A recent ENGAGEMENTdb report conducted by Wetpaint and the Altimeter group has found companies that use social media to interact with clients saw an 18 percent increase in revenue from last year, Seattlepi.com reported.

The report cited Starbucks, Dell and eBay as examples of businesses who used social media cites such as Facebook and Twitter to connect with clients, finding that these leaders in online networking benefitted from increased sales as a result.

An article on ZDNet.com calls into question the findings, however, saying that a good part of the companies dubbed "mavens" by the study "haven't exhibited stellar performance in the last 12 months." The article also argues that the study's findings don't take into account the effect the sluggish economy has had on reported earnings for this year.

"My hunch is a few companies blew the curve. Google's last 12 months look stellar relative to others. Ditto for Amazon and Research in Motion," writes ZDNet's Larry Dignan.