Surprisingly it seem as if not everybody is sold on the concept of social media.
While many of us, and the rest of the world, are loyal participants of the social media world, some businesses contend that the value of social media is yet to be determined.
Their main concern, or better yet complaint, was that they have been unable to measure its return on investment.
I understand this concern, it seems like a practical one, but I just don't think that this is the correct perspective to have.
Social websites are generally  free services (thus its popularity) providing an open forum for communication and expression.
If one is basing their "return on investment solely on dollar signs, fine; but in order to truly determine the value of social media, there are many other factors to consider.
Such factors include: the number of participants that allow social media to play huge roles in their lives, the fascination that societies all around the world have with it, the social influence it has on peoples lives, the frequency of its usage by members from all over the world, it's rapid and ongoing growth, its dynamics as a branding service (what I like to call it), and of course its gateway to influencing consumer behavior.
Patience is truly a virtue, especially when it comes to investments on advertising and customer relation management.
Consumers are becoming more difficult and more picky.
We know what we want, and we are not naive.
This is why businesses need not to judge the use of social influence via the money they are getting back.
First comes the increase in "fans" then comes the fans' wallets..
and social media's focus is increasing the fans.