Site traffic is the leading social media metric

Increased website traffic is the main metric marketers use to measure the success of social media campaigns, according to a report by eMarketer, underlining that social media measurement remains a fairly blunt instrument.

Only half of those marketers in a Datran Media study believe social media will generate quantifiable results in 2010, with 37% unsure and 12% saying no.

“For the few marketers who do attempt to apply quantitative measures to their social marketing efforts, the metrics they use are not terribly sophisticated,” said eMarketer CEO Geoff Ramsey. “Most marketers today do not invest sufficient time, effort or money on social media measurement.”

Datran’s respondents, who are heavily invested in social media, 72% having Facebook and Twitter profiles, prefer to measure online campaigns based on clicks (72%), conversions (59.2%) and impressions (58.4%). Conversions were considered the most important metric to track.