Businesses that want to take advantage of online marketing need to do several things well: attract website traffic, generate leads, convert leads into sales, and then measure everything. One of the best tools for measuring the effectiveness of your social media activity just got a little better. HootSuite.

HootSuite has updated their mobile app today and while there were a load of minor improvements and fixes, there are two updates that really stood out to me:

When Google announced that Google Reader would be shutting down July 1st, one of the more popular alternatives discussed was Feedly. Feedly is an independent RSS reader that also syncs with your Google Reader account. Fortunately for Feedly users (and Google Reader users as well), Feedly had been aware for some time that Google Reader was going to be shut down, and had been working on a solution codenamed "Normandy" (described in their blog post).

The popular Google Maps app has released an update today which allows you to search your Google Contacts. Users will sign in, and then be able to search for friends and family, bring up someone's address by name, and get directions to them. Note that this update isn't tied to your phone's Contacts, but your Google Contacts. That means that, in order to take advantage of this feature, you have to create a Google account if you haven't already. Google Contacts are tied to both Gmail and Google+.

If you like to handwrite notes, and aren't yet using a handwriting app for your iPad, it's time to give Penultimate a try. From the makers of Evernote, the Penultimate app has been completely redesigned to combine natural handwriting and drawing ability, with the power and flexibility of the Evernote app.

Evernote is the note-taking app that we've discussed and recommended before. With Evernote, you can create notes and clip information on one device, and automatically sync that note with all of your other devices, including your iPhone, iPad, laptop or desktop computer. I use Evernote every day to brainstorm blog topics and write blog posts like this one, take notes during client meetings, save templates for emails and letters, track project details and more.

Businesses that want to be successful with social media and blogging must be mindful of news topics and trends within their industry. Your social media activity should be packed, up to 80%, with content and information from other sources, reserving just 20% for talking about yourself. At the same time, breaking news and important industry stories are ripe for great blog posts (we call this newsjacking). In order to monitor potential sources of information for sharing or blogging, business owners need to invest some time into a few tools.