How Does Your Social Media Marketing Measure Up?By Rieva LesonskyIs your small business using social media marketing? If you are, youre in good company. Some 96 percent of business owners, marketers and solopreneurs in tis years Social !edia !arketing Industry "eport are using social media for marketing e#orts. $ut of tose, a wopping 9% percent agree or strongly agree tat social media marketing is important for a business to do.Some 9& percent of respondents use 'acebook for social media marketing, wile (9 percent use )witter. *lso ig on te list are +inkedIn ,used by (- percent., /oogle0,used by 16 percent., and 2ou)ube ,11 percent.. 3owe4er, 5interest is strongly represented ,61 percent. and &6 percent of respondents use Instagram.*sked wat teir number7one social media marketing cannel is, 6- percent of 8%8 respondents coose +inkedIn and 61 percent of 8%9 companies coose 'acebook.*reas for Impro4ement)eres still room for growt in te use of social media marketing. In te ne:t -% monts, two7tirds of respondents plan to increase teir marketing e#orts on )witter, 2ou)ube and +inkedIn. *nd despite te predominance of 'acebook, more tan si: in -; respondents say teyll use 'acebook e4en more for marketing in te coming year.'or 4ery small businesses, +inkedIn could be one potential area for growt. percent of self7employed entrepreneurs do.!arketers still a4e a ways to go in measuring te results of teir social media marketing e#orts. 'or instance, only &6 percent say teir 'acebook marketing is e#ecti4e, wile &1 percent dont know if it is, and -9 percent say it isnt.5eraps tis is wy te 4ague term increased e:posure is ranked as te top bene?t of social media marketing, cited by 9; percent of respondents.3owe4er, (( percent cite te measurable bene?t of increased tra@c to teir websites, 61 percent say social media marketing generates leads, 1> percent say it boosts teir businesss ranking in searc results and 1- percent say it impro4es sales.+ess7tangible results suc as de4eloping loyal fans ,69 percent. and pro4iding insigts into te marketplace ,6> percent. were also cited as 4aluable.!ake te !ost of 2our )ime)e amount of time social media marketing reAuires is a big concern for marketers in te sur4eyBand one e4ery busy business owner can relate to. $ne7tird of marketers say tey spend -71 ours a week on social media, but %1 percent spend 67-; ours per week, and %% percent spend --7%;. )ats a lot of timeC 3owe4er, small business owners in te sur4ey say its wort it. 3alf say social media marketing elps cut teir marketing e:pensesBa considerable bene?t for a small business on a budget.$ne way to make te most of your social media time is to determine wic social network attracts te most 4aluable users. *fter doing tis, you can focus on pro4iding te best content to attract tose users.Some 61 percent of respondents say blogging is teir most important form of social media marketing contentBabo4e 4isuals ,cited by &6 percent. and 4ideos ,-9 percent.. *pparently, consumers are doing more e:tensi4e researc tan e4er before making a purcase, so tey are gra4itating to blogs, wic pro4ide more information tan a poto or sort 4ideo can.