I’m not entirely certain that all the activity that really matters actually happens on a commercial, owned, website.

Of course, it depends on the nature of the product and LifeCycle, yes, that should go without saying. (But doesn’t).

Directly to your point – there are categories of products and industries where I think a simple attribution statement is going to be enough. Where it’s just not relevant.

(I’ve said this before at conferences, much to the boo’s, hisses and horror.)

And yet, there are instances where something will have to give.

One thing I have learned over the years about marketing measurement is this: if you have to go to extraordinary lengths to measure something, there may not be anything worth measuring there.

In other words, the best measurement of the value of social might just be exactly the same as the way we measure anything else – what do visitors from a social source accomplish on our web site?