Anyone who tells you a tweet is worth a specific amount of money is wrong. One source will tell you a tweet is worth 1/10th of a cent and another will tell you it’s worth $5. A Facebook Like, meanwhile, is valued from $8 to $137.84. With figures varying so wildly it’s easy to see this can’t be a reliable measurement because the number is inevitably based on opinion.

When you consider this premise, it’s not surprising that many brands aren’t getting the engagement they had hoped to see from social. According to ExactTarget, 51 percent of fans say they rarely or never visit a company’s page after “liking” them. And 71 percent of fans say they have become more selective about “liking” companies on Facebook.

Instead of focusing solely on Likes and Tweets and assigning arbitrary monetary values on them, marketers are better off building a multifaceted approach to understand the relative value of a social action to your brand’s unique goals and objectives.

Beyond the “Like”

Focusing on the number of your brand’s Twitter followers or Facebook “Likes” is only measuring your brand in one dimension. This isn’t to say your brand’s Facebook fans or Twitter followers aren’t valuable; rather, they’re just one measure of your brand’s success in the social space. A like is a one-time interaction your customer makes with you, you want to have an ongoing conversation with your customers and get beyond the Like.

To do this your brand needs to think about what goals you have and what actions in the social space will help you reach those goals. Do you want to encourage your fans to be brand advocates?  Do you want them to try another product in your lineup? Do you want them to review your products? Are you trying to learn more about who your customers are? – href="http://econsultancy.com/us/blog/62129-social-lessons-from-the-traditional-loyalty-program-playbook?utm_medium=feeds&utm_source=blog">Social lessons from the traditional loyalty program playbook by Matthew Kates

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