Are you struggling to find measurements that are meaningful to your organization? Do you feel like you’re searching for a needle in a haystack of metrics?

Here are 8 useful metrics that you may not be measuring, but should be.

#1: Conversion Rates

Everyone wants to measure the volume of leads generated to get to the bottom-line ROI of social media efforts. But don’t forget about the value of the conversion rate! While the volume may not be there yet, the propensity to convert may be staring you right in the face.

You’ll need to have a mechanism in place to know when a lead comes from social media. Most people use the combination of a URL shortener and some form of a “cookie” to attach a campaign to a lead. Hootsuite has integrated Google Analytics into their URL shortener for a seamless transition to success metrics in analytics, while some companies are using proprietary shorteners and others are still trying to figure out how to do it.

One of the most important steps in understanding where your lead came from is to know when someone clicks on a social media link and then converts. The most reliable way to do this is to place a “cookie” on the user’s machine with the campaign name for the social media channel that generated the click. Then use your campaign reporting to track the number of leads and conversions you’ve generated.

The number will likely be fairly low in the beginning but by looking at conversions divided by leads, you can get your conversion rate for social media leads. Compare this against other marketing channels to see if it’s higher or lower.

# 2: The Control Group

Some of the greatest metrics I’ve brought forward in my company really didn’t look that impressive when I first got them. The volume of leads generated was pretty low when compared to our other marketing channels.

However, when I compared them against a group of people that had not interacted with social media, I found some amazing stats that not only got my executive team excited about social media, it also showed that social media has a huge impact on our ability to convert leads. This certainly makes it easier to justify budget dollars to integrate social media into the sales process.

To add a control group, run the same metrics you normally run against a group that has never interacted with social media and compare them. Look for how social media compares in areas like lead conversion rates, retention rates and costs.

CareOne has seen that social media involvement in the sales process has greatly improved the rate of those who sign up for a debt relief plan and the propensity for those new customers to make their first payment.

#3: Growth Rate

While you’re building volume, measure the growth rate over time. Being able to show that volume is growing at a healthy rate helps prove that your efforts are generating an impact. The reality is that it takes time to build a sustainable social media channel; thus, setting proper expectations is very important.

#4: Marketing Campaign History

It’s really important to look at how your company reports on “cookies” related to a sale. After doing some digging, I found that my company was attributing the credit for the sale to the campaign that was the first cookie the prospect had received. We can now report on the originating campaign, the campaigns responded to in between, and the converting campaign.

This helps us know all of the drivers to the sale and appropriately adjust costs related to the sale to get closer to a true ROI as well as look for that magic mix. Even if your sales process isn’t online, you need to make sure your CRM system allows for tracking to marketing efforts through the entire sales cycle and your teams are appropriately trained to track it.

#5 Customer Acquisition Costs

Everyone is touting how “cheap” social media is, though many of us have realized that is somewhat of a fallacy. However, it is cheaper than many other traditional channels, so measure the full campaign history (as stated in #2) and then assign the cost per conversion and compare it against your control group.

Here are two examples of how this can happen:

• A person clicks on a link in one of your tweets and goes to your site and converts into a new customer.
• A person clicks on a paid advertisement on Google and doesn’t convert. Then later clicks on a link in one of your tweets and goes to your site and converts to a new customer.

Depending on your business model and typical advertising expense, in the first example, the cost to generate that customer could be less than a standard customer who comes through paid advertising.

In the second example, the cost will be higher than the standard customer who comes only through paid advertising, BUT even if it’s slightly higher for those who responded to more than one channel for lead generation, the incremental cost of social media will likely be less than trying to replace the unconverted lead with a new one.

#6: Retention Rates

Right behind the ability to convert a customer is the ability to keep a customer. Compare the inclination of new customers to stay customers with and without social media interaction. The theory is that those participating in social media are more engaged and likely retain better.

In order to do this you’ll need to keep all the leads converted in #1 and track them over time. If you have an ongoing fee, measure how long they stay a customer. If you’re more of a onetime sell, measure if they come back and buy something else and how often they do. Then compare this against the control group of those who didn’t interact with social media and see if there are any improvements worth noting.

