New stats on social media signal its space in the business world, but are revealing a great deal of confusion over ROI measurement. Initially reported by eMarketer, the findings come by way of a survey conducted by Mzinga and Babson Executive Education.

As of August 2009, 86% of business professionals worldwide have adopted social media…to some degree. They’re just not sure how to use it.

Only 16% of those questioned said that they currently measure ROI for their social media initiatives. Heck, more than 40% of respondents weren’t even sure it was measuring ROI was possible!

While it’s great that professionals are using social media in droves, it’s foolish they can’t conduct any sort of assessment of their programs and brand worth. It seems to confirm that many companies are simply jumping on the social media bandwagon — wanting to stay current without having a clue what they’re doing.

This news comes after a consumer behavior study of Twitter activity was released last month by Penn State University, which concluded that 19% of Tweets (almost 150,000 were examined) mentioned a brand name.

Brand conversations are out there. And they may very well enhance customer loyalty, retention and more. But without systems in place to prove their viability, a brand’s social media can be treated as an expendable asset.

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