Measuring.

Measuring Social Media ROI: 3 Things to Consider
1.) Social Media is not the vehicle, it's the destination. Social Media should be measured by specific activities that we engage in. The A ROI is the Return on Investment and it is a preformance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare a single investment to others.  Marketers have to take action on their prospects and have to take their fans and turn them from passive fans to transacting customers.
2.) Listening and Applying Learnings to Every Department. When using Facebook as a platform for Media Marketing, you must observe what your viewers respond most to. When they "like" something on a page more than other things, then that is a topic that you should try to stick to or incorporate in your sales. It benefits the seller because they find out what the viewers respond to most with negative or positive feedback. It is an indirect way to see what they like and what they are going to buy. A chef learned that a post about a chicken recipe may get more likes than a fish recipe, therefor, he should try to have more chicken recipes in a cook book.
3.) Performance Metrics Are Media Agnostics. To measure social media success, a business must first understand how social media is being used. It is important to understand which departments are using social media. Then measure success based on performance metrics that are relevant to the departments.

Building Effective Social Media Channels
Part of measuring the effectiveness of a channel is deciding whether the organization is able to integrate what's happening in social media with their marketing automation system. They do this so that they can track the usage of the different social media channels. Then they can see how people are progressing through the buying process.There's a lack of integration. The other missing piece is the integration of social media with the larger marketing strategy. Social media has to support and be supported. A lot of companies are in the early stages and just getting started with the social networks that exist. They are not creating social media platforms. Other companies are building social media platforms. They are not just monitoring engagement, they are managing social media. That's what makes a good Network.

Many Marketers Don't Measure
Marketers are spending millions of dollars annually on social marketing programs. However, roughly 30% are not tracking the impact of social media programs on lead generation and sales, according to a survey conducted earlier this month. 95% said they use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube. However, despite the increased use of these networks, only 70% are monitoring and measuring the viewers/hits and money spent on these channels. The 42% of marketers that do monitor said that zero or an uncertain number of sales leads resulted from social media programs. The gap between cost and return for social marketing may have something to do with social media protocols.

Summary:
Measuring Social Media is important because it shows us what is beneficial and what is not. When there are a lot of hits/likes/interaction on a site, this is a good things and helps the corporation make positive business choices. When the site isn't very active and not that many people really look at it, this can be bad for a company and something needs to be fixed in order to make the site helpful. If no one is monitoring the success or downfall, how will a corporation know whether or not Social Media is helping them. It could be hurting them and by them not keeping an eye on what is going on, they won't eve know. Monitoring allows you to observe front row and find out what works best.