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Let's get right to the point: Businesses need to make money. It is their job and their fiduciary responsibility to their stockholders, employees, customers and to their host communities. When businesses make a profit, they increase their employees pay and benefits and hire new employees; they can create better products and services using increased returns on investment; and they contribute higher revenues to communities through taxes. So to expect a business to launch a communications tool without a return on investment (ROI) can be seen as irresponsible. Yet, some in the blogging community do just that when they say things such as: social media returns can't be measured; social media can't be seen as a tool; social media shouldn't be viewed as a tactic to achieve ROI.

Fortunately, those who look at social media as a way of life for businesses are both right and wrong. It can be an important vehicle within a business's marketing and communications mix. In that way, the anti-seeing-social-media-as-a-tool folks are correct. Just by launching and executing on social media will change the way a company does business and the way its customers interact with their business. Those are the soft returns on investment built by engaging our customers and investing them with a voice. However, those same people are wrong when they say ROI cannot be measured in terms of the bottom line, because with those soft returns come a hard return in revenues, business development and growth for our own businesses.

At the end of the day, business is about growth, customers and revenues, and we need to acknowledge that. Within that model social media can work to provide customers a voice and businesses a learning tool. It is a win/win as customers influence business and share their wants and needs; and in return business listens, learns, innovates, changes, increases quality and creates great customers experiences by addressing and meeting those wants and needs.

Not only does using social media for business development and growth result in ROI, using it to grow revenues is not unethical, as some seem to think. It is the height of business ethics when done correctly. It is ethical to:

• Give customers a voice.
• Listen to customers.
• Respond to their wants and needs.
• Share how their comments are improving a business's products and services.
• Offer tips about how best to use their products and services.
• Improve the customer experience based on customer’s comments within the social media platform.
• Grow a business as customers go from buyers to brand evangelists.

Not only is all of that ethical, it is good business. And it will result in new customers as well as additional purchases by current customers. Using my own business as an example, since I began investing in social media a little over one year ago, the ROI looks like this:

“Blogging is the least expensive and most productive marketing tool in terms of marketing and growing L&G Business Solutions brand and client base, as well as its reach across North America. It accounts for about 25 percent of the marketing budget (includes time) and 40 percent of the revenues.”

As for being able to measure the impact of social media on revenues and business growth, we do so by understanding where our customers come from, how they heard about us, why they decided to buy from us, and what they buy and how often. Measuring ROI within social media is no different from measuring it within any marketing or communications platform. We ask the right questions and then analyze the answers.

So, to all those who say social media is not a marketing and a communications tool, I say nuts. It is a better tool than most others and it is one that provides more feedback than others. It may be our most valuable tool today, but it is still a tool to use in business for generating business growth and for listening to customers.

Okay. I did my best to be provocative yet honest. Now, your turn