Companies that are using Twitter and other social media platforms to market themselves may not know exactly what their efforts are worth, especially as many of these platforms just started allowing companies to officially advertise themselves on these avenues. In order to gain more insight into online marketing campaigns, companies may want to invest a custom database software that will allow them to track how much they're actually investing in these endeavors.

Twitter recently started to let companies advertise on its website in addition to maintaining their own company accounts. According to Businessweek, one Austin, Texas-based T-shirt retailer named Glennz Tees was contacted by the social network last November about advertising with them. Walter Stokes, CEO of the shop, told the source that he spent a little over $15,000 to advertise for three months on Twitter. Every few weeks a representative from Twitter would contact him to check up on the advertising campaign.

The owner ended up moving 60 to 70 percent of his advertising budget on Twitter and even spent $100 to $200 per day during the holiday season. Subsequently, the campaign tripled his Twitter followers and significantly boosted revenue.

It can be hard to measure the value of a Twitter campaign, let alone the value of a tweet. In order for businesses that are advertising on Twitter or using internet marketing campaigns to accurately determine the cost of their efforts, they may want to use database software to store and manage the necessary statistics.

By analyzing click-through rates, Facebook likes, retweets and converted leads through custom database software, these businesses may find an advantage by crunching the big data, allowing them to make better informed decisions on their marketing efforts.