#7: Customer Saves

Many teams are using social media to help customers online and this often includes managing complaints. Measure how many times your team saves a customer from cancelling, switching or returning your product/service.

#8: Cross-Sells

Are social media customers more or less likely to buy additional services? How much revenue per customer was generated from social media compared to non-social media customers? How much revenue was generated from additional purchases and/or add-on products for social media customers? Compare this to your control group and you’ll be able to tell if social media has an impact on up-selling or cross-selling.

This is certainly not a complete list of metrics, but it gives an overview of some of the most commonly missed measurements that contribute to showing social media’s value to your organization and/or clients.

What would you add to the list? Please let us know what you think in the comments box below.

Related Articles:

• How to Measure Social Media’s Impact on Customer Retention
• How to Measure Social Media Return on Investment for the Complex Sale
• 4 Ways to Measure Social Media and Its Impact on your Brand
• How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance

Photo source: Flickr

The cost-effectiveness of social media has vaulted it to the top of the list of tools used to improve customer retention. But how do you measure whether social media is affecting your ability to keep customers?

To examine this, let’s look at a case study of a company that has excelled at connecting with customers in social media spaces.

What We Can Learn From Comcast

If you’ve been following companies using social media, then you’re sure to be watching what Comcast is doing.

They were presented with a difficult challenge of dealing with a perception of poor customer service and trying to change that perception.

This is evidenced by over 6300 people who are fans of the Facebook page called “I Hate Comcast.”

They did a combination of things in order to meet their objective. Frank Eliason, who Business Week called the most famous customer service manager ever, started the @ComcastCares Twitter account (he’s since moved on). This has now expanded to multiple Twitter accounts from their digital team that all start with @Comcast, my personal favorite being @ComcastBonnie. They also have several Facebook Fan pages with the Comcast fan page being the primary channel where they provide customer service to Facebook users.

My tweet to Comcast.

In my personal experience, I had an issue with Comcast that I tweeted about and several things happened. Almost immediately, I received a reply from @ComcastBonnie asking if she could assist me. My issue was then transferred to a national response person who told me he was following up on my issue and would get back to me.

It took a few attempts but my cable got installed and I spoke to an amazing person who addressed my issue and was determined to make me happy, despite the issues I faced. So how should Comcast measure whether their efforts mattered? There are a few key metrics I recommend you examine.

#1: Customer Retention Rate

Will I stay with Comcast longer than a customer who never interacted with Comcast’s social media team? Compare the retention rate of customers who interact with social media channels versus those who don’t, whether it is through your customer service efforts and separately for any leads that have been generated.

Each month the customer stays with Comcast is worth a certain amount of revenue to the company. Assign an average dollar value to customers at different points in the life cycle and compare the value of a social media customer versus a non-social media customer based on retention rates.

#2: Decreased Operational Costs

Do customers who get assistance from the social media team tend to contact the customer service phone number more or less? It generally costs less to service a customer online than over the phone, depending on the company’s operational setup. Report how many customers were handled, the average time to resolution, the cost and the savings.

#3: Increased Usage of Self-Help Options

Do customers who interact with the social media team use the online customer service option at your website more or less? Online help centers typically facilitate customers finding answers on their own, which is certainly less expensive than a customer calling the service phone number. Report on how many social media customers went to this section of your site versus non-social media customers and show how much the company saved.

#4: Customer Saves

How many complaints were you able to turn into opportunities? I call these saves. They are customers who exhibited some key actions that can lead to a cancellation, but the customer either comes back or doesn’t cancel as a result of social media interaction. These customers are worth money to your company, so make sure to measure their value in your overall return on investment numbers.

#5: Customer Complaints Turned Into Raves

Do social media customers share their experience with others more or less than non-social media customers? What percentage of social media customers are likely to recommend your company to a friend?

Customers who interact with the company on social sites are more likely to have a “viral” tendency and love to share their positive and negative experiences with their friends, followers and fans. How many shared negative comments versus positive comments do you see? How far did they reach?

