How quantifiable is social media ROI?

Measuring return on investment (ROI) for small business marketing campaigns via social media is difficult because the impact of brand awareness or visibility may not always be quantifiable in the bottom line, MyCustomer reports.

This is according to new media thought leader Brian Solis, who believes in a four-step process to help businesses better understand the returns of marketing efforts on social platforms.

First, he recommends figuring out who it is the company is trying to reach, while also answering why the business is attempting to contact these individuals and what value it will bring.

Next is recognizing that social media is more of a pipeline to reach a different type of customer rather than a revenue builder, and the last step is determining how to introduce value to build a community.

ConstantContact recently introduced its effort to help companies obtain measurable results from social media marketing efforts, called Social Campaigns, ZDNet reports. The program allows companies to run results-oriented initiatives to "justify and capitalize on their ongoing investments."

It works by letting businesses create landing pages on Facebook adorned with special offers that can be promoted and redeemed via becoming a fan, Twitter follower or LinkedIn connection.