NEW YORK – For those questioning the value of pursuing a social media marketing program, consider the stat reported last week in Adweek: The monetary value of a Facebook fan is $3.60.

The figure was ascertained by social media branding specialist Vitrue, which said a fan base of one million translates into at least $3.6 million in media over a year, based on impressions generated in the Facebook news feed.

Vitrue said that most Facebook fans yield extra impressions, meaning a marketer posting regularly extracts significant value.

"It's important to understand that once you build that fan base, you want to make sure you're leveraging it," said Michael Strutton, chief product officer at Vitrue.

Vitrue said that brands produce different impression-to-fan ratios, from a low .44 impressions per fan up to 3.6 impressions, a reflection of brand appeal.

Of course, Vitrue's data ignores the most significant reason for building fan bases: social customer-relationship management, which informs fans of products, services, and promotions.

"When you start to [add] engagement value, it goes higher," said Strutton. "We were trying to get an easy-to-understand valuation terminology."