A recent comment from an accounting software reseller stood out as we asked resellers about how they had responded to the recession, and that was that this firm had statistically analyzed the results from its marketing and concluded that traditional channels were not producing the desired results.

Of course, with many firms still trying to understand Web marketing and the use of social media, this may sound a bit venturesome. But anyone that conducts any marketing efforts needs to consider whether the tried-and-true methods aren't either anymore.

Not all firms, particularly small ones, are geared up to conduct sophisticated analysis. But they usually have a sense of what's working. And there's always the "How did you hear about us"? approach when prospects call. Frankly, that's an awfully reliable measure for small organizations, if they just tally the answers and look at the trends periodically.

Tie that together with questions about the use of social media. Although there is a lot of puzzlement about social media, I don't think there is any kind of special aura about it. It's simply another kind of platform on which marketing can be conducted and for which results need to be measured.Try it and see if it works.

And to a great extent, measuring social media efforts gets down to simply trying something and determining if prospects say they came to you because of your efforts there.