Are you wondering if measuring social media return on investment (ROI) is important?

Do you cringe when you think about putting together another report?

You aren’t alone. But times are changing for social media and these reasons will show you why it’s time to get serious about measuring your results.

Do I Really Need to Measure ROI?

Let’s start by addressing the elephant in the room. Is ROI the right measure of success for social media?

There are many who would argue that a financial return doesn’t show the true value of social media for the organization. I would agree that ROI doesn’t paint the full picture.

However, the bottom line is that executives and business owners sleep, eat, and breathe ROI. It has been the measure of success since the beginning of their careers and while we can jump up and down and tell them it isn’t a complete picture, they aren’t going to believe it until they see it.

Therefore, it’s time to get serious about ROI, but that doesn’t mean that you should sacrifice other types of metrics that help to round out the story. You need both and this is why.

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*UPDATE: Congratulations to the winners of our free ticket giveaway: Christy Rucker won the written entry and Rachael Seda won the Twitter contest.*

Want to win a free ticket to the largest content marketing event on the planet?

Our friends at the Content Marketing Institute have put together an amazing event taking place in Columbus, Ohio this year.  And they’ve agreed to let us give away two tickets to this special event.

First, what is this event?

Content Marketing World 2012 is the largest in-person conference dedicated to helping marketers and business owners master content marketing.  This year’s conference takes place September 4-6, 2012 at the Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio (just outside the Ohio State University campus).

Hundreds of businesses have already signed up, including Level 3, Google, SAS, IBM, Majestic Steel, Nationwide, Deloitte, UBM, Caterpillar, Cisco Systems, CME Group, University of Phoenix and many other leading small and large brands.

Over 70 (yes, that’s right… 70) of the world’s most respected content marketing and social media experts will share their strategies with you.

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You’ve heard it or have seen it posted…

Someone saying they can say whatever they want, post whatever they want and no-one can do anything to them.

As if the First Amendment is their sword and shield. And you can’t do anything about it.

Freedom of speech. Three words that get thrown around and written about so often that what the expression means is more about misinformation than truth.

And misinformation can be detrimental to online professionals as they try to separate the wheat from the chaff and understand a right so important to the foundation of the United States that the founding fathers made it the first amendment to the Constitution to better clarify what rights belong to its citizens.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Source: First Amendment, U.S. Constitution

This article will specifically focus on the portion relating to speech and how this applies to the online community.

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Do you openly reveal your pricing online?

The way people shop has now completely changed.

We know that if we look hard enough online, we can usually find what we’re looking for.

And that includes the price of any product or service.

Despite this reality, many business websites fail to address some of the most essential questions their potential and existing customers have, especially when it comes to the subject of pricing.

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