On 26th May 2012 all UK web sites must offer users opt-in consent tools to allow cookies (used by Google and other web analytics) that pass information about your browsing activities to 3rd parties.

We have canvassed opinion from all of the major browsers and Google themselves and there seems to be a 'wait and see' attitude. The industries opinion is that the Law makers have over legislated and that the legislation will be changed or withdrawn. That may be true but for now the legislation stands and with 17 days left before it comes into effect it's decision time....

Option 1 - Do Nothing

As this effects 90% of websites in Europe it is going to be impossible for the legislators to enforce this on mass. The most likely outcome is that they will target some high profile companies and fine them in the hope that word will spread. The maximum fine is £500,000 so although the chances of it effecting you are slim, doing nothing is risky.

Most companies now have a Social Media strategy in place, whether it be in use for PR purposes (as a lot of big companies are doing with Twitter) or for Lead generation (this is the side that most marketing companies are talking about). Regardless of your approach, it's going to be important to understand how things are working for you.

There are some important statistics that you're going to have to monitor, like audience size and interactions, but if you're active across multiple platforms this can get a bit confusing. The fact that there are hundreds of different terms being thrown around, all of which basically mean the same thing, doesn't exactly help. On top of this, there's some more important and all together more interesting things you're going to want to monitor, and they may not be the first thing that gets drawn to your attention.

What I'm going to do is break down for you all the different things that might get mentioned in a report to help you get a clear picture of how your campaign is going.

Audience

Incredibly, 98% of all website and social media page visitors will never contact you - we at Red Wasp Marketing help identify who they are, make contact with them and follow up any potential interest while most importantly - delivering all leads directly to your business.