There's always a lot of talk about social media and the bottom line. Just how do you effectively measure the ROI when looking at your social media costs. Although its often said that social media engagement is a necessity rather than a luxury these days, its still important to be able to justify those Pounds, Rands and Dollars spent on social media.

So how do you do it? is social media still rather more art than science? or can we nail it down with the metrics? So-called 'soft' indicators such as engagement relate to the numbers of followers on Twitter, or 'likes' on Facebook are cited by many as indicators of success. But only twelve percent of users and sixteen percent of social media consultants can cite bottom line improvement. These figures are perhaps subjective but maybe that's why art trumps science, at least at the moment. Or perhaps it always will as fickle social media consumers hop from channel to channel depending upon the latest fashion. We've seen the fall from grace of former behemoths like MySpace and BeBo, as well as start-ups which fail to set the world on fire, like the recently closed Scoville...

Have a look at this article for a closer look at the stats.
And if you want some more advice on social media measurement, there's a good article here from Brass Tack Thinking.

(image from ivisitorguide.blogspot.com )