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I left a comment on Zane’s Facebook post that sparked some thoughts which leads to this post.

Is there a measurable ROI for businesses adopting social networks?

I would think this would be something somewhat easy to measure. As an entrepreneur in the web world my currency is not dollars - it is time. This is especially the case for those of us entrepreneurs who have mortgage payments and thus are forced to maintain their cubicle dwellings.

As a result I look into the adoption of new technologies from the eyes of a CIO - using ROI. In my case the investment is rarely money. As a webpreneur (yes, I made up a word) I measure ROI in time as the investment rather than capital. Could the hours it takes to manage the vast array of social networks be better spent in product development, blogging, or managing my brand?

Basically to break it down - I could build a web application in the time many people spend managing Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, Twitter, Blogs, etc, etc in a single week. In that I can see a measurable ROI.

So my question to businesses (mostly entrepreneurs) is - Can you provide me with tangible, measurable ROI from your social networking activities?

If you can prove it to me than I may jump on board. Until then I’ll watch the fads from the sideline while I’m building something tangible. And I know most of the responses will be “it’s about networking”. I’m still an active networker without Facebook and Twitter. I have a phone, email, IM and monthly meetings with the brightest people around.

Tags: ROI, Business, Social Networking, Facebook, MySpace

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