In front of a crowd of about 180 Boston area professionals, Mark Wallace, VP of Social Media, Environmental Data Resources, used examples from commonground, his successful online community to prove that the ROI of an online community can be measured.

Metropolis Creative organized “Realize the ROI of a Social Media Community”, a live social media networking event at FELT Boston on June 30, 2009, to illustrate how an online community can be created, measured and used successfully to build a brand/message. “The Metropolis philosophy of approaching web and design projects from a brand building perspective mindful of target audience i.e. community was a great fit for this event...” said Michael Flint, Metropolis Founder. Additionally, Derek Showerman, Director of Social Media, Authority Domains co-sponsored the event and offered a complimentary social media assessment to all attendees.

Here is the entire slide presentation, including Mark Wallace’s 5 ROI and Reporting Tips:

The topic of social media ROI brings a general disagreement among many social media experts and upper level corporate managers. David Meerman Scott, author of The New Rules of Marketing and PR and World Wide Rave, stands out from the crowd and writes “We’ve been trained that everything gets measured down to a sales lead. If that’s how you measure social media, then forget it.” But a good amount of bloggers frequently post that ROI is either tough to do or not relevant.

How are you addressing the ROI of a social media community?

Join the LinkedIn discussion here.

Labels: Authority Domains, commonground, Enviornmental Data Resources, ROI Social Media, Social Media Community