#6: Cross-sells

Are social media customers more or less likely to buy additional services? How much revenue was generated from cross-sells directly from social media compared to non-social media customers?

#7: Improved Process Innovations

How many issues handled by the social media service team led to process innovations to prevent the issue in the future? How much money will this save the company in lost customers each year? How much money will it save the company in employee time to handle the issues?

Because social media measurement is fairly new and many companies are just getting started, it’s important to measure everything against a control group so you can compare the rates of change.

For those in the early stages of their social media strategy, the numbers may not be “big” yet, but it’s the propensity of the customer to convert better, be more loyal, be more likely to use online resources and tell their friends about their experience that show the short-term and the long-term value for the company. Empowering customers and social media team members to become change agents and spearhead process improvements that will save the company time and money is priceless!

Comcast has a great story of how they’ve turned social media into a customer retention tool. We are all sad to see Frank Eliason leave Comcast, but we are looking forward to seeing great innovations from Citibank as he takes the helm as senior vice president of social media.

Related Articles:

How to Measure Social Media Return on Investment for the Complex Sale
4 Ways to Measure Social Media and Its Impact on Your Brand
How to Measure Social Media Marketing Performance

How are you measuring social media’s impact on customer retention? Did I miss any metrics that are valuable to your firm? What challenges are you facing in your ability to measure? Let us know in the box below.

Photo Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/adriarichards/4370031554/sizes/m/in/photostream/

If your company’s social media interactions revolve around advance announcements of sales, special offers and insider-only promo codes – to the point where receiving these things is the primary motivation for your fans and followers – then you’re essentially bribing customers to stay.

In this case, social media merely provides a pleasant, whitewashed cover for the bribery.

Thus, the very activities you’re hoping will improve your relationship with customers might well be actually hurting your reputation with them, making those customers less likely to pay your full price without balking.

This article will reveal four ways to build customer loyalty without bribery.

The Slippery Slope

How did your efforts get so off-track?

The downward slide started when you confused customer retention tactics with building true customer loyalty.

Here’s Harvard’s resident expert on service excellence, Francis Frei, explaining the difference between the two:

Francis Frei

“When companies pay customers to try out their products and services, it’s part of a customer acquisition program.  When companies pay customers to remain customers, it’s part of a customer retention program.

When companies invest in activities that increase customers’ willingness to pay, they have a customer loyalty program.  When a loyalty program works, it increases the chance that your customers will choose you over a lower-priced competitor.”

In other words:

• Retention programs bribe customers with frequent-flyer miles and “buy 10 get 1 free” cards.  They add economic incentives for current customers to return for their next purchase.  This is hardly a bad thing, but when done too often, it habituates customers to incentives, which promotes economic considerations over brand preference.
• Loyalty programs increase brand participation among high-value customers to forge bonds that trump economic decisions.  This can mean getting their input on strategic decisions, providing insider-only access to certain products and privileges, and more.  After customers have helped design the next-generation widget, they’re emotionally invested in buying and using it.  Even more so if, as a privileged insider, they’re provided with early access to those co-created products, or even exclusive access to special products as a sign of recognition for their efforts and input.

So what does this have to do with social media?

With social media, customers wish to interact with each other at least as much as they do with the business.  So to create a real customer loyalty program – and the premium price differential that goes with it – you have to create a customer community.

What’s that you say?  You already have a community?

What you likely have are thousands of single customers who have given minimal consent and “opt in” to receive communication from you. That’s not a community.  Heck, that style of one-way communication isn’t even a relationship.

Fortunately (and as you might expect), an appropriate social media strategy can transform your email list into an actual community.

Here are the 4 key elements to real communities along with the primary ways social media can foster each of them:

#1: Repeated Interaction

If I go months without seeing or talking or cross-posting or interacting with your company in some way, well, you’re probably a pretty peripheral part of my life.  The same goes for your customers.

