A report from the Lenksold group found that the increased use of social media marketing has led to a greater demand for reliable analytical data to measure the channel's real value.

A report from the Lenksold Group found that that more than 75 percent of marketers rely on social media marketing for visibility. However, more than half struggle to assess the value of their social media content as they do no know which metrics are most likely to prove ROI correctly.

This is a common problem among businesses of all kind active in the channel. Just 20 percent of the 362 companies polled by Lenksgold said they have an effective method of determining their social campaigns’ success.

The businesses struggling with the measurements of success said that they are receiving pressure from decision makers at their companies. According to Jim Lenksold, president of the Lenksold Group, integrating social media marketing with other channels can help unveil the true value of Facebook, Twitter and other platforms. As engagement and visibility increase on this channel, web traffic, conversions and leads should often increase as well, which Lenksgold says is the real value in social media marketing.

Google is currently looking to add more social data to its analytics suite. In fact, Brafton recently reported that the company is working with several social media platforms to develop strong off-site social analytics capability. However, Facebook and Twitter were absent from the list of signed on social partners, and it’s likely that Google’s integration invitation is aimed directly at these companies.

Joe Meloni is Brafton's former Executive News and Content Writer. He studied journalism at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and has written for a number of print and web-based publications.