Survey: Measuring ROI is Primary Social Media Marketing Obstacle

The “2015 Social Media Marketing Trends” report authored by TrustRadius has found that measuring ROI is the biggest challenge cited by marketers when it comes to social media marketing.

According to the data, 60 percent named ROI as a top three challenge, while 50 percent said tying social media to business outcomes was also one of their primary challenges. Developing a social media strategy, tracking results in a centralized dashboard, and integrating social tools were also on the list.

“Companies of all sizes and maturity levels are struggling to prove the value of their social programs,” wrote the authors of the report. “Social media activities can be difficult to quantify, and marketers are trapped between readily available ‘vanity metrics’ such as likes and followers and difficult-to-measure objectives such as brand awareness.”

About 80 percent of respondents said that engagement was their most valuable metric for measuring social networking success. Sixty-one percent said that their audience was most important, while 56 percent cited website traffic.

Despite the challenges being faced,  Social Media Examiner’s “2015 Social Media Marketing Industry Report” shows B2B marketers are planning to increase social media usage this year, while also putting steps in place to better understand its impact on business. LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram are all platforms of future focus within the B2B space.

According to Social Media Examiner’s data, about 71 percent of B2B marketers said they are interested in learning more about using LinkedIn for social media marketing, while 57 percent said the same about Facebook and 39 percent about Instagram. All of these efforts are part of a larger attempt to better understand social media ROI.