In the last 12 months, the focus on and investment in social media by blue chip clients has grown exponentially. It is by far the fastest-growing discipline at Engauge. But, as much growth as we have experienced, clients are just getting started. Growth in marketers’ use of social media will not reach its fullest potential until there are broadly accepted analytics for measuring engagement and ROI in social networking. Google, who understands how their depth in analytics has been an accelerator for revenue, is taking the first step with their acquisition of PostRank.
The fact is that marketers will not move major money from television to social media until they can prove that they get the exposure and drive to sales they experience on broadcast. That’s why we still see rising prices on television and the biggest upfront in history.
But the largest agency assignments in the next six months will not be in traditional media. With Google making its move into social analytics and start-ups like Crimson Hexagon making headway with many blue chip clients, we will see investment in social media rise exponentially in 2012. That is why Engauge set out a year ago to become the nation’s leader in the medium. And that is why we are thankfully experiencing such wonderful growth among the world’s leading marketers today.
