Sometimes it's good to know that you aren't the only dissenter in the crowd. While I've mentioned that Kim Krause Berg and Alice Seba aren't as enamored with social media marketing as some of the other names in the search industry, Matt Bailey has also joined the mix with an outstanding blog post on the topic. In it, he lays out the issues of traffic verses conversion and talks about the need for social media to further mature before being embraced as a mainstream marketing venue.

From Matt's post...

I have a few client sites that have been the subject of social media traffic, so, what better thing to do than to analyze the benefit of social media traffic. I did, and the results were surprising.

First, I had data from two types of websites. Then, Kim Berg allowed me to analyze her blog stats, which reflected traffic from Digg and Del.icio.us. Including Kim’s blog, all three are content-based websites. Website #1 is an information-based website that drove people to subscriptions and memberships, website #2 is a technology-based blog with no direct conversions.

He even put together multiple charts that examine traffic quality from search, links and social media mentions. See this chart for just one example.

When you think about it, it makes sense. The users of the most popular social media sites (Digg, del.icio.us and so on) are primarily young techies. Sure, they want to go out and see what everyone else is saying, but do they want to buy anything from you? Doubtful. Do they want to subscribe to your newsletters? Possibly, but also doubtful. Think of it as "flavor of the month" article or blog surfing.

Now that should make it clear that there ARE arenas in which social media can be a big hit for you. If you're a content site that makes your money based on page views, then sites like Digg are a fantastic marketing opportunity. However, if you are one of the 99.5% of businesses that needs to actual convert someone to a lead or a buyer, then your time is probably better spent elsewhere.

Matt sums things up accordingly:

For a search engine marketer, social media traffic can be a proof that they know how to build quick attention for a site. However, beyond that shot of traffic, what is there to show? For those in the SEO business, there is not much else, traffic sells. For businesses that make their living on and off the web, traffic like this is not helpful.

He also calls for site owners that are wiling to share their own stats from social media traffic. If you're up for joining in his research, leave him a comment on his blog.