The great thing about online marketing is that it's measurable. And, thanks to social media, it has pushed us beyond a simple analysis of impressions, unique visitors and visits — now, the quality of the interaction and the relationship with the site are key.
It's not just about the visitor coming to the site, but what they are doing — registering, returning for multiple sessions, logging in for each visit, etc. And, it's no longer just about a visitor posting comments to a site — it’s about consumption of content. The more content a visitor consumes, the more information they absorb about products and services. Making an online sale is always a win, but the value of that sale is increased if the customer also returns for service, tells friends about the product, buys an upgrade, submits a suggestion and blogs about a response to their idea.
By going deeper, you can translate online behavior into actionable analytics that support business decisions.
Some free tools to help you do just that: Google Alerts, FriendFeed, Yahoo Pipes