The Short Answer for how to get ROI from Social Media Campaigns

When your brand is using social media effectively, you will be building an audience who are likely to become leads or prospects and likely to promote your brand to other prospects.

More Info

Visibility Leads to Credibility Which Leads to Profitability

Every person who works in marketing should have a tattoo that reads "People do business with people they know like and trust".  If your marketing is not intentionally and predictably making your brand more known, liked, and trusted it is ineffective.  

If nothing else, social media is a channel for your brand to become more known, liked and trusted.  This is not the same as a predictable ROI, but it is a mindset that will lead you to a predictable ROI.  A predictable ROI means that you have a social media campaign that effectively makes your brand more known, liked, and trusted AND it includes ways for your audience to become prospects.  

Here are some ways that social media brands use social media effectively to convert audience members into business prospects:

• Off-Platform Offers
  Amongst your amazing posts that attract your audience, include posts where followers can get "high value" offers when they fill out a form that includes contact information (1 post with an "off-platform offer" for every 5 informative / entertaining posts is probably a decent ratio)
• Email Subscriptions
  Conventional wisdom used to be that effective social media campaigns generated email lists, and email lists generated prospects.  I think that has changed over the years, but it is still a good strategy.
• In Person Events
  Creating in person events are an excellent way to move followers along a path to becoming prospects

The Bottom Line

Social Media has an ROI if you are consistently growing an audience of people who know like and trust your brand.  To convert that audience into a measurable and predictable ROI, you will need to have conversion tools like off-platforms offers, email subscriptions, and in-person events.