Twitter beats Facebook, LinkedIn, blogging and YouTube as the social network du jour for business to business (B2B) marketers, but it’s LinkedIn that generates the most leads, says a new study.

The gap between cost and return for social marketing may have something to do with social media protocols within companies, which are still evolving. As uncovered by the survey:

• Approximately 11% of marketers said their companies have a formal social media policy
• 55% of respondents said contacting a social media-generated sales lead by phone or email is appropriate, even if the prospect had not invited the vendor to do so
• Meanwhile, 48% said it is appropriate to respond to a prospect via social media, if the prospect contacted the vendor via email or phone first
• 100% of respondents said it is acceptable to invite a prospect to join a marketer’s online social networks, though some suggested the invites be limited to networks such as Twitter, LinkedIn, Quora, Plaxo and YouTube, versus more personal sites like Facebook
• 31% said it is acceptable to critique a competitor via social media

“Social media is an exciting and enticing sales and marketing medium, but best practices are clearly still emerging,” said Adam Blitzer, co-founder and COO for Pardot, which recently introduced a series of social media management tools for small business marketers.

Read to full article here : http://www.pardot.com/press-releases/many-marketers-dont-measure-social-media-impact