Proving Social’s Business Value: Why Social Media Is No Longer Just About Awareness

In the constantly evolving world of digital marketing, social media has grown far beyond its roots as a simple platform for brand visibility and community engagement. In 2025, social media is no longer just a top-of-funnel awareness tool—it’s a measurable driver of business impact. Revenue, customer loyalty, research and development (R&D), and operational decision-making are now part of the conversation. But with this expanded role comes increased pressure for social teams to prove their value in concrete, cross-functional terms.

The Sprout Social 2025 Impact of Social Media Report highlights a major shift: while leaders believe in social media’s power, most teams still struggle to prove it. From data silos and weak attribution models to underdeveloped reporting structures, social media teams are caught in a paradox. They’re trusted to deliver, but not always trusted to lead.

So, what’s going wrong—and how can marketing teams fix it?

The Confidence Gap: Leaders Believe, But Can’t See the Results

The report reveals that over two-thirds of marketing leaders are confident that social media drives brand awareness. However, awareness is no longer the crown jewel of social success. As platforms saturate, economic uncertainty rises, and consumer expectations shift, businesses are being forced to look deeper into the funnel for value.

When asked about what social media drives, leaders reported:

• 67% said brand awareness
• 60% said customer acquisition
• 58% said customer loyalty
• 56% said revenue
• 54% cited decision-making and R&D

This paints a clear picture of intent—but there’s a catch. Despite high belief in social’s influence, only 44% of leaders consider their own social teams “experts” at measuring business impact. That mismatch between faith and proof creates a culture of hesitation. Teams are often under-resourced, under-prioritised, and forced to rely on incomplete tech stacks that inhibit proper attribution.

Metrics That Matter: From Engagement to Efficiency

Historically, social media metrics have leaned towards vanity: likes, shares, impressions. While these still have their place, they’re no longer sufficient when it comes to making the case for increased investment or strategic influence.

According to the report, the most valued metrics by leaders today include:

• Engagement (68%)
• Conversion (65%)
• Revenue (57%)
• Efficiency (55%)
• Discoverability (51%)

What’s notable is the shift from soft metrics to performance-based ones. Leaders now want to see social media’s impact in terms of actual pipeline generation, lead quality, and cost-effectiveness.

However, most social teams still rely on engagement and conversion as their primary KPIs. And while those numbers are useful, they must be embedded in broader business narratives to make them compelling.

The solution? Stop dropping dashboards, and start crafting digestible reports that show what happened, why it matters, and what should happen next. Data is only as valuable as the story it tells.

From Silo to Centre Stage: Integrating Social Across the Business

One of the most significant issues the report identifies is the siloing of social data. Currently, digital marketing teams are the most frequent users of social insights. But that’s far from ideal.

Leaders want social intelligence to fuel multiple departments:

• Customer experience & support
• Sales and business development
• Operations
• Communications & PR
• R&D and product teams
• Even HR

To make this shift, teams must democratise access to social data and create custom reports tailored to different departments. A social media sentiment analysis that’s useful for customer care might be irrelevant for sales, and vice versa. Building cross-functional relationships—one meeting at a time—can help close this gap.

Social’s true value lies in its real-time audience feedback, its trend-spotting ability, and its capacity to drive product and messaging decisions. If social media is the voice of your customer, why aren’t more departments listening?

Why Attribution Is Still the Elephant in the Room

The biggest obstacle to proving social ROI? Incompatibility between tools.

More than half of leaders say their current social media tools don’t integrate well with the rest of their marketing technology stack. Many teams also lack the expertise to set up proper attribution models, or don’t have access to customer relationship management (CRM) platforms at all.

Only a minority of social teams currently connect their data to systems like Salesforce, HubSpot, or Microsoft Dynamics 365. As a result, vital customer touchpoints—especially those at the top of the funnel—go untracked, and the social team is left without the receipts they need to show their value.

One practical starting point is to pick a single campaign and connect it to CRM or web analytics data. Use it as a proof of concept. Full attribution may still be out of reach for some teams, but partial attribution is better than none.

Expert Teams Work Differently

So, what separates expert teams from the rest?

