If you are reading this post it is a definitive success.

The actual success of social media campaigns is difficult to measure, especially in isolation.

Versus your other marketing activities, how do you know if social media marketing actually made money for your company?

How can you measure success?


A number of articles tell us that many companies continue to struggle with this question...
though there are no shortage of marketing executives throwing money at web campaigns, it seems that the business elite are still unsure how to track if it's working or not.

Side note: I wish I had money to throw at things irrespective of ROI.


Oh wait...I throw money at no return investments all the time. 


Or, do I actually just fail to measure the return?

case in point: partying.
cocktail hour is a significant investment in a city like Toronto where a glass of wine can run you $10 (therefore 6 glasses takes you to $60, plus tips, cab, buying back your dignity...you can do the math). 

What is the return on my party investment? 

Hmmmmmm, well I don't know what to measure, but I suppose it depends on what my objectives were when I invested in the party:

1. If my objective was to wake up and do push-ups the next morning, the return was negative.
2. If my objective was to feel invincible for 4 hours that night, stock in Jenn just skyrocketed.

Likewise, in the case of social media marketing, it is critical to set out campaign objectives, define what success looks like, and then measure your progress against your goals.  Traditional web analytics are insufficient unless your only objective is to drive traffic and get hits. If you want to attract customers and build a brand you need to go further with your strategy and measure your conversions to sales.  The point is that you need to decide what you're trying to do (i.e. "do you have a web strategy") and what your KPIs will be (ie. do we care about sales, hits, twitter followers, fb fans?) for measuring success.