Social Media and return on marketing investment

Is social media a useful place for a brand marketer to spend time? Is there ROMI from the effort? Aside from the occasional measurable promotion most social media today has limited short-term return on marketing investment. However, I content that brand marketers should participate in the so-called social media experiment in order to gain the long-term return on marketing investment. Or, any individual might choose to sit on the sidelines and learn from the investment of experience by other marketers (How many advertisers learned the ropes of the :30 TV spot on the backs of the investment by P&G, Kraft, and others?).

The current social media tools (Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.) all represent new technological tools that facilitate alternative forms of communication and interaction. We are in the cultural period of turmoil in which the technology has given us capbilities and we are still learning how to best use these new found skills. Like a child learning to walk, then run, then dance. We have yet to learn how to dance.