Is social media worth measuring?

A great marketer I used to work with, Tabor Ames, VP of Marketing at PQ Media, once told me that any marketing initiative is not worth doing unless you can measure it.  Now that presents me with a problem.  Much of what I do [and I'd imagine you too] is measured on traffic, membership, registrations, and many other kinds of conversions. But how do you measure online community engagement? The impact these conversations are having on an email you send a month from now? A year? Is anyone listening?

This topic is at the center of one of my many dilemmas.  One of my sites isn’t growing as fast as every other (but still growing none the less), but the engagement we’re getting online is amazing.  Often times we add a discussion to LinkedIn we’re getting 50+ comments.  People like talking to us.  So, what IS the value of the conversation?

I’m big on formulas and metrics.  So how can we come up with a formula for measuring social media engagement? What if it looked like:

• # of people engaged in the conversation / total revenue or conversions from the group = X per engaged member?

but what about everyone else?

• # of people in the group or community / total total revenue or conversions  from that group = X per member?

Definitely not perfect or right, but how would you add or change the formula above?

2 Responses to “Is social media worth measuring?”

1. Gabriella Kallay says:

   June 17, 2010 at 3:18 pm

   Jaime:
   Hi. Very cool website. Hope everything is going well with you and your family.
   Gab.
2. Jaime says:

   June 17, 2010 at 3:52 pm

   Thanks! All is well. Moved into Manhattan!