Erik Sass for MediaPost writes, “Social media week has drawn a lot of attention to both the strengths and weaknesses of social media as a marketing tool — and it’s clear that measurement continues to be one of the main areas of weakness.”
Erik continues by discussing various reports and firms focusing on this area of social media.
And the points are fairly valid, but I believe we DO have the tools and metrics to make sense of our investment in social media.
Social media ROI analysis is in its infancy. I believe this is a result not because we lack tools and metrics, but rather there is a disconnect between data analysts who lack understanding of social media, and social media managers, who lack an understanding of analytics. Thus, we are at a bit of an impasse. I presented at Social Media Week DC on this very topic (how to measure the ROI of social media) in an effort to help social media managers take charge of their efforts and lead the analysis front for their organizations.
You can read Erik’s article here: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/168356/social-media-metrics-flourish-but-roi-is-still-up.html?c=93671#reply#ixzz1n9tHJiG1