Michael Lazerow of Buddy Media notes that Facebook's new profitability shows that social media has a place at the table. Safe to say, it's going to be the largest business to come out of digital since
search.
Rick Murray of Edelman finds the challenge is operate within the different eco-systems, if you will, of social media.
Lazerow is seeing massive budgeting being done for
Facebook et al. Agrees Jeff Flemings of VivaKi: Something clients want but can't yet get is access to lower-funnel consumer behaviors. Upper-funnel stuff is soft, fuzzy and fun but doesn't have the
clout.
Emily Riley of Forrester Research, who is chairing this panel, asks, "But where are clients spending their money? All I'm hearing is Facebook."
Edelman's Rick Murray tackles the
question. Lot of money going into search. The challenge is shifting mind set from display ads to thinking about what to say to engage the community, takes time, bandwidth.