If you think yes, media comanies are in big trouble. By 2013, advertisers and marketers will be expect edto spend more money on so-called conversational media (Social Media)--or online media that encompasses things like blogs and podcasts--than on advertising through traditional media (Print and radio etc) , according to a recent study from the Society for New Communications Research (SCCR). A ealier study on Social Media spending by Prospero reported that 88% of businesses expected to increase Social Media Spending in 2008 and further more when asked about social media return on investment (ROI), 35% reported positive ROI and 41% said that ROI was “unknown.” Responses to questions about how web marketers measure ROI reveal that direct sales revenue is not a top measure for determining social media success. Respondents said that total number of site visitors (17%) was the most important criterion for assessing social media performance. Total number of page views and number of subscribes / community members (15%respectively) were next, followed closely by length of visit on the site (14%)."
According to the Prospero study traffic to social media site is the most important determiner of ROI (which suggests investment in Social Media is advertising driven, perhaps more than it should be). On the other hand, brand "engagement" is the main measure of success for Social Media spend. Although there are no common defintintion of what "engagement" is. We do have one that we use with clients at Idea Couture and we have clear definition of each stage of the Customer Engagement Lifecycle as. well measurment framework. Will share more here later.
The SNCR study asked about 260 agencies about their plans to advertise and market in conversational media. Today, a majority of these agencies said that they spend about 2.5% of their total budgets on conversational media, but by 2012, they plan to tip that percentage to MORE than they spend on traditional media as according to the SNCR's study.
Today we are ooking at the about 110 million blogs, with about 120,000 new blogs created every day and about 1.5 million new daily posts, according to Technorati. Of those, a third are English, a third Japanese, and the rest are a mix of all. Although the growth of blogs is slowing, their importance and visibility among traditional media, companies, and entrepreneurs are actually increasing. I don’t even think social media has come close to reaching its true potential yet. Expect to see more innovaiton in this space.
