But how are businesses really using social media strategies? The latest CMO Survey, released by Duke's Fuqua School of Business and the American Marketing Association, attempted to answer that question.

According to the survey of chief marketing officers, brand awareness and brand building emerged as the top use for social media marketing, receiving 81 percent of responses. This surpassed acquiring new customers and introducing new products and services.

Currently, marketers spend 3.5 percent of their budget on social media, but that number is expected to grow to 6.1 percent over the next 12 months and 13.7 percent in the next five years. The biggest growth is expected to come from the business-to-consumer service sector, the study found.

Social networking websites emerged as the most used aspect of social media among businesses, followed by video and photosharing, blogging, and microblogging websites such as Twitter.

With social networking sites now seeing skyrocketing user bases - Facebook recently announced that it surpassed the 250 million mark - spending on social media marketing will likely continue to be seen as a worthwhile investment for small businesses.