Tom, I think you make a very valuable point about trying out "digital stuff" early and widely. A lot of it is inexpensive at point of entry, so why not be a first mover just to see if you can score some singles and doubles? Maybe you'll connect for a home run. The nimble companies will ultimately win, and some of our social/digital technologies give great opportunities to be nimble without turning the entire ship all at once.

At one time, people had to think about the ROI of computers, internet access, and everything else that we now consider utilities. Digital networked communications (or "social media") really is a utility at this point - or should be. The question is, How can we use it alongside everything else to grow our business? -not some pathetic effort to isolate it from all other forms of communication and demand some ROI. Caveat - it's OK to look at the ROI of a specific social media initiative as a tactic. Just like anything else.