Every second web site promises to bring the planet to your feet and they have all the tricks to show off.

But like our friends the dolphins, you really end up having to do huge leaps in return for a  small fish.

Walking Dolphins Consultancy Inc. uses some traditional and a few counter-cultural (as in not of the advertising and marketing norm) strategies to deliver real results of which you can be proud.

No tricking your customers or prospects, just an effective web marketing strategy.

Every strategy and each tactic must be aligned with your own expectations, values and resources.

Many in the consulting industry are once again setting clients off on a fantasy chase, devoting irresponsible amounts of resources to “social media,” “blog sites,” and dare say, yes even Google.

The sales pitch is that Facebook has one bazillion users or Twitter has one bazillion plus a quatroodle.

A good advisor would encourage you to look deeper into these numbers.

What are they counting? Who are they counting? How are they counting?

If popStar X has 7 million “followers” that may be all and well for PopStar X. But can Twitter tell you the the average time since last log in for those 7 million? If 6,999,999 have not logged on to Twitter for more than 30 days, you end up paying a lot to get to one popStar X fan.

If they tell you the average user spends an hour a day on Facebook, look deeper. How many users are on Facebook for six hours a day? Those users ramp up the average to mislead real impact. Recent research claims that a majority of females aged 12 – 17 check their Facebook account at least once per hour.  Add those 10 “visits” to the total of all visits and the average that is meaningful to your business may change dramatically.

Averages are often too misleading to be useful. Ask for medians. What is the median length of time between visits? The median age of users? The median amount of time spent per visit?

Medians help you understand much more clearly what the particular vehicle is offering. If half the visitors spend less than three minutes and half spend more than three minutes, you know you’ve got a pretty ugly advertising tool.

If you receive reliable numbers that show large numbers of users investing many hours on a particular service or site, consider what those large numbers may mean.

Who has time to spend hours and hours on all these social media? A large cohort of the unemployed and youngsters.

If pre-teen girls are not a core part of your market strategy, be sure you are very confident your marketing dollars are productively spent.

WDCI can help you ask the right questions (we’ll ask them for you) and prepare a report on your specific internet marketing options with commentary on cost-benefit. We will certainly not ignore social media, particularly if it actually suits your business. But nor will we slavishly advocate solutions because we think we can trick you and turn an easy buck.

For lots of businesses, social media provide some wonderful opportunities. We can help you understand those opportunities and explore approaches that won’t break the bank.