Studies have shown the trend in the economic downturn has been less spending on traditional media and increase in budgets for social media. MarketingSherpa shows that a lack of knowledge hampers social media marketing with 46% of firms who had not adopted social media marketing citing a lack on internal understanding as their main hindrance. A total of 48% of the firms interviewed predicted that their spending on social media would increase in 2009, with just 20% predicting a decrease.

As social media rapidly matures, it is not just the cost that is influencing the shift. Both the access to analytical data mining and identifiable metrics that help the increasing focus on determining the return on investment (increased conversion rates, higher customer service levels, more targeted prospecting, etc.).

There are a lot of word-of-mouth elements such as blogs, microblogs (a la Twitter), syndication, online communities, social networks, and widgets are that are changing the rules of business as we know them and will be the new must-haves for your company’s success. Taken together they form the basis for an incredibly powerful toolkit that will enable you to communicate, promote your company and services, engage with, educate and listen to the customer directly, and spread your ideas and products virally so that you expand your company’s reach.

It was Obama's "triple O" or his online operation which "took a skinny kid with a funny