@jorgevillegas as in the $$ you get from social media…? I tend to agree with Gary Vaynerchuck when he says there is not ROI in social media.  He says the “ROI” is the customer loyalty you build.  This probably isn’t that answer you were looking for, but that’s how I see it  

i know   all the    tekk  world  wants  roi  proof……but its  pretty hard to get it in social media or anywhere…..  our brick and mortar store does  all kinds of  ads…i could list,radio,paper, database emails,snail lmail,  blog, website, word of mouth, billboards and my   very favorite…FACEBOOK….plus a  long history of   certain events…..we do all these things on a continuing  basis…. … if  things  are  going  great and   lots of  customers  i  cant pin point   exactly  whats  working….  but  as the owner i  better  have a  good idea  because  most of  the  ways  cost  money or time….then the advice is  coupons or  contests….that isnt interesting  to my  customers  at all….i couldnt possibly  strust  that  kind of info.,,,most of my customers would  throw it in  the   trash…

i know  facebook  works  for  our store..2400  fans,.. and  even if i  cant prove it , it  still works..

.as an owner i absorb   all kinds  of   things   all the time and i kind of   know whats  working    in a  big   general way.and  we  within the store  talk about it all all the time…

i do like  all the info  possible  …where  the   fans  come from, age,  which  sections  they like,  i dig into a lot of info  ….but  i know a lot  by  walking around my  business too..and i  think  the roi   message  doesnt  cover a lot of   reality….

how  could  you  track this.?…it happened  yesterday…i saw it on pinterest, went to your   website, have  been on  your  facebook   and  came in today….that  roundabout  stuff happens  all the time…

Ann you culd track this through UTM from Google Analytics..

ROI <<< what is the “Investment”? your time?  I think the way to leverage good ROI is to have good tools…. good tools reduces your “time”…. so thats what I believe.

@Rob Peck, nice entry. If you want to discuss this topic i´m totally open because here in my country (Colombia, South America) the cients sometimes are so skeptical, then is very important to show some ROI, for this we use UTM to tagging the SM campaigns and to show some final results in site. I´m agree with other kinds of ROI, sure! but is very important to set goals.

@jorgevillegas I’d love to connect on this. See the old thread at  http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/clubs/small-business/forum/topic/r-o-i-modeling-for-social/ for some background. 

On a side note — Do you use UTM because there are too many sources or goals, better insight, or you want to host the data internally? I know there are some Urchin wizards on the team, but for campaigns I am hands-on with we typically “just” use the reverse goal paths. Curious if we are missing out on something valuable.  

Best,