the Trouble with Tracking Viral Campaigns

So now that we know that social media is increasing in scope, wildly popular, and here to stay, how do we convince our agency and client friends that it also works? Tracking social media and viral campaigns has been one of toughest things for us to prove when recommending social media as a part of a campaign. Those of us that are mildly obsessed with reading and learning about social media know that it works but we can't simply say 'trust us, it will work and it's really cool' in a meeting. I've tried.
Agencies typically want to talk about ROI and impressions and relate those to the cost of a campaign and how this translates into money being saved and/or made. This is going to be more and more important as social media grows (hence the HUGE sale of Compete.com this week). Social media is a little wily when it comes to exact numbers as we've all seen campaigns that should be great fail to take viral legs and videos of questionable intelligence watched by millions. The fine line that we must walk is in both the content and distribution. Assuming that you have thought of both, the next step is to determine your ROI and tracking.
Things you should know:

1) Saved money should not be overlooked. Social media is a great advertising dollar saver. If Youtube charges you $20,000 for any campaign and you are able to reach those numbers without using Youtube, consider that money saved.

2) Viral is worth more than impression. This means that if a blogger tells his 50 readers that your product is a great find, you have just received a viral engagement. Think of it like having a sale at your store and the local news comes to cover it. This is priceless!

3) Along the viral lines, pass-along should be tracked as well. How much is it worth to you to know that not only has your e-mail been read but that it has been forwarded on? This information is going to be priceless to your business. It means that someone thought that your information was important enough to pass on. Hence, you can get some idea of what information people want to read when your composing your next e-mail and optimize your e-mails opened.
Shameless plug: There are several companies out there that can track the viral legs of your campaign but Shoutlet seems to be the best so far. We have been working tirelessly to bring passalong tracking once we found out that "this campaign is super cool, I promise it will spread virally' doesn't work so well.