The survey of more than 50 businesses and organizations was conducted in September by Prospero Technologies, a Littleton, Mass.-based provider of social media applications for leading brands. It focused on current apps being used, plans and budgets for 2008, ROI, how ROI is measured/assessed, and social media challenges.

According to Prospero's 2007 Social Media Survey, 59% of respondents reported that social media performance in 2007 met or exceeded their marketing objectives, boosting future spending expectations--with 31% planning to spend significantly more on social media applications in 2008. Survey participants were from leading brand organizations in a wide variety of industries, including media, education, financial services, health, and sports and gaming.

Asked about social media 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 subscribers (15%, respectively) were next, followed closely by length of visit on the site (14%).

"The majority of respondents see engagement with their brand as the most important measure of social media success, while more concrete ROI measures such as sales and new business leads carry less weight," says Rusty Williams, co-founder and vice president of Prospero technologies.

"The reality is the key value to most companies is attention," Williams tells Marketing Daily in an exclusive interview. "If you look at what people say was important, it was repeat visitors and total page use. That attention translates into people buying from you. Attention is a unit of measure for success right now rather than a hard dollar return."

Businesses are becoming more sophisticated in creating new revenue sources through social media, with 12% citing ad revenue and 9% reporting sponsorships as important measures for success, he adds.

Current challenges include integrating community-generated content with the rest of the web site and understanding best practices for new and evolving technologies as well as keeping up with new social media technology advances. Regarding the types of social media applications currently in use, respondents said blogs and discussion boards topped the list. Looking ahead to 2008, discussion boards and blogs still top the list for Web and brand marketers (10% respectively), followed closely by ratings and reviews (8%) and social networking applications (also 8%).

When asked about their objectives for using widgets, respondents identified helping audiences promote interest on social media sites such as MySpace and Facebook (32%) and improving the speed and efficiency for implementing technologies on their site (29%) as the top uses.

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