I’m sure you can actually measure the success of various social media campaigns – same little trick, custom tracking IDs. But the problem is the long period of relationship – building that’s required before actually obtaining any benefits (and I’m thinking primarily Twitter). And that’s impossible to quantify.

Love the concept of “assumptions” – reminds me of my MBA days when the statistics lecturer took on data set and using two different sets of assumptions proved two diametrically different hypothesis. That was when I stopped believing in research and statistics (which I still love, since it allows me to prove virtually anything :))

However, if done properly and using the correct metrics you can measure the projected response of direct mail, particularly Direct Response mail campaigns conversions. You can even measure success of some types of ad campaigns. I think you can do the same with social media tools, just that the case hasn’t been fully made yet. I know that if I was asking for money/resources to do marketing stuff I always had to make a business case for it and show what I expected in terms of revenue and profits. And then I had to track it. The word “assumptions” is a wonderful word in marketing.

Nicky´s last blog post: Expressing the ROI of Social Media. Uphill Battle or No-Brainer? site: [site]

And yet, if you think of the huge budgets allocated to ‘traditional’ marketing, who can put a dollar value against say bus wraps or ‘branding campaigns’ or even direct mail campaigns?

“The same challenge seems to apply to any effort of converting corporate people to take up Twitter.”

It’s indeed a challenge. Things that seem really obvious to consumers (and small businesses) take on a different dimension for corporations. But they do have many hoops to jump through. They need to be able to translate the benefits directly to the numbers… not a very easy thing.

Nicky´s last blog post: Expressing the ROI of Social Media. Uphill Battle or No-Brainer? site: [site]

Neal “thePuck” Jansons´s last blog post: Three Strategies for Success in New Media site: [site]

I’m trying!

Tertius´s last blog post: Getting website maintenance done… With a plan site: [site]