According to a study presented at a Pivot Conference (in partnership with Extra Mile Research) entitled "Marketers' Current and Future Use of Social Media," 63% of marketers are already investing in social media marketing, and of the 37% that are not currently investing in social media marketing, 62% are planning to invest, including 46% who plan to do so within one year.

Other key findings include:

• 57% welcome social media users involvement and participation with their brands
•  Of those already investing in social media marketing, 87% plan to increase their expenditures in the next 12 months, including 56% who plan significant increases in spending.
• Only 30% of marketers who conduct social media marketing have measurement and analysis strategy fully implemented.
• 43% of marketers who conduct social media marketing have not begun implementing any measurement or analysis programs
• Of those who have measurement and analysis programs in place, 62% are only "somewhat satisfied" with their programs
•  Despite all of the focus and investment in social media marketing, only 30% consider their social media marketing efforts "very successful." 59% rate their efforts as "somewhat successful."
• 75% of marketers consider the "always-on" 18-34 year old consumers as a primary or secondary target.
• Marketers feel that the "always-on" 18-34 year old consumers have unique characteristics:
• 70% of marketers consider them to have a shorter attention span
• 67% consider them to have different motivations than previous generations
• 59% consider them to be less accepting and more questioning of marketing messages in general

The ensuing tsunami highlights some marketing ‘nuances’ in the new media versus old media business.

As we've noted, Ben & Jerry's has doubled down on social media, expanding its Facebook superstar status into the digital realm with a clever mobile app that recently added augmented reality.

Despite being owned by the gargantuan Unilever, B&J has built its brand success on down home, folksy values – including a consistent barrage of e-mails to their loyal fan club. But several factors influenced the decision to get more social in the U.K.

Market research indicated email fatigue, mobile-happy youths prefer social media, management needed to trim costs while spreading a wider net over their ‘digitally fragmented’ fans, and U.S. successes in social media made the move seem a good idea.

Even so, many customers (and marketers) still prefer old-school email.

“While some are willing to jump solely on the social media bandwagon, the majority recognise that email is the gateway to building a meaningful presence on these channels and the two go hand-in-hand," writes Andy Taylor in Brand Republic.

From a marketer's perspective, email’s strengths include segmentation and trackability, as opposed to a "scatter gun" spray-and-pray approach that can limit social media as a standalone medium; comparatively low cost; respectable ROI; and easily integrated with other channels.

Social media, while inarguably the new frontier, takes a blast approach reaching critical mass more cheaply – but in cutting such a broad swathe – may lose overall impact.

The customer relationships B&J has built over the years – largely through e-mail, may be sacrificed by switching solely to social media: “With email the data is yours – in the social mediaverse you’re entirely at the mercy of the channel.”

Social media is blast broadcasting. While B&J may have 1.3 million Facebook fans – this medium requires fans check-in first whereas email is passive -- it comes to you. Of course, brands can't interact with customers on email, but can initiate and continue multiple conversations with social media.

8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing
After pouring over the data from the ecosystem we’re part of, we found a clear pattern. There was a consistent set of criteria we heard from the industries experts, we found the following 8 criteria:

Then, we put 30 brands to the test to find out who’s doing it right –and wrong.
We then took that criteria, created a scorecard with quantitative criteria, and measured the world’s top brands on their Facebook efforts to find out who’s doing it right, and who’s not.  In the embedded report, you can download many of the high level findings, as well as see screenshots, comparison by industry and read our recommendations.

I spent a couple of days buried in Excel last month analyzing the results of BtoB's survey of 387 marketers and business owners about their use of Twitter. Of answers to the survey's 39 questions, one stood out in sharp relief: Only about half the respondents said they are satisfied with the ROI of Twitter.

That seems a surprise, given that many marketers have told me anecdotally that Twitter is one of the most effective tools they've found for driving Web traffic, tapping into customer opinion and even generating leads. What's wrong here?

The answers began to emerge as I examined the opinions of the 20% of respondents who said Twitter had yielded revenue for their businesses. Two-thirds declared satisfaction with Twitter's ROI. These successful adopters have also been using the service longer, tweet more frequently and have larger followings than those who still await their first sale. For example, 40% of the revenue generators spend more than a half-hour daily on Twitter, compared with just 17% of everyone else.

Conclusion: The harder you work at applying social marketing tools, the better value you get from them.

This may come as unwelcome news to marketers that had been hoping that a little social media pixie dust would re-energize business. Perhaps they've bought the story peddled by too many consultants that tools are a panacea. But the reality is that any 13-year-old can set up a Facebook fan page (and a lot of them have). Achieving business success takes time and patience. The payoffs are search visibility, audience loyalty and trust gained from frequent and valuable interactions. For marketers that have the means and executive support to persist, the rewards are substantial. However, long-term thinking is rare these days.

Gartner has depicted technology hype cycles in a chart that looks a little like the Millennium Force rollercoaster in Sandusky, Ohio. New technology climbs toward a “peak of inflated expectations,” after which it plunges into a “trough of disillusionment” and then struggles toward a plane of real value. Over the last year, Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn buttons have sprouted on business websites like dandelions. We're at the peak. Expectations are high. Disillusionment will follow.

By the end of this year, recent adopters will be writing off their blogs and fan pages as a wasteful distraction. They're right: Without strategy or commitment, the tools are a waste of time. As the hype fades, the committed minority will persist on a road that is already delivering real value for some and that will continue to pay off for those who put forth the effort.

So then how do you know if putting much time and effort into social marketing will actually be worth it for a company? I work for a small international textile company that sells mainly B2B. I'm looking for new ways to generate leads, and I'm not sure if social media is a good way to go or not.