Posted by: Nicole Johnson, Marketing Coordinator

Most marketers are excited about leveraging social networks to connect with their audiences. Sometimes, in their enthusiasm, they forget to take a step back and ask themselves how they plan to measure the success of their new social media programs.

Your company may have 300 people who “like” your Facebook page or 500 Twitter followers, but what does that mean for your bottom line? Are those fans contributing something measurable to the success of your overall marketing objectives?  These are the questions that many marketers aren’t sure how to answer.

A recent study, the 2010 Omniture Online Analytics Benchmark Survey, evaluates ROI on social, mobile and video media, and shows that 55% of respondents cannot effectively measure marketing ROI from their online tactics. The study also found that 86% of respondents consider the ability to track conversions from their online marketing activities as important, but 25% of them are unable to do so.

When you develop a social media strategy, start by setting clearly-defined goals. Once you’ve decided what objectives you’d like your campaign to meet, you can start thinking about how to measure them. Having an effective strategy for evaluating social media marketing programs can give you a competitive edge, so be sure to measure, measure and measure some more.

For information on free tools that can help you measure your social media program, visit Mashable Social Media.