Social Media and the Question of ROI [INFOGRAPHIC]

Since social media is a fairly new marketing technique, companies often aren’t sure what to make of it or how it fits into their overall business plans. When companies go beyond thinking about return on investment, they can discover the true importance of social media.

Seventy-four percent of chief marketing officers “believe they’ll tie social media efforts to hard ROI this year,” according to an infographic by MDG Advertising. Looking past web metrics and sales goals, 96 percent of CMOs are trying to “identify the value of social marketing efforts.”

A large majority of marketers, 72 percent, reported that social media assisted them in closing a sale. Forty-five percent who use social media said it helped cultivate new partnerships, and over time, marketers who take the social approach see “significant drops in marketing costs.”

The most popular metrics measured by marketers include site traffic (68 percent), number of fans/members (63 percent), conversion (66 percent), and number of positive customer mentions (63 percent).

When brands decide why exactly they want to use social media marketing, they will be able to more accurately pinpoint successes and failures.

An infographic by Pagemodo says that marketers should see how customers react to content and figure out a way to track the number of website visitors who become customers.