Most smart people working in and around the social media space realise the truth in the follow quote but it never hurts to remind ourselves to measure business results as opposed to soft metrics such as the ones listed below. We should be doubly careful to ensure what we think is measurement is actually measurement and not counting.

It doesn’t matter that you have followers, fans, or a community; those are assets, not return. It is how you use those assets that matters.

via Social Media is the New Super Bowl: Pepsi Refresh and What It Means to Marketers.

Assets can be used to generate all sorts of positive business returns – from sales, to insight and innovation through to reduced costs – we just need to make sure we don’t count our assets before they’re activated.