The social media frenzy has seemed to take a bit of a backseat lately. Not everyone is talking about how to take advantage of social media and the role of communication. Not much of a bubble but it does seem that social media is growing up. Social media has taken hold of various industries causing a stir and helping to open up numerous opportunities for greater communication.

Brands of all shapes and sizes seem to have their own accounts on the more popular networks which is expected and certainly does add an element of validation to those who have supported new media. However, three elements exist that will determine the success of one's social media efforts.

1. Measurement

2. Analysis

3. Learning

Social media has opened up a tremendous amount of information sharing and conversation. The challenge lies in our ability to use this activity and turn it into bottomline growth.

Some key questions:

How can we truly measure the conversation stream?

Where do we focus our analytics?

What windows of opportunity exist as we participate in social media?

The individuals and brands who focus their efforts on these three elements will achieve significant returns on their investment. Success in this arena is not solely based on data but rather on creating and capturing true audience value. 

A special thanks to Jesse Luna for sharing this information on the Malcolm Baldrige award including social media in its criteria.

Participating in social media takes a tremendous amount of investment. Inputs can range in time and scope making it necessary to measure the amount of return that one hopes to gain from tweets, blog posts, and other various forms of content. True success in the digital landscape requires substantial investment of an individual's time and effort.

Benchmarks

Before investing in social media, marketers and storytellers alike must identify concise objectives. These goals will help keep all efforts focused on the tasks at hand and open up opportunities for improvements. Benchmarks allow an individual to identify their target results.

However, before we focus too much time on retweets, likes, comments, subscribers, friends, followers, listeners, and so forth...let's stop for a moment to recognize the value of residual returns on our social media investment.

Here are a few questions to ask as you begin on placing a value on your social media marketing efforts:

• Is your content so good that people actually gained value from reading or sharing?
• Do you place enough of an importance on the value of reciprocity?
• Is social capital a vital component of your strategic efforts?
• Is your network (comprised of friends, followers, etc.) coming back for more?
• Does your audience care about you enough to actually share your content even when there's nothing new to share?

Residual returns on social capital can provide a unique benchmark for measuring the success of your continued investment in social media.