Quantifying the return on investment on anything to do with increasing intangible assets has always been difficult and social media is no different. But what if we are asking the question back to front?

Return On Investment – another of those grown-up phrases that gets bandied about and which can send a chill down your spine. It is taken for granted that being able to quantify a return on investment is an essential part of justifying any new initiative you are trying to get off the ground. It would be naïve to suggest that it is a pointless exercise. For projects with predictable and quantifiable outcomes it is useful to have a sense – before you embark on them – of what you are going to get as a return for your investment of time and effort. The problem is that it has been assumed that you can apply this sort of thinking to any and all initiatives.