As hockey great Wayne Gretzky once said, "There is no point in bothering to go where the action has been, but rather it is more important to go where the action will be."  That concept, my friends, is true for so many things in life—not just hockey, but also to social media and measuring its success. You already know that social media is revamping the way that we communicate with each other and the way that we do business, but what you may not know is how to accurately measure the success of your organization’s social media efforts.

A recent study performed by Arketi Group polled B2B journalists about what social media tools they use, and they had some surprising responses. We would all expect Twitter be popular (84 percent), but LinkedIn (92 percent) came in first, followed by Facebook (85 percent). So, what does that tell us as B2B professionals? It tells us that social media matters—not only to clients and their customers—but also to the larger world of public relations and journalism. Social media is an effective way to get in front of the people who could help you spread your clients’ story to the appropriate audience. But for many organizations, getting involved in social media isn’t the hard part. The challenge is in measuring the effectiveness of their social media campaigns—which brings us back to Wayne Gretzky.

Measuring the success of your social media efforts isn’t just about how many followers you have or how many “likes” you get on a daily basis. A truly successful social media campaign is one that is integrated with your business goals and objectives. It’s an effort that will help to take your organization into the future – it’s about making it an integral part of where you will be, not where you’ve been.

Social media guru Brian Solis, recently wrote that “there is no single ROI for social media.” The reason is because you can’t put a dollar amount on it—and that can often scare people. But, by making social media part of your organization’s future –aligning it with your strategy, celebrating milestones, using it to bridge organizational gaps, and choosing the right tools (transparency, interaction, adaptation and engagement) to measure it, you will be able to determine its return on investment. And trust me, it’s invaluable.

So, isn’t it about time that your organization started measuring social media Wayne Gretzky style? Remember, success isn’t a destination, it’s a journey. And how you get there is where your story lies.