Does Social Media Drive Traffic

I recently read an article with the title of Study Says Social Media Sucks at Driving Traffic and I thought it was bang on accurate.  The main of the article is that social media is not a huge referral source for traffic to websites.  Does this mean that social media is failing? I think the answer is an emphatic NO!  Social Media is not failing, in fact, an interpretation of the study is that social media is extremely engaging and that's why traffic is not following links to other sites, but rather staying on Facebbook and Twitter and spending their time there.  As social media sites continue to enrich their offerings, they continue to give marketers a platform to interact with their community of interest. It must be remembered that your objectives on social media need to be set in context of the reason people use social media, first, to interact with their friends, second to seek information.  Successful marketers know that social media is not a lead generation machine, but a place where listening and responding provides opportunity to help shape the online discussion. Social Media sucks for driving traffic, true, but it excels at building credibility.