"Likes Lead to Nothing" -

"Social media spending has increased by 200% in the past eight years... and that upward climb is expected to continue" writes Dina Gerdeman for Forbes. Our culture is wildly obsessed with social media. How ought companies approach this venue for promotion, and what impact does it have on sales?

Gerdeman writes that it's difficult to tell if it's made a difference in revenue for most companies at all. "Fourty-three percent of respondents said in the CMO survey that they have not been able to show the impact of social media on their businesses."

This is extremely interesting to me, because it seems like so much of marketing expenses are focused on social media presence. Here are a few things that Gerdeman states are mistakes in regards to a company's social media presence:

1. Prioritizing technology over substance

2. Not being social enough

3. Forgetting that on the Web, consumers control your brand

4. Conveying inappropriate messaging

5. Failing to understand how quickly things can go wrong

He also lists some things that firms do right, but I think the negative ones are so pertinent to problems that a lot of companies face today. I think the biggest conclusion that he draws is that number of likes, in the end, don't make a difference, but the attitude that a company takes in approaching its customers online is most important. He states that being authentic and being direct are the most important parts to advertising through social media.