Social media ROI is the return on investment for engaging in social media as a form of marketing. Think of what ROI stands for in business, and then apply it specifically to social media activity.
A positive ROI means you are getting back more in return than you are putting in. The actual formula for ROI is:
(return – investment) / investment = ROI
When evaluating ROI, the calculation starts with two elements:
The return = the business benefit from the activity (often expressed as revenue generated, but could be another measurement).
The investment = the amount you spend to get the benefit (costs).
If you want to express the return on investment as a percentage, you would multiply the final result by 100.