Only one in ten UK businesses is able to effectively measure ROI from social media, according to a new survey by EPiServer.
This is despite the fact that more than three-quarters of respondents said they are either running an online community or plan to do so in the next 12 months.
Social media ROI
EPiServer’s ‘Tackling The Social Challenge’ report surveyed 250 UK marketing decision-makers to ask how they use social marketing.
The findings echo data from Econsultancy’s State of Social report which found that only 8% of companies had an ROI figure for all of their social media marketing spend.
In comparison 41% said they were unable to measure the ROI of any of their social media activity.
Use of social media for marketing
EPiServer’s report also found that just under a third (29%) of marketers had set up their company’s social media accounts in the last 12 months.
In comparison 35% had been using social marketing for more than a year.
The relatively low number of businesses with estabished social accounts is reflected in the fact that only 22% of respondents already have a social media or community manager, which is the same figure recorded in 2011.
40% of those surveyed do not have a dedicated social media manager and do not intend to appoint one, which the report suggests is due to lack of resources.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Facebook is the most commonly used social network with 65% of respondents saying they operated an account, although Twitter wasn’t far behind (60%).
Around a quarter of respondents said they were managing more than one account on both Facebook and Twitter.
The value of social media
But despite the fact that a majority of companies use social media, only 23% agreed that social is now an integrated part of their online presence.
This is despite the fact that 30% had experienced increased customer loyalty, 31% increased customer engagement, 25% increased traffic and 21% saw an uplift in sales turnover.
These benefits are not entirely accurate however, considering how few can accurately measure ROI.