Return on Investment (ROI) is mostly a financial tool to measure the ratio of money gained or lost on an investment relative to the amount of money invested by that person or firm. Now is it possible to find the ROI of social media? This is a difficult question to answer, mainly because there is a lot of disagreement about it which could relate to there is no right answer. Putting a numerical value on conversations people have on the internet is extremely hard to do. Although some people argue that this can be done through web analytics, because then these conversations can be turned into data and putting numerical values on data is quite easy.
Here is what I have a problem with. Even if these conversations are converted into data, it will be very easy to manipulate this data to fit the criteria set by the firm to evaluate it. Until there is no industry standard set criteria to evaluating the ROI on social media I believe it will be a point of contention in the marketing world. Although this poses another obstacle. Can the industry agree to implement a standard set of criteria for evaluation of ROI in this field and is it possible? Until these questions are answered I think that any ROI on social media will be unreliable or subject to speculation.
"Understanding Social Media ROI (VisInsights Blog)"
"Response to Social Media Explorer Blog Post: itWhy Asking About the ROI on Social Media is the Wrong Question"
I agree, a certain industry standard should be developed in order to measure just how much a business is gaining or losing due to their social media efforts.
ReplyDeleteThat is very interesting and you are definitely correct that there should be some standard for how data should be evaluated. But my one problem is that who is to say what ideas and information are better and if they do I think its obvious that the company will use the information for its advantage as it should because its their information.
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