[Posted by Nate Elliott. Follow me on twitter.]

Marketers don't think they're very good at measuring social media. 
When my colleague Emily Riley asked marketers to
rate their ability to measure the impact of their social media
initiatives, the average grade they gave themselves was 4.5 out of 10.
Not a great score -- especially given that accountability is one of the
key selling points of interactive marketing. So I've spent a lot of
time this year trying to understand why marketers aren't good at
measuring social media -- and how they can do better.

The fact is, social media marketers are drowning in a sea of
metrics. Every social platform and vendor offers its own metrics, and
there are literally hundreds of ways to measure the success of social
initiatives. With so many numbers to choose from, and so little insight
into which metrics are important, it's not surprising that marketers
feel overwhelmed.

Most marketers fixate on easily-available measures like followers or
fans -- regardless of whether those metrics are important. Many others
fail to measure obviou