It clear that "Social Networking" is the growth area for digital marketing these days. No surprise, but some of the figures are a bit confusing (perhaps even concerning) and could use more context.
For example, how is social networking defined?
Does this include all forms of social media, or just actual networks like Facebook and LinkedIn? (i.e. media placements with "social" aspect)
If I include a "send to a friend" link on a site or ad, does that make it "social"?
Don't many people include blogging as a type of social networking? So why is it a separate category? Or is it just a sub-category?
I'd also love to see how responses relate to one-another.
Are the businesses who plan to spend more on e-commerce, for example, the same ones who plan to spend more on their Web sites, or is one gaining investment at the expense of the other?
I suppose I'm a bit cautious to take these numbers at face value, primarily due to a observation made in the Mashable post: is it really true that more companies are currently engaged in social networking than have a corporate Web site?
Somehow I doubt this.
If the survey participants were free to apply their own definition of each of these categories, perhaps there's a lack of consistency. If I run a display ad that includes video, am I using "online display" or "online video"? What if I run a static diaplay ad within a video? Or a display ad on a video page?...
Still, it's interesting to see some quantitative data to confirm the growing interest and investment in the "social" space.
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