by Gwen Moran
Almost everyone's talking about the potential for social networking, but finding reliable and quantifiable ROI is tough. Earlier this week, Prospero Technologies issued a news release that was widely picked up. 59 percent of businesses they surveyed said that social networking "met or exceeded marketing objectives" in 2007 and that 88 percent planned to spend more in 2007. That sounds great, until you read a bit closer. The survey only included 50 companies and only 35 percent reported positive ROI -- 41 percent said that the ROI was "unknown."
But spending certainly is up. The whole thing is just mildly reminiscent of the early Web days where we knew something big was here, we just didn't know how to harness its power. So, we spent willy nilly and when the dust settled, some people guessed right and some people guessed wrong.
Some thing seem obvious. You should be on Facebook and probably on MySpace. Storing your video on YouTube can save you money on bandwidth and possibly get you a bigger audience. Second Life, which launched with a huge bang, has some interesting and useful applications, but seems to be fizzling. It's sort of marketing-by-gut-feeling, which is tough to defend in an annual review or client report.
One blog worth reading it Tom Parish's Leveraging Social Media (aside from the fact that using "leverage" as a verb makes my inner grammarian crazy). He does a good job of making a case for social media.
Still, what we lack is that objective voice that is analyzing the data surrounding social media and giving us useful evaluation without a filter that is for or against using it.
What about your company? Are you increasing your spending? And how are you evaluating ROI? Let's discuss in the Comments section.
