One of the most frequent and debated topics when it comes to social media with all its novelty and changes of paradigms, is the problem that companies have calculating the Return of Investment (ROI) of these strategies. Every social media marketer, agency and company can tell you that the question about how to measure the ROI of this innovative strategy always comes up when trying to persuade someone to join the game.

With tools and sites like Google Analytics, Feedburner, Twitter, Facebook, Viralogy and many others, you can track in a very precise way many interesting statistics, but they don’t necessarily have to mean you are going to make X amount of money out of them. Not every social media strategy can have the same outcome and profit that Dell had with its innovative “sales through Twitter” approach.

Truth is, measuring social media ROI is not an easy task, and probably never will be. Things like word of mouth, popularity, people’s opinions, good reputation and many other intangibles are very hard to translate into dollars in a clear and specific way. Sadly for companies trying to reject the incoming change, these are the “numbers” that matter to the people, that is, to their customers.

Now, I think that the problem is in the perspective. Companies are trying to measure something because they still consider it as a possible “advantage.” They still believe that being in social media is a strategy, something that can give them more profit and that NOT being in social media is a loss of opportunities. And here’s where I disagree.

It’s not about whether you want to be in social media or not what matters. If you are a company, and you think that maybe getting into Twitter and Facebook can give you a couple of extra sales, then you already starting off on the wrong foot. The reason why you have to be in social media is not because of profit, but because you don’t have a choice. It’s not up to you to decide how valuable social media is, or whether you should talk to your customers or not. We are already expecting it. It’s not that you are missing out because you are not part of the conversation. What’s actually happening is that you hurting your brand because you are ignoring us.

I’m sure that there will be progress in the measurement of social media ROI, but that should not be your biggest concern when deciding whether to join or not. Worry about catching up with us first, talking to us second, and persuading us third. Remember those Seth Godin lessons, like “it’s not about you”? Yes, they still apply and are especially present in the social media territory.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m sure that many successful social media strategies will bring massive profits to the companies that do a good job. But you won’t be able to have one of those unless you embrace the new rules and accept that we have been empowered. Realize that we are people before numbers. Treat as such and your social media ROI will eventually be huge.

Carlos Miceli. Argentinian. Questioner of things. OwlSparks’ blogger. Freelance writer. Entrepreneur. Every day philosopher. Skill learner.

Tags: Business, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy, the right way