So you're stuck on the ROI tip now, eh? Measuring the return from your meetings...and you want to measure the return on your social media activity.

Way back when, attempting to measure the ROI of social media was a mess--highly dependent on exactly what metrics you were looking at.

Yet at this moment, thanks to Slideshare (yes, that's a social medium), a so-called Social Media ROI Cookbook is freely available.

Ekaterina Walter over at thenextweb reports:

The top challenge [to measuring the ROI of social media], according to Altimeter’s research, is actually tying social media to business outcomes; 56% of survey respondents noted that as an issue that hinders their ability to draw insight from their social media initiatives. Partly as a result, only 30% consider themselves to be “effective” or “extremely effective” at connecting social media to revenue.

As you surely remember from our October 2010 cover story, "Untangling the Value of Social Media," attempt to quantify the ROI of social media can be tricky business--and not always possible.

The discussion keeps on growing. Luckily. Take a gander at these 10 "case studies" on the ROI of social media.

I just put down my latest copy of Harvard Business Review and headed to the online version to get another bonus boost from their online-only content—I love reading their blogs especially. One caught my eye—as it should anyone in our niche. The title was "Why Face-to-Face Meetings Make All the Difference."

It was written by an executive who made his start as the founder of a global metal recycling company. The story is poignant and extremely relevant to today's market without borders. It's a fabulous success story and an extremely relevant message—one that you will undoubtedly see mirrored in future issues of One+.

Enjoy!

Just my opinion, but the future of tradeshows is clear to me . . . the biggest ROI is in hosted buyer programs. Just look at the success that IMEX, EIBTM and even MPI have all had with hosted buyer programs in recent years. While other aspects of tradeshows have shown some decline since 2008, hosted buyer is on the rise. Why? Well, the proof is in the pudding as they say.

It's all about proving value. For the supplier the value is in knowing before the show even starts that the money spent on a booth is not going to waste because rather than standing around waiting for buyers to come to them, they have a list of pre-qualified buyers already on their schedule. One of the many values for buyers is time management—not having to roam around the tradeshow floor aimlessly looking for potential matches for their clients. Buyers and suppliers are pre-matched based on interests and needs so the one-on-one meetings create an entirely new definition of the business value of meetings.

Still not convinced? Well, as we reported in the October 2010 issue of One+, a great example of value from a hosted buyer meeting is the program MPI held at WEC 2010 in Vancouver, BC. Following the event, 88 percent of hosted buyers said they connected with suppliers who matched their needs and 97 percent said they planned to call on suppliers they met for future business.

More than US$450 million in business was contracted from the IMEX 2010 hosted buyer program in Frankfurt, and value is also seen in hosted buyer statistics from EIBTM in Barcelona. In 2009, EIBTM saw a 3 percent increase in attendance and a 4 percent increase in prescheduled appointments. The event just released its 2010 numbers today and reported increases in both categories again this year—a 5 percent increase in attendance and a 1.35% increase in prescheduled appointments.

I can tell you, while I was at EIBTM this past month, I did roam around the tradeshow floor periodically. You know what I saw? Business getting done. So often at tradeshows I see more people walking around picking up tchotchkes and I often wonder, there has to be a better way. Well, in my mind, the better way is clear. The ROI at tradeshows is participating in a hosted buyer program.

As hosted buyer programs grow in popularity around the globe, how will the concept change the dynamic of tradeshows? And even more important, many feel tradeshows are a dying breed. Are hosted buyer programs the saving grace? 

On a side note . . . If you're wondering about the strategic value of tradeshow tchotchkes, assistant editor Jessie States has a story for you too. Check it out in our November/December 2010 issue of One+.

While here at EIBTM, I asked Michael Owen, CEO of EventGenuity LLC, what keeps him engaged as an MPI volunteer leader.

In the October 2010 issue of One+ ("Untangling the Value of Social Media"), I wrote about the current realities of measuring social media ROI--a hotly debated, often misunderstood subject that should be of great importance to anyone stepping into the interactive Net.

Just a couple days ago, stumbled upon the Convince&Convert blog post, "Is Our Addiction to ROI Killing Social Media?" As if that outstanding headline wasn't enough, author Matt Ridings highlights some exceptional points, not the least of which is "Social media ROI is always doable. It's not always practical." The benefits of proving social media ROI can actually damage your ROI, depending on your usage and needs. That's yet another significant component to bring to the table when creating your social media strategy. How important is measurement of such an effort in relation to the effort itself?

"Any project needs to be able to 'prove its worth.' If it can do that with a high enough degree of certainty for an executive to make decisions, then isn’t that okay? Maybe instead of me ranting about social media ROI for all this time I should have just been saying that all along. Because sometimes, that’s enough."

It's worth noting that digging into the growing particulars of social media can splinter your thoughts and opinions on the matter at a moment's notice.