But a sincere email traded back and forth once or twice a week for a couple of weeks in a row changes all that.  You’ve gained top-of-mind awareness as a conversational partner.  Your company has gone from an “it” to a “person” (or a “thou” for you Buber fans out there).  You could rightfully consider me part of your community.

And yet email is an extremely clumsy and intrusive platform for this kind of exchange.  Facebook, Twitter, an online forum, a Wiki or even blog comments all represent far superior methods of fostering this kind of day-to-day interaction.

But take note: what you’re looking for is back-and-forth between members, and between your company’s representatives and members.  One-off comments and one-way communication won’t cut it.  For a dramatic illustration of the difference, just compare Copyblogger’s comment section to your own blog’s comments.

#2: Interaction Involving Built-up Meaning

If your forum members or blog commenters or Twitter followers don’t have inside jokes, community-specific allusions, and their own slang, you probably don’t have a real community. It’s a harsh standard, but it’s the truth.

Unfortunately, you can’t create these things for your community.  You can only create an environment that will foster their creation. And the best way to do that is through engaging in projects that matter, which leads us to principle #3…

#3: Actual Consequences of Community Interactions

Something has to be at stake.  For communication to move past chit-chat, social grooming, and opinionated bloviating, there has to be a task or a mission or a conflict.

When people work toward a shared goal – when tomorrow’s discussion builds on today’s and so on – then decisions matter. Prior conversations matter.  And that’s when allusions, references, inside jokes, and slang build up as a natural result.

To continue with the Copyblogger theme, the whole “third tribe” meme that started off with a simple blog post and evolved into a separate community and learning site is a perfect example of this.  Third Tribers know exactly what is meant by that term, and by allusions to James Chartrand’s Underwear.

So to achieve Real Community Elements 2 & 3, you need to come up with a galvanizing goal – a project that people want to be a part of and would be willing to donate their time, efforts, and skills to.  Provide the platform(s) for interaction and the galvanizing goal and you’re off to the races.

Seth Godin routinely does this by providing an impetus and platform for meet-ups,  collaborative projects and ways for his fans to help him support his book launches.

#4: Separation of Outsiders from Insiders

Back during the initial flap following the iPhone’s barely-two-months-from-launch price drop, Seth Godin suggested that Apple offer early adopters the following considerations:

“Free exclusive ringtones, commissioned from Bob Dylan and U2, only available to the people who already had a phone. (This is my favorite because it announces to your friends – every time the phone rings – that you got in early).”

“Free pass to get to the head of the line next time a new hot product comes out.”

“Ability to buy a specially colored iPod or an iPod with limited-edition music that no-one else can buy.”

Rather than dealing with price drops by providing discounts or store credit, Apple could have provided increased recognition and therefore increased loyalty and willingness to pay a premium to maintain that loyalty and recognition.

Yet despite being one of the clearest paths to high profit margins, most companies fail to do these kinds of things at all, let alone do them through the very platforms and technologies most suited to them.  Instead they misuse social media and abuse their brand equity through ill-advised retention strategies.

What Loyalty Programs Does Your Organization Have?

How have you transformed your company’s email list or “group” into a real community?  What galvanizing goals have you used to inspire community involvement and crowdsourcing?  What special recognition do you give to your brand insiders?

Let us know your thoughts and ideas in the box below.

In this article I’ll present three ideas that will draw customers to you without that nasty marketing aftertaste.

One of the reasons social media is so valuable to businesses is that it offers a chance to show you’re listening.  As a result, you can gauge customer sentiment, turn prospects into clients and turn customers into brand evangelists.

Instead of looking for instant results in the form of sales, try looking for results on the other side of the spectrum, such as in customer retention and/or brand mentions.

These are the kinds of things that are easily measured and easily influenced. They’re time-efficient, and they’re the perfect use for that Twitter account you set up for your business.

How do you do it? You feed egos.

#1: Let Others Sell For You

Can you improve your sales numbers by throwing links out on Twitter? Sure, but I don’t think it’s the most efficient use of your marketing dollar. Marketing to people directly is not nearly as effective as letting your fans and customers market for you.

I much prefer to spend my social media dollars to bolster my community and create brand evangelists. They’re the best marketers I could hope for.

