Is social media marketing an effective business tool?

Return on investment is a business metric, and within social media, it has been a contentious topic. More businesses than ever are devoting an increasing amount of resources into social media marketing and social media optimization (SMO). How do you determine whether those efforts are successful?

This awesome infographic, on the ROI of Social Media, highlights some key performance indicators (KPIs) of social media marketing including:

• Making sense of the imprecise
• Social media marketing today
• Metrics used by CMOs to measure social media marketing activities
• Proven social media platforms
• Surveying social media ROI
• Recruiting through social media
• Defining key objectives

Some of the most interesting data shows that 76% of businesses are using social media networking for business objectives while only 9% of businesses have been using social media marketing for less than a year.

This shows that many businesses were early adopters of social media network technology and marketing. As to how efficient their marketing practices were, well, clearly one can see that social media marketing is more than just clicks.

[Infographic credit: MDG Advertising]