about any marketing expenditure.

The first:  What do you want to accomplish.  It is not enough to Jump in, Jump in with purpose!

The second which Chad address: How will you measure results?  For me the easy measures are  Traffic, registrations for my newsletter and sales are all viable measures of success. What’s yours?