By Angela Brown, Senior Digital Strategist

Just days after launching Google+, the search giant upped the ante with the launch of a social engagement measurement tool in Google Analytics and Webmaster Tools. In Google Analytics, this new feature is available in the Visitor section between Technology and Mobile.

1. BlackBerry, PepsiCo Look To Real-Time, Relevant Content
By Karl Greenberg on MediaPost

When it comes to marketing in any form, it’s all about the content. In this piece for MediaPost, Karl Greenberg discusses how major brands are using real time, highly relevant content to drive engagement and revenue among their customers and their hopes for the future.

Takeaway: While the article features some pretty heavy topics – Lady Gaga as a spontaneous spokesperson, the use of content and engagement studios to manage content curated in real time – there are takeaways that apply to just about all companies large and small. The biggest takeaway is that no matter your industry or marketing budget, there is an opportunity to leverage content from a broad range of channels to market your product in real time, whether it’s created internally or by customers via social networks. The content is likely already everywhere – from message boards and Facebook pages to event surveys – you just need a way to curate and distribute it. This doesn’t need to immediately become a daunting task. Start small, but scalable and you’ll already be ahead of the curve.

1. The 5 Stages Of ‘Getting’ Twitter
By Shea Bennett on All Twitter

You’ve probably heard of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross’ concept of the Five Stages of Grief, but what about the stages of understanding Twitter? Twitter has been around for a while now – an eternity in digital years –  but it remains one of the most misunderstood digital platforms. In this post, Shea Bennett offers a great walk through of the path people often take as they come to understand the relevance – and to many, overall awesomeness – of this platform, from thinking it’s a waste of time to finally “getting” it.

1. Adobe SocialAnalytics Begins Worldwide Beta Program
By Chelsi Nakano on CMS Wire

We’ve done a lot to ramp up our measurement and analytics capabilities so we were very excited to hear that Adobe’s SocialAnalytics application is now in worldwide beta.  Designed to monitor and measure social conversations taking place among 45 difference sources — including the usual suspects Facebook, Twitter and YouTube – SocialAnalytics “aims to go beyond social monitoring by identifying how aggregated relevant activity from online networks and communities impacts metrics and brand perception.”