• by Erik Sass , Staff Writer @eriksass1, May 29, 2013

Marketers think Facebook is an important advertising platform, but they also doubt the effectiveness of their efforts on the world’s largest social network, according to a new survey of 3,000 marketing professionals conducted by Social Media Examiner.

There’s no question marketers recognize the potential of Facebook and social media in general. Overall 97% of marketing pros said they are participating in social media marketing, and 86% said it is important for their business; 79% said they have integrated social media with their traditional marketing activities, and 89% said social media has generated more exposure for their business.

When marketers were asked which social media platform was most important to their marketing efforts, Facebook was the clear winner, with 49% saying they would choose it over any other platform if they were only allowed to use one; the next most popular social media platform was LinkedIn, chosen by 16% of marketers.

However that doesn’t mean they are confident about their own social media marketing efforts, as just 37% of the marketers surveyed said they think their Facebook advertising campaigns are effective, while 22% disagreed and 41% were uncertain. Furthermore, 57% of marketers said they didn’t think social media in general has helped increase sales; the survey authors point out this may simply reflect a lack of firm measurement methodology.

Indeed, there is clearly a lot of confusion about how to measure effectiveness, as just 26% of marketers surveyed said they are able to measure their social media activities, while 87% said their top priority is figuring out how to measure ROI for social media. On the operational side, 84% said they don’t know which social media management tools to use.