Return on Investment
The basic rule of selling is that if it costs you more to sell something than you get back in profit, you are doing something wrong.
Another, more flippant saying is that Marketing is just selling without closing!
Calculating your return on investment is crucial, but, marketing people are usually better at explaining that it takes time for projects to take effect, and besides, it isn’t a precise science anyway – etc. etc!
Anything and everything you do in business effects your bottom line – like it or not. Social media is no different. If you have an employee working full time on Twitter and Facebook, and you are not growing or saving your business more money than you are paying them, then you are doing something wrong!
Connected to that equation is the potential billable hours that employee is forfeiting by doing Social Media instead.
Are you scared yet? Are you seeing that while logging onto most Social Media sites is a free of charge option, the costs to the business are anything but?
To make Social Media work successfully in your business, you need to work SMART (you did do your homework, didn’t you? 
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Your next question is, how much are you willing to invest into this project, and, what is the financial benefit to the company, over what period of time?
Yes, it does sound dull and dry, and isn’t as much fun as playing Mafia Wars on Facebook, but you are running a business, aren’t you?
Have you got some figures? Good, the next lesson is to introduce you to reality, and how much free stuff actually costs!
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