Social marketers are often a divided lot over establishing a measurable link between ROI and a ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’. The question ‘how much is a Facebook post or a tweet worth’ can throw fairly contrasting answers. To make the issue further complicated,  the metric will always keep on fluctuating, as unjustified or excessive valuations are not going to sustain over a period of time. They will need to be constantly adjusted.

Co-founder of Backupify and a known digital media expert, Rob May, did some back-of-the-envelope calculations. The expert derived value per user, taking into consideration the valuations of different social media as well as cloud-computing services like Yelp, Pinterest, Path, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and Dropbox. He deduced their valuation on basis of the user base (active, or total users, whichever number was available) and the number of individual things that the audience created (all the Yelp reviews, for example, or tweets). According to the math worked out, following was the worth of each service:

• Foursquare check-in: 40¢
• LinkedIn search: 12.4¢
• Facebook ‘share’: 2.4¢
• Tweet: A tenth of a cent
• Yelp review: $9.13

The idea was to arrive at an approximate estimate of the value, and get a general sense of how much of it respective service users are actually imparting? The reason Yelp reviews got valued higher was that each review could create greater insight for other users.

However, some digital experts argue that Facebook ‘shares’ and tweets cannot be treated as sheer commodities because they involve real-time exchanges, leading to different shades of emotions, mindsets and behavior patterns. As people engage with a brand on the social media platforms, the latter knows them better, and then can customize the message in a cost-effective manner.

An infographic created by another marketing agency helps to explain how much of worth is a social following really to businesses? It explains how following a brand can decisively impact customers’ purchase intent, what brands generally feel about the effect of social sites, the intrinsic value of both Twitter and Facebook followers, as well as average costs of acquiring them through promoted means:

For example, according to it, a Facebook ‘share’ is definitely worth more ($14) than a 140-character tweet ($5), whereas a ‘Like’ on Facebook is valued at $8 in comparison to a ‘follow’ on Twitter at $2. It mentions an individual is 47% more likely to purchase something from a business he or she regularly follows. For 63% of brands, social networks have given an added edge to their digital marketing. For almost half of them, they have led to higher customer satisfaction, and for 45%, social media usage has resulted in reduced marketing costs, the graphic shows.

To sum it up, companies that are successfully able to leverage the vast data embedded in Twitter, Facebook and other social networking platforms can run more effective, focused and customized advertising campaigns. They can ultimately develop new product affinities, deliver greater customer satisfaction, and ensure higher profits margins, in return.