For 2-3 years the buzz around social media is so heightened that there may not be much more to say, much less be gained Or, is there?

Marketing Sherpa released it's findings on barriers to social media adoption. In December, marketers reported that lack of knowledge and the ability to see ROI from social marketing efforts kept social media from mainstream adoptions. If social media is so mature, surely adoption rates would be higher.

In a previous post I talked about barriers in B2B due to lack of trust in the medium for personal use, thus translating to lack of trust for business use. But, I think there may be something more here. Leveraging social media for marketing is not for the faint at heart. There are real complexities to creating a customer experience and building relationships. Companies struggle with this with their own known customers. Even with emails and reach customer history, it is challenging to engage with relevance and consistency. Now, try this with a decentralized and dynamic market where you cannot always control the message.

There are certainly ways to try out social media marketing. Nicky Jameson recently provided great 7 Tips to get your feet wet. But, how do you get your arms around what social media is beyond the buzz and hype?

So, here are some definitions to de-mystify social media.

Social media is...

1. Another outlet for PR tactics.
2. A mode to converse with contacts outside of email, events, or your website
3. A vehicle to hear what you customers think and have to say.
4. A segmented community with traits that make it easy to align your products and services

ROI is another issue altogether. It's the "so what" factor. With marketing budgets lean and mean, why would you want to take a risk on something that you have no idea it will work? Exactly because you know that other tactics in the social media definition work. The only issue now is figuring out how to measure it. But, that isnt' all that different from any other marketing tactic and PR effort. You already know how to measure it!

Tips to Align Social Media to Business Outcomes

1. Compare similarities of traditional actions and outcomes to social media marketing actions. If you are able to show how press mentions impact business outcomes, you should be able to incorporate blog mentions, re-blogging, etc. into this equation.
2. Trace social network interactions as they begin to funnel into your lead management processes. Social media marketing shouldn't completely stand on its own. Your social network pages, micro-sites, and other social media assets eventually need strong calls to action to your website and lead generation processes.
3. Integrate social media marketing tactics with traditional tactics. If you track emails response then any social media marketing you connect to the email will track.

I'll pose this on ROI for social media. Marketing's responsibility is to drive business strategy and outcomes through market/customer interactions. The real measure of success is alignment with the C-Suite on what the "return" is on investment. This may not necessarily be monetary but rather value of marketing's ability to support business strategy and customer interaction.

• Can you show through social media that the message you want to get out about your company and position is happening?
• Do you see a lift in customer interactions through the introduction of social media marketing?
• Is there a tangible value to social media interactions that is directly/indirectly influencing marketing's ability to contribute to business outcomes?

Don't get hung up on the dollar figure. Investment is as much about reducing customer churn or the marketing adopting your thought leadership position as it is a direct bottom line result. Your real task is ensure your marketing strategy is aligned to business strategy. How you get there is through traditional marketing know how and the help and integration of social media marketing.