According to the report, expert teams:

• Prioritise revenue and efficiency in their social metrics
• Use advanced social media management platforms
• Rely on tools like link tracking, marketing automation, and cross-functional reporting
• Have leaders’ confidence
• Invest in ongoing integration between social and wider business analytics

Data literacy is a key differentiator. The more fluent teams are in metrics, the more strategic their role becomes. It’s not enough to collect the data—you must know how to interpret and apply it across the business.

Content Still Reigns—But Not in the Way You Think

Content remains at the heart of social media success. However, quality over quantity is the prevailing wisdom of 2025.

Many leaders still focus too heavily on publishing cadence—believing that posting more often equates to greater impact. In fact, engagement rose nearly 20% in 2024, despite a decrease in publishing frequency. Consumers are demanding originality, relatability, and community—not constant brand noise.

Marketing teams should be empowered to set their own cadence based on what resonates with their audience, rather than pressure from leadership. That includes experimenting with long-form video, storytelling content, and exploring new platforms like Reddit, Threads, Substack and Bluesky.

Interestingly, the platforms with the greatest business impact are not the newest ones. In 2025, Facebook, YouTube, TikTok, and LinkedIn still lead the pack—though preferences shift depending on B2C vs. B2B brands.

The Rise of Social Search and Influencer Integration

Another game-changer in 2025 is the convergence of social media and search. Known as SOSEO (social search engine optimisation), this emerging discipline reflects how consumers increasingly use social platforms to search for brands, products and experiences—especially Gen Z and younger millennials.

As a result, 81% of leaders say they’re reallocating funds from traditional SEO to organic and paid social, as well as influencer marketing. Influencers, once considered a B2C tactic, are proving their worth in B2B environments too.

But follower count is no longer the measure of success. Brands are prioritising engagement quality, content resonance, and the conversion potential of influencer partnerships.

Hiring Trends Reflect Shifting Priorities

With so much riding on social, it’s no surprise that three-quarters of leaders plan to increase social media headcount in the next year. But what’s striking is which roles are being prioritised:

1. SOSEO specialists
2. Social customer service & support
3. Paid social experts
4. Influencer marketing professionals
5. Social analytics & listening specialists

This reflects a broader understanding that social media now touches every aspect of the business. It also hints at a growing demand for technical and analytical skills, not just content creation.

Furthermore, 71% of leaders have increased their use of agencies and freelancers post-AI adoption—suggesting that AI has not reduced job demand, but has instead expanded the scope of what social teams are expected to achieve.

Regional Differences: The UK Perspective

While Australian marketers are leading the charge in terms of sophistication and integration, UK marketers present an interesting middle ground.

Most UK leaders describe their teams as “evolving”, and they show a preference for quality over quantity. TikTok is the top-performing platform in the UK, even over Facebook and YouTube. And when it comes to defining ROI, UK marketers focus more on conversion metrics than engagement or revenue alone.

This emphasis on resonance and business results, rather than volume and vanity, positions UK teams to climb the sophistication ladder—provided they’re given the tools and autonomy to do so.

The Future Is Social-First—If You’re Ready

The biggest takeaway from Sprout Social’s 2025 report is this: social media is no longer a sideshow. It’s not a supporting act. It’s not just a way to “get the word out”.

It is the frontline of how customers discover, evaluate, and engage with your brand. It influences product development, customer experience, employee advocacy and brand loyalty. It is measurable. It is strategic. And it demands a seat at the decision-making table.

But to unlock this potential, brands must:

• Build better attribution infrastructure
• Integrate social data with CRM and business intelligence tools
• Create cross-functional reporting frameworks
• Invest in expertise, not just platforms
• Empower social teams to lead strategy, not just execution

As one senior professional put it in the report, “The future belongs to businesses that lead with social—not only in how they connect with audiences externally, but in the priority they place on social data internally.”

Conclusion

The message is clear: Proving social’s business value isn’t optional anymore—it’s essential.

Brands that continue to treat social media as a soft metric channel will fall behind. Those that embrace its full potential—as a data-rich, conversion-driving, loyalty-building engine—will thrive.

The challenge lies not in convincing leadership of social’s power, but in building the infrastructure to prove it. That means not just better tools, but better habits, better collaboration, and a more strategic mindset.

In 2025 and beyond, the most successful brands won’t just be social. They’ll be social-first.