Brent MacKinnon's List: Business Plan

And it’s easy to see why. If a business is going to put the time, effort, and attention into social media marketing, it would be nice to think we’d actually get some sales out of it.
In other words, we want a return on our investment.
Sonia Simone talked recently with Sean Jackson, Copyblogger Media’s CFO, about the ROI of social media. She expected to hear one answer, but was surprised to get something very different.

Social Media Strategy Has a Problem
Through research, Altimeter Group has learned that social media strategists face great challenges as they work to make their company truly social. The numbers are stacked against organizations:

Only 34% of businesses feel that their social strategy is connected to business outcomes.
Just 28% of companies we studied feel that they have a holistic approach to social media, where lines of business and business functions work together under a common vision.
A mere 12% are confident they have a plan that looks beyond the next year.
Only half said that top executives were “informed, engaged and aligned with their companies’ social strategy.”