Unless you have been living under a rock for the last 5 years, you are probably familiar with the general trend of social media marketing: an exponentially-increasing, sky-rocketing, momentous upward trend. While some old school marketing folks have approached the trend incline like the incline of the worlds steepest rollercoaster-gripping the sides of the boxcar in agony and hoping to never reach the pinnacle-  for the most part, people have come around.

In fact, 53% of businesses are now using some form of social media. We can't escape it.

But is it really helping us?

Is it driving sales?

Pushing consumption?

Reeling in new customers?

Essentially, we are all looking for a specific ROI (return on investment). As human beings, we want to see specific numbers: we want to know exact monetary figures in regards to the benefit of our business Pinterest, Facebook, Twitter and any other social networking page we may have. However, perhaps it's time we start thinking of this area of marketing in a different context.

You cannot just "be on Twitter" and expect an increase in sales.

It was not meant for this, and it will be quite an arduous task to garner any kind of benefit with this kind of assumption. Instead, business professionals must learn how to use social media marketing as a tool. Hal Thomas, a content manager at BFG Communication gave a speech at Geeklend Roadshow that successfully synthesizes a good way to think about social media ROI.

Social media, he said, is the vehicle not the destination. It helps you obtain your marketing goals, but it is not the goal, itself. Like a flyer or a business card, it puts the information you want in the hands of the people you want. Essentially, it represents the potential for a customer. The more likes, retweets and follows you get, for example, is parallel to the radius of your flyer or business card's circulation. It should spark communication.

In short, social media is a tool brands should use to indirectly increase sales and customers and therefore increase the ROI of their business. If brand successfully listen to the conversations that are occurring on their respective social media platforms, they can use this information to craft future products or services, or inspire future campaigns. This is a major benefit to the open communication forum; however, of course, it is difficult to translate into specific numbers.

Just because there is not one succinct way to measure the overall ROI of social media doesn't mean there are not tools for measuring effects of social media.

Google Analytic tags and Mediaplext are both tools which track engagement on social media pages. Additionally, Facebook Insights for pages help to give valuable information about the reach of brand's posts and content. Facebook Insights, for example, can measure organic impressions, viral impressions, and paid impressions. Additionally, it provides numbers for your reach, or how many people see your page posts.

It probably won't be long until there is a more universal way of converting actual ROI numbers with social media. Most people can admit, though, that the impact of social media is undeniable.

Perhaps we should think about social media ROI as Reach, Opportunity & Impact. Still not a believer? Click here to read about some specific social media case studies.  Don't forget to check in with the website professionals at Pittsburgh web design company, Blue Archer for additional services!