For any business, virtual or brick-and-mortar, ROI (return on investment) is of the utmost important. Some companies may have other goals, other mission statements or other priorities, but in order for the business to survive ROI must be positive. When measuring different business initiatives, it is easy to decide which ones to continue and which ones to end. Negative ROI means cut the project (or never start it in the first place).When it comes to social media, how do we know a business initiative has become a success or failure? Is its ROI positive or negative? According to Aaron Uhrmacher, first you must pick out your variable. For social media initiatives, your return isn't always calculated in dollars. Do you want more clicks? Increase presence on Digg? Keep visitors for longer? Once you know what you want to achieve, you are much better able to A) achieve it and B) know how to measure it.
