ROI and social media; carts and horses

One of the first questions we’re often asked by companies and organizations interested in social media is about Return on Investement. How do we measure ROI? Is there ROI?

There’s been plenty of ink (bytes?) spilled on blogs more popular than this one discussing the issue of measurement and ROI. And we’re not going to rehash the many ways in which one can measure the success of outreach in social channels.

Suffice to say, yes, you can measure social media outreach. Sometimes it’s truly a measure of ROI (in the dollars and cents style), sometimes it’s a softer measure of returns (in new customers or better relationships), but rest assured, you can evaluate.

But if you’re asking about ROI before you’ve even started to explore your options in social media, you’re putting the proverbial cart before the proverbial horse. Proverbially.

You have to know what you want to measure

Any communicator or marketer worth his or her salt knows there is a basic approach to strategy and planning. There are variations and tweaks, of course, but defining objectives always, always, always comes before measurement and evaluation. How else can you figure out what to measure?

If you write your objectives in a SMART* way, how to measure them becomes pretty self explanatory. Once you figure out how to measure them, then you can start talking about targets and, eventually, return on your investment.

So to recap: Objectives. Measurement. Evaluation. Then ROI. You’ll find it works a lot better than a cart pulling a horse.

*If you aren’t up on your businesspeak, SMART = Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic and Time-Focused. It’s at least our second-favourite clever mnemonic acronym.