In these Tweets, each one is sending out a powerful sales message.

#2: Put Out Fires And Spread The Good Word

Dealing with customer issues via email, help desks or on the phone can really sap a company’s resources. Although these lines of communication will probably never go away, there are many cases in which you can put out the fire before it gets that far.

Unhappy customers will complain, and Twitter is one of their favorite places to do it.

However, the beauty of Twitter is that when they complain to the world, you can find, track and intercept that complaint before it spreads, often from the screen of a single employee.

Take a look at how a Domino’s manager did this with a video (brilliant!).

Just think about the impact of a complaint on Twitter. One complaint reaches thousands, which then gets retweeted to tens of thousands, ad infinitum. If you can put out the fire before it gets to the second tier, then you’ve not only kept a dangerous message from spreading, but you’ve shown that you care. At that point, it’s highly possible that the person complaining will tell his or her followers that you’ve responded, which in turn creates a message of goodwill.

All you’ve done is reach out and respond to a complaint.

These tweets highlight a fire needing to be put out. Notice the frustration just waiting to boil over.

#3: Responding Is Solving

People just want to know that you care. When I surveyed my Twitter followers for their expectations when dealing with companies on Twitter, they said that more than anything, it’s the response that matters.

Even if you can’t solve the problem immediately, the very act of responding and addressing the complaint proves that you care. That’s all people want, to do business with a company that cares.

If you can go a step further by routing the complaint to the correct department, then that’s a +1.

The trick for businesses using Twitter is not how you can get more followers so that you can sell more stuff, but how can you create more brand evangelists so that you can sell more stuff. That act of just being there, listening, engaging and hanging out will do far more than spamming your followers with links (if you have any followers left).

Trade Emotional Appeals for Empathy

Being successful on Twitter is nothing more than padding egos and making people feel good. Are you going to win every time? No, but you’ll sure save your company a lot of disruption by tackling problems before they become wildfires.

Don’t get me wrong… I’m not asking you to trivialize people and their problems. I’m simply advising you to focus on the empathy instead of emotional appeals.

At worst, you spend a few dollars to solve problems. At best, you create loyal fans who will spread your message for you.

Make people feel good, and they’ll pay it forward on your behalf.

People don't expect miracles; they just want to know you care.

It’s Simple

To get involved, the first step is to let people know you’re out there. Next, set up groups and searches so that you can monitor the pulse of both your industry and your brand. Lastly, find someone who can spend the day hanging out with prospects, clients, and customers. Focus on reducing customer service costs, minimizing attrition and refunds, and turning complainers into evangelists.

It’s not about you or your company, it’s about making people feel like they matter. Do that and you’ll win almost every time.

What do you think?  Have you reached out to someone on Twitter? What do you really expect when you complain? Share the details with us below!

At a time when businesses are using social media to promote content and start discussions, Avaya has found that listening trumps talking.

“We’re listening to social media and responding,” said Paul Dunay, Avaya’s social media ringleader, who is global managing director of services and social media marketing.

“There is no Tweet that goes unturned. No forum post that goes unturned where our name is mentioned.”

What began as a way to engage and support customers has evolved beyond even Avaya’s expectations. And if Avaya ever doubted its investment in social media, those concerns are now put to rest.

A recent quarter-million–dollar sale, which began on Twitter, soundly answered that question.

Making the Case

Avaya started in 2000 as a spinoff of Lucent Technologies, but its legacy goes back more than a century to the original Bell system. From the earliest phone systems to advanced, unified communications, Avaya and its predecessors have been – and continue to be – at the forefront of the field.

It makes sense then that Avaya would be wherever people are communicating today. The company’s social media activity started informally and grew organically. First, it was mostly a matter of supporting – and keeping – existing customers, many of whom need replacements as old phone systems are retired.

At the time, Dunay followed Avaya mentions on Twitter, which were mostly questions that he forwarded to support reps.

“The old 1.0 way was a call center or inputting tickets on the web,” he said. “2.0 is we’ll try to reach out to Avaya support which is, by the way, me on Twitter.”

