When Social Media was in its infancy many managers (I am guilty as well) felt, how do we limit this distraction in the workplace?  Work is a place to contribute to the organizational goals and sales, in other words, to ensure there is a return on the investments being made.  Well despite early avoidance there is no doubt that Social Media is a powerful tool and can contribute to an organization’s success.  But how do we know?  The simple answer is to calculate the return on investment from Social Media.  No matter what industry that you are involved in, it is vitally important to be able to explain simply why the agency/organization should invest in any particular tool.  Social Media is no different and social media metrics can help you do that.  The Nottawasaga Inn is using simple metrics to track their progress.   When it comes to Social Media metrics there are seemingly endless possibilities as to what you can measure.  However, the key is always to identify the business outcome you are trying to achieve.  This will drive determining what you should be measuring in order to identify if you are reaching that goal.  In Swift 6:  Measuring your social media success a number of key metrics are defined.  These range from the size of your audience to the response rate to customers.  Again the business objective should be identified and then the measurements you will track to provide information as to whether your activities are moving you towards that objective.