Jaime,

I will go you one better, ask any CEO or senior manager regarding Social Media and what they want to know is ROI! Engagement is great and we all know that associations (and online communities are about 'engagement') but that still has to result in some form of ROI.

Either in better member retention, recruitment or products and services sales. The real trick is measuring your actual ROI (what transaction resulted at least in part) from your social media activities.

This is one strong reason why a "private" social community is important for organizations that have the critical mass to drive and grow a private community.

There are a lot of 'public' social communities on Facebook and LinkedIn or a group of Twitter followers that the owners of those communities are trying to convert into ROI. Most are failing and many more will whither because they do not have a sustainable business plan. Attracting people for 'free' and hoping to convert them has proven extremely difficult to turn into a long term business model.

I would rather start with a small community that is economically sustainable that have a large following that does not sustain itself. It's a marathon, not a sprint!

Terrance,

I like a lot of what you said, and being a CEO, I agree, the bottom line is critical and needs to be behind your decisions. BUT, sometimes decisions need to be made with your gut and I don't believe that failure can be the conclusion simply because something is difficult to measure. Any CEO the only looks at ROI numbers may be a little short sighted.

Chris Brogan said, "Relationships sell better than tradition selling methods." If ever there is a case for social media, it's behind the relationships. It's the relationships that ultimately lead to the sale. And that is a very difficult metric to measure.

One benefit of a private community is the ability to capture and analyze member data. This makes the ROI easier to identify. But, I don't believe that "most are failing" at converting public social sites into ROI. They may be failing at measuring it, but to your point, it's a marathon, not a sprint. Give it time.

Hi Terrance - Thanks for the reply. I completely agree with the ROI argument. My big dilemma is not that we don't see the value (and Dave, my gut tells me everything we're doing is right), the question is how do you measure it. How does a CEO or senior manager decide how many people to hire? How many networks to be on?  At the end of the day, there needs to be a point were we need to connect social media with profit.

Hi Dave - I agree, I don't think enough companies are setting up private networks or micro communities.  Many people think that Facebook or LinkedIn already exist, so why bother? The reality is, companies CAN create their own communities and build strong relationships with customers and prospects. But the compan needs to fully commit to it. Not throw up a forum and see what happens. Defintely not a case of build it and they will come.