A recent survey carried out by Fantastic of businesses in Yorkshire has revealed that social media tools are significantly underused by companies in the region.

The results of the survey were based on the responses from Marketing Managers and Managing Directors of SMEs across the county.

Although the majority of respondents recorded that business networks such as LinkedIn, company blogs, forums and video were the most influential social media tools for a business, around a third revealed that their company did not use any of these tools as a means of communicating.

The key reasons for this were lack of knowledge, lack of time and problems in proving the value. There were also concerns about the negative impact of using and working with social media and the level of risk to the brand.

How to calculate return on investment in the digital age has been a key debate between marketing and communication professionals over recent years. It is more complicated than seeing coverage in magazines or the numbers of leads from an e-marketing campaign. The important factor is that companies should know what they want to achieve and use metrics programmes to understand how often a key message has been circulated online or how many interactions they have within their relevant social networks.

Richard Jones, Fantastic Media’s Head of Digital, commented: “Our research has shown that many businesses in the region are aware of social media and its influence but do not participate in using it. It is up to marketing agencies such as us, who have the expertise to communicate the benefits and educate on how social media can be used effectively so that we can achieve positive results for our clients – whether it’s increasing web traffic, brand awareness or sales.”