The confusion on social ROI might remain the same unless social media professionals stop trying to evaluate their online efforts the same way they measure the success of their other marketing activities. First and most importantly, a very significant notion for brands is that they must start viewing social media ROI metrics as a list of intangibles that have the potential to deliver way more value rather than simple “return on sales” type of tangible measurements. Following are four of those metrics for measuring social media ROI, which we see as of great importance. MORE >>

Our (SocialFish) definition of Social CRM is “ the discipline of applying social media to membership management “, and the 12 use cases in our white paper, ROI and the Impact of Social CRM , show this in action. In ALL cases, you should be building your community on social media sites before you even think about ROI. ROI = low-cost, high-quality leads. Tools – Association Management System. Social CRM and ROI UncategorizedUsing LinkedIn for member recruitment  [Possible now]. USE CASE: An association has a members-only group on LinkedIn. MORE >>

The most important piece of advice I gave the group of scientific and manufacturing association CEOs was that it’s time to change the conversation – away from social media and the various tools (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn etc) and towards social CRM, namely the discipline of applying social data to membership management. The ROI of Social CRM. For membership organizations, ROI often comes down to recruiting and retaining members. The ROI of Social CRM from SocialFish. Featured Social CRM and ROI————— ( photo credit ). MORE >>

This has to be one of the biggest questions banging around marketing conferences, blogs and social media gatherings.  ”How do we measure the return on my investment (ROI) for the time, money and effort we put into Twitter and Facebook ?” ” To truly answer that question, you need to define your own ROI. If it is a dollar for dollar equation, then you need to be able to quantify/tie a value to the time spent, calculate the dollars invested and then put the proper tracking/measurement tools in place to link your social media contacts/connections to actual sales. MORE >>

And, as we’ve seen too often before, only a small percentage (17%) currently measure social media ROI. The story that emerges is similar to that we’ve seen in other reports:  businesses are using social media, want to measure and analyze the results, but don’t have a clear definition for social media ROI , nor do they have a strategy for measuring it. What’s new is that most companies also don’t understand the concept of realtime analytics and have a strategy for investing in the tools to support it. What do you think? MORE >>