"Local businesses successfully using social media" was the tagline that caught our eye. Always curious about how other companies are doing it, we sat in on this panel discussion recently and learned a few new things that we'd like to share with you.

The Will County Democratic Party has prepared for this season’s political homestretch by unveiling a new website at WillCountyDemocrats.com.

Loaded with information for voters throughout Will County, visitors can easily look up details of their elected officials and townships. Local Democratic Party events, meetings and volunteer opportunities are also listed for reference. News items of particular interest are summarized on the home page with links to the full story and featured articles are highlighted in rotation at the top of the page.

How do you know if you're improving or losing if you don't measure your progress? We're all about measuring and encourage our clients to make use of the website analyzing tools we provide them.

So what should you be measuring? That depends on the goals you made for your site.

You did set goals for your website, didn't you? If not, read on for four that will get you started.

By answering "The Five Ws" journalists provide the complete story to their readers. If you haven't discussed "The Five Ws" with your web developer, you may not be providing a complete website to your visitors. And an incomplete website with vague goals won't ever perform the way you want it to.

What are your answers to these five questions about your website?

"Good enough for government work" is an old phrase that has come to imply sub-par performance, but during World War II "good enough" for the government meant the best. Maybe the ironic definition arose as government information and regulation mushroomed in triplicate, overwhelming the offices of our public servants.

Increasingly, government bodies are turning to the web to help organize and access information. And DotNetNuke has emerged as the platform of choice for three main reasons.

Small business owners often feel like circus performers – spinning plates like mad and hoping that if we keep everything moving it won't all come crashing down around us. That sort of stressful environment forces us to think on our feet, but we often don't get a chance to really think things through.

Making snap decisions about your business website could really hurt. You owe it to yourself to make your website a priority. Consider this:

Community classes, seminars and YouTube webinars say you'll make money with social media in just minutes a day.

Then reality hits.

How can you keep control of your marketing in the face of such disheartening obstacles?

When you hire experts for your social media, web design and other marketing, remember these are partnerships and you’ll need to hold up your end of the deal to get the most out of your investment. Here are a few ways to help your partners help you.

While we certainly don’t advocate turning toward the Dark Side of the web, spammers also employ perfectly ethical techniques that legit businesses fail to use themselves. You’re just as smart as a spammer -- learn from their experience.

You know those teeny little graphics that show up in your browser window next to the title of the web page you’re looking at? Technical and/or graphic folks may already have this covered, but for many of us, creating a favicon for our own website is pretty far down the to-do list. If you haven’t given it much thought before, maybe it’s time to reconsider this little doodad.