It amazes me how many organizations still shoot in the dark when looking to engage digital media for marketing purposes. Often, marketing managers or those charged with this function go with their gut feel when presented with the challenge of understanding what their consumers are doing online. It is necessary for organizations to predict future actions of their consumers if they are to position themselves strategically to reap from the unconscious actions of their target group. Consumers are averse to blatant profiling and this guard is usually let down when online. Smart organizations will follow the footprints left by their potential customers . By observing past events they can extrapolate and determine with a high degree of accuracy what their consumer will do and when they will do it.So how do we go about mapping intentions and funneling action? There are a myriad of tools that you can use and my favorite two are Google Correlate and Google Insights. Interestingly, out of a random ask among a fairly switched on tech community, only a handful had heard of or used these tools to do any consumer mapping! Google Correlate finds search patterns which correspond with real-world trends while Google Insights allows one to compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties More at - bit.ly/vwXiDs