Social media and E-Mail marketing. Social media and display. Social media and search marketing. If you keep up-to-date on the latest online marketing trends and topics, then you know articles and research about combining social media with other online marketing initiatives for compound effects are popping up everywhere.

And for good reason. As B2B marketers are becoming more comfortable with social media channels and resources, they’re beginning to integrate their social media ‘test’ programs into their existing online marketing efforts that include the likes of E-mail marketing, display advertising and search marketing.

Yes, even Business jumped on the social-and-search bandwagon a few months back and launched a co-sponsored study with BtoB Online to find out just how marketers are using social media to enhance their search marketing programs. Among key findings were that 74% of respondents reported seeing an increase in Web site traffic as a direct result of their social media efforts.

More striking was the fact that 97% of respondents reported using at least one social media channel; however, when it came to measuring the success of their social media programs, only 47% were using a social media monitoring tool.

Only 47% of respondents were measuring their social media success using a social media monitoring tool – less than half of marketers. We couldn’t help but feel that, while the industry continues to plow ahead – touting the benefits of integrating social media with other online marketing programs –  it’s clear the majority of marketers are still lagging behind and lacking the tools necessary to truly measure social media on its own.

To better help marketers quantify and truly establish goals for the social media efforts and success, or for marketers who are interested in learning more about what their options are for social media measurement, we’ve created a social media solution guide featuring some of the top paid and free social media monitoring tools on the market.

Our latest solution guide, ‘Top Tools to Measure Your Social Media Success,’ provides product summaries, user feedback and a clear-cut comparison chart to help you select the social media monitoring tool that’s right for you and your business.

The matrix below features the social media monitoring tools examined, including Hootsuite,Sysomos, Social Mention, Radian6, Vocus and Scout Labs. Again, these are just some of the most common tools on the market; we encourage you to share additional thoughts, comments and feedback on the many other tools that you’ve used in the past in our comments section below or on our Facebook page.