Like most of our readers–be they in media-based roles or others who seek to effectively leverage content to achieve better communication and leadership such marketing, CRM, and personal and professional branding and thought leadership–I frequently wrestle with measuring the “value” of social media initiatives.

I’ll tell you one metric I have found particularly interesting here at EContent: We are getting almost as much site traffic from Twitter as we do from Google. We get a fair amount of traffic via Facebook and LinkedIn as well. Maybe that’s a reflection on our audience and their social media inclinations, but I would be very curious to hear how many other sites are experiencing this sort of influence from social recommendations, sharing, and content dissemination.

Given that I embraced Twitter a little over six months ago myself (making me late to the party, but no less festive), I am always on the lookout for ways in which other media organizations leverage social media to do better business. I share a fair amount of the useful information I read online through Twitter , my various LinkedIn Groups, and our Buying & Selling eContent Facebook Group. I have to say that I am surprised that more sites (media outlets and corporate sites alike) don’t facilitate social sharing. When I go to share an article, post or page, I am really shocked when I don’t see some sort of “share” icon to simplify the process for me (though I think it is actually worse when I use a site’s share link and it picks up the entire 100 character URL in instead of shortening it… uh, ya, missing the point, much?).

In addition to watching things like site traffic and digital pass along, I find it really useful to hear from others how they perceive social media influence and ways in which it can be measured. Two related articles crossed my Twitter feed this morning (via @eric_andersen):

Twitter update: ‘simpler, faster, richer’, an interview with Twitter co-founder Biz Stone at the Seattle Times

How Much Online Klout Do You Have?, an interview with Klout’s Director of Marketing Megan Berry at MobileSocialPro

Of course in both cases, those interviewed have much to gain by touting the virtues of social media. However what both “get” and display through these interviews is the power of communicating not so much their own company’s virtues, but a bigger picture view of how these tools can be leveraged and how we might begin to understand how to measure their effectiveness. According to Klout, “your level of activity and engagement shows that you “get it”, we predict you’ll be moving up” and yes, they’re right that I’m listening… and learning–a lot. (But given that my friend eric_andersen’s Klout score is multiples of mine, I have a lot to learn.)