When consumers hit that thumbs-up button, what do they get out of it? There’s the social aspect of it, of course, but then there’s also the exposure to new products, deals and news. Concerning the executives issuing the social media funds, however? What do they get out of a like? Beyond a growing collection of fans, sometimes the answer isn’t as clear-cut.

In the video above, those questions were posed to a handful of social media professionals from the likes of Edelman Digital, Cisco and the Altimeter Group. Unsurprisingly, the frustrations of the ever-elusive ROI made their way into the conversation.

Having the ability to track the overall customer experience is something that even the biggest brands have struggled with. When all of those consumers hit the thumbs up, there’s some level of proof that a social media campaign is gaining ground. However, at a certain point, executives need more – an incredibly palpable challenge for the person who has to defend social spending to a company’s CFO.

Thanks to software giant Adobe and its social media management platform, determining a return on investment is possible. Adobe Social combines listening and engagement tools to create a social measuring stick.

“With Adobe Social, marketers can monitor mentions for their brand on Facebook and Twitter, find out which customers are the key influencers on each of these networks and track how much revenue is being generated from specific social media campaigns and posts,” explained the editors of a recent Mashable.com article. “The platform also makes it easier to target ads to certain audiences, personalize a website based on how the user interacts with it and even build apps for Facebook, effectively making it an all-in-one marketing tool for companies.”

At NetSphere Strategies, we tout the value of the Adobe platform because it helps us link up your social media initiatives to tie them back to an ROI. Not only will it give you peace of mind, but it also serves as a way for us to validate that our work effort is producing business value for your company.