Warning: This post may make you extremely uncomfortable. Read at your own risk.

Today, there is virtually no reason not to have your pulse on the effectiveness of your marketing strategy. Data abounds, and to even the most casual business owner, this data can open up keen insights into where your marketing time and money is working for you, and where it is not.

To illustrate, I want to describe a strategy we are deploying on a web site right now, and this approach is saving us hundreds of hours and thousands of dollars normally wasted in the startup phase of any business model. The philosophy and steps behind this strategy is the same as you would read in practically any college marketing textbook: Devise, Implement, Test, Interpret Data, Revise and Repeat.

The real difference with what we are doing (across multiple marketing and advertising channels, such as Social, AdWords, SEO, Content) involves close micro-step evaluations of key drivers. Quite simply, rather than wait for an abundance of data, we are making swift course corrections based on tightly prioritized goals, using tiny-yet-measurable data samples.

This strategy requires that we ask difficult questions about our assumptions, letting none of them remain as sacred cows. Instead, we rather assume that we know nothing about what may work, and rigorously test every aspect of a business model, from messaging to offer to price point. And we are doing this rapidly.

Here’s the kicker: We are able to do this based on almost real-time data, in increments of fewer than 100 visitors to our web site.

It’s pretty exciting, and I believe it will lead us to circumvent the normally expensive and time-intensive process new businesses must endure when launching something new.

So the question I have for you is: What do you think you know about your business marketing metrics? Do you know what is working and what isn’t? How do you know it? And how long and how much is it taking you to find out?

I thought I’d share some of our recent work in support of Stress Awareness Month this April.  (see below, and click the image for a full-size view) Infographics are a great way to share statistics and key information with your target market, and because of the easy share-ability of these images, the likelihood of them going viral is much greater.  It’s become a very popular way of communicating on the web.  Whether this is a passing fad or a durable trend is yet to be seen, but why not take advantage of it while it’s hot, right?

Anyone who has been engaged with us for very long at all knows how passionate we are about telling stories. To our way of thinking, a good story has the power to make a brand, but even more importantly, it can connect us as human beings and perhaps even change the world.

So when I watched this video over at TED.com, I knew I had to share it with you.

If you are tasked with telling stories about your brand, or if you want to brand the world with an idea you have, you owe it to yourself to watch this video.

Last week it was revealed that iPhone users might have had their locations tracked by Apple. People are up in arms over what is obviously a major violation in privacy.

Wake up, people. Google reads your mail. Apple tracks your locations. Facebook tracks your user habits. It’s all to sell you stuff.

While I agree it’s a bit unnerving to have a major corporation documenting your every move, let’s get realistic. Apple, Google, and Facebook are relatively uninterested in what you are ACTUALLY doing. In fact, most user information is tracked for the sole purpose of selling you products you will likely be interested in. Emailing about Spiderman posters? Google will target advertisements selling you superhero paraphernalia. Suddenly “liking” parenting websites on Facebook? You may notice Facebook ads for diapers and other baby gear.

Yes, it’s creepy and it borders on unethical. But can you blame them? It’s becoming easier and easier to ignore advertisements on television, radio, and other mainstream forms of media where we were once bombarded with products and services. I’m not condoning Apple’s transparency failure in tracking user’s locations, but I’m not surprised and you shouldn’t be either.

This video outlines a free way to get your local business to appear higher in Google’s search results by having a Google places page, and asking your customers and clients to review your company there.  By the way, we are practicing what we preach here, too. If you are a satisfied client, would you please review us?

If you were to ask that question to most business owners they would look at you like a “deer in the headlights” because they don’t have the answer. The truth is; no one actually has the answer to that question because it’s a bit arbitrary as articulated in this post from a panel at the latest South by Southwest Interactive Festival in regard to 4 questions brands need to ask about the value of Facebook fans.

There are far too many variables to consider to be able to put a number on the value for each and every business; even the different models. I see a lot of companies in the local market that are pushing Facebook and Twitter as a “must have” for their businesses. I believe local is the last frontier in marketing online and everyone is entering into the local market and trying to gain their piece of the pie and that can lead to confusion; especially when business owners are busy running their businesses and are not familiar with what is happening online.

To tell you the truth, I’m online and reading the latest and greatest everyday and it can be confusing to me as well. This article helps identify why. I’ve seen valuations for Facebook Fans as high as $168.00 to worthless. If a fan is indeed worth $168.00, then getting as many fans as possible makes a lot of sense for your business. If it’s worthless (and they will all be worthless for companies that are not willing to engage), then your money is better spent somewhere else.

The main things to consider are the profit, influence potential, acquisition costs and brand affinity. Each of these will play a role in calculating the value of a fan on Facebook. Just remember as you navigate these waters that it doesn’t take much to alienate your fan base so be careful to only put out positive and enlightening information and never bash your competitors.

Words. I love them. Sometimes too much. I have been known to string together sentences with upwards of 60 words. I habitually gravitate to 4- and 5-syllable words. This is for my own enjoyment, not yours. I just love words. I think I love them because I love ideas. And words are nothing if not elegant conveyors of ideas.

But then I started Twittering. And the imposition of 140 characters was a real tough one to embrace. My earliest tweets lamented this fact frequently.

Then something happened. The limitation made me wrestle with words in a new way. I started looking for conciseness. I had to have faster, clearer, better ways of expressing myself. In the process I discovered that flowery prose is not always the best way to communicate, after all. In fact, the 140 character discipline has made me a better writer, by reigning in those tendencies, and reminding me that comprehension is more important in the message than getting to use that shiny new abstract metaphor.

I still love them, though. Twitter hasn’t changed that. And I’ll be damned if I’ll let it.