With the growth of social media, those mentions soon became too much for Dunay to simply watch on his own. He brought his case to Avaya’s CMO, and left with official backing to build a cross-functional, global, and virtual social media team.

“It was very easy for me to build my business case on retention of existing customers because it’s so expensive to get new ones,” he said

Customer Conversations ‘Everywhere’

Through word of mouth, Dunay found early social media adopters within Avaya’s 15,000 employees, starting with seven people across communications, marketing, support, legal and other business units. As the team began organizing Avaya’s social media strategy, they chose to focus on four main tools: Facebook, blogging, forums and Twitter.

From there, Avaya’s social media was “literally an explosion,” according to Dunay. That team of seven employees has now grown to 50 – all of whom volunteer to participate in social media on top of their regular jobs.

Today, the company has 42 Facebook groups, five Facebook fan pages, one external blog with 10 regular Avaya writers, 10 global Twitter accounts, and 12 LinkedIn groups. Internally, Avaya leverages social media just as much, with 14 internal blogs, 15 wikis, about 3,000 employees on Yammer and some on the recently launched Socialcast.

Facebook serves as the hub, with events, news, discussions and links to blog posts. The blogs discuss trends, innovations and cultural insights. Twitter allows them to post quick bits of information, respond to support requests, and monitor mentions of the brand and competition. Forums enable customers to get help from each other or from Avaya tech support.

With significant momentum, Dunay reported back to the CMO. “She asked, ‘Where are we talking to customers?’ I said, ‘Everywhere!’ She asked, ‘Where are we holding conversations with partners?’ I said, ‘Everywhere!’ We’re holding all the conversations in the same places with each one of those constituencies – and then some.”

Contests, videos and other resources engage Avaya’s Facebook fans.

The Eyes and Ears of Avaya

With active listening as the team’s main approach, members found they simply couldn’t be everywhere at all times – especially as mentions of the Avaya name grew to between 1,000 and 2,500 weekly. They turned to Radian6 technology to listen to and measure all social media mentions of not just the company’s name, but competitors’ names, product names, and types of conversations.

“We identified conversations we wanted to go deeply into,” Dunay said. “Wherever conversations about small business and communications happen, we need to be there.”

Avaya tracks a dashboard of mentions, and can choose to either ignore or respond to each. When one member “hears” something requiring further action, he or she posts it on an internal wiki and it’s assigned to someone on the relevant team to address it. That might be support, billing and finance, engineering, a partner, and so forth.

Dunay stresses that none of Avaya’s responses are automated. Who knows what a customer or prospect might say? If your response isn’t tailored to their comments, then you’ve missed the opportunity to connect on a personal level.

The 58-Character Sale

On average, Avaya interacts with a couple of dozen customers through social media on a weekly basis. By listening, the team also comes across sales opportunities. In June of this year, 58 characters of a simple Tweet started the relationship with a potential customer.

“shoretel or avaya? Time for a new phone system very soon,” the Tweet read.

“In less than maybe 15 minutes, we had seen it and figured out what the heck to say to this guy,” Dunay said. “I wrote back, ‘We have some highly trained techs who can help you understand your needs best and help you make an objective decision. Give me a call.’”

Dunay referred the gentleman to a business partner, and 13 days later, they closed a $250,000 sale. At the same time, the new customer’s follow-up Tweet went out: “…we have selected AVAYA as our new phone system. Excited by the technology and benefits…”

“We were there. We were listening. It pays to listen,” Dunay said. “I can’t say we hit 100% of the conversations where we’ve wanted to be, although it’s probably 60–70%. But on our brand name, it is 117%. We’re on every one of those.”

Avaya proactively identifies and responds to support issues using Twitter.

One Tweet Away

By proactively looking for mentions and conversations, Avaya sees issues before they even arise, before anyone contacts the company. A response to a social media mention truly makes an impression on customers, prospects and partners. “We are the early response center for things happening in the marketplace,” Dunay said. “They love knowing you’re one Tweet away.”

