The Reighley Report

In a recent report by Emily Riley and the team at Forrester Research, they made a few predictions for social computing.  Here is their list of predictions:

Companies’ social councils will attain budgets and power.
Listening Platform insights go mainstream.
Marketers will focus less on fuzzy social media metrics and more on real marketing metrics.
Twitter will become profitable or get acquired.
Facebook will get more hands on to protect users’— and its own — interests.
Incompatible mobile devices and siloed social applications will shatter the social experience.

OK, what does this mean?  Here is my take on the top 3 predictions.
Companies’ social councils will attain budgets and power
No doubt about it, companies have taken notice of the groundswell and are trying to figure out how to take advantage of the social networks.  Spending on social network ads will reach more than $1.295 billions in 2010 as predicted by eMarketer. What we have to do as marketers is push a corporate social strategy.  Call it a council if you like, the direction and leadership needs to come from the “C” level.  Social strategies need to be a part of the long-term corporate mind set.  It is our responsibility to develop that strategy and sell it to the “C’s” – make it their idea
Listening Platform insights go mainstream
The first and most important activity a company can do is listen to their customers.  Companies should invest in listening to the groundswell.  Be it a listening platform such as Nielsen BuzzMetrics or just doing some homework on Twitter and Google – LISTEN!!  This should become an integral part of marketing research for every company.
Marketers will focus less on fuzzy social media metrics and more on real marketing metrics
I really believe that a company needs to have a social objective first so that you can defined what the real marketing metrics are.  As Bankie Banks says, “If you don’t know what you’re looking for, no one can help you find it”.

I think Forrester has it right with their predictions.  2010 will be a great year for social marketers.  We have lots of tools and as we develop strong strategies – we are going to have a lot of fun!!!