Figuring out the ROI on social media is always a crap shoot. Yes, we know that it’s usually a good idea to have a social strategy, but it’s always a challenge selling it through to clients without hard numbers. So, we sometimes fudge a bit.

According to MarketingVox, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) has just released their attempt to quantify the ROI of social media:

The sheet divides the social media landscape into three major categories (and associated metrics):

• General Social Media Sites. Quantifiers include: unique visitor, cost per unique visitor, page views, return visits, time spent.
• Blogs. Quantifiers: conversation reach, number of conversation relevant sites, content, freshness, relevance.
• Widgets and Social Media Applications. Quantifiers: number of installs, number of active users, longevity, user profiles.

The idea is to create a consistent standard in order to create growth within the social media space.

The report can be downloaded here from the IAB: Social-Media-Metrics-Definitions-0509.pdf

[Via MarketingVox ]