Avaya’s social media team grew quickly, but Dunay has an even bigger vision for social media.

“I don’t think it should be 50. I think it should be 15,000. Everyone should have a hand in it,” Dunay said. “We definitely want more people deeper and broader in the organization.”

“Our goals are to have deeper, more interesting and more pervasive conversations with as many people as we possibly can,” he added. “Why wouldn’t you take every opportunity for your brand to build better and deeper relations with every customer you can?”

#1: By 2010, 26 Million (1 in 7) U.S. Adults Will Use Twitter Monthly

A new study by eMarketer surpasses their previous estimates of Twitter usage. The study, conducted just last month, found the following: “In 2009, there will be 18 million U.S. adults who access Twitter on any platform at least monthly. That represents a 200% increase over 2008 levels. Usage will reach 26 million U.S. adults in 2010, a further 44.4% climb.”

Earlier this year, eMarketer reported more conservative usage numbers, stating that there were indications of large numbers of users abandoning the site shortly after signing up and many others only using it sporadically. However, they recently revised their estimates because “recent data shows healthy—and growing—percentages of U.S. Internet users adopting the popular microblogging platform,” according to eMarketer senior analyst, Paul Verna.

Twitter is not the only social networking site to report record usage numbers. In September, Facebook officially hit the 300 million-user mark, making the social networking site nearly as large as the U.S. population.

#2: Americans Spend 17% of Online Time on Social Media Sites

As popular social media platforms continue to grow their numbers of users, it is logical to conclude that Americans are spending more time on social networking sites. According to a recent study by The Nielsen Company, 17% of the time spent online was at social networking sites (an increase from 6% in August 2008).

Among those paying the most attention to this recent trend are advertisers. Online ad spending increased by 119% to $108 million in August 2009.

#3: In 2010, Over 50% of Marketers Will Be Using Social Media

Marketers are becoming even more aware that social media marketing must be a key component of their media buy strategy. This was recently affirmed in the findings of the “2010 Media Planning Intelligence Study” by the Center for Media Research, which examined the likelihood of marketers including social media in their 2010 marketing plan. Over half (56.3%) of marketers stated that social media would “realistically” be part of that mix.

The top 5 most popular media for the 2010 marketing spend were as follows:

• Email (56.8%)
• Social networks (56.3%)
• Keyword search (49.7%)
• Radio (42.2%)
• Magazines (42.1%)

In addition, 57% of media buyers reported they will buy non-traditional media, including online, display video, search, mobile and event sponsorships, while 43% reported they will buy the more traditional media, including TV, print and radio.

#4: Blogs Most Useful Social Media Tool, Say 51% of Businesses

McKinsey Quarterly’s “Global Survey” examined companies’ overall assessment of the value of different social media technologies. As reviewed by eMarketer, “When it came to customer-related benefits, blogs were the most useful tool, bringing measurable benefits to 51% of responding companies worldwide. That was followed by video-sharing and social networking at 48% each, and RSS feeds at 45%.”

In addition to these findings, the top three reported benefits of Web 2.0 marketing included:

• Increased marketing effectiveness (52%)
• Higher customer satisfaction (43%)
• Reduced marketing costs (38%)

#5: 75% of Marketers Plan to Increase Social Media Use in 2010

According to a recent survey by virtual events provider Unisfair, marketers are most focused on attracting and keeping customers in 2010 and they plan to use social media to make this happen. A few interesting factoids from the Unisfair findings:

The 3 leading marketing priorities in 2010 according to U.S. marketers:

• New customer acquisition (60%)
• Customer retention and engagement (48%)
• Thought leadership (45%)

The top 5 marketing tactics U.S. marketers planned to increase in their 2010 marketing mix:

• Social media (75%)
• Web search/SEO (51%)
• Email campaigns (49%)
• Virtual events (48%)
• Online advertising (28%)

The study also asked marketers to rank the value of social media platforms. LinkedIn came in on top at 26%, Facebook at 23% and Twitter at 17%.

What are your thoughts? How might these study findings impact your future social media activities? I’d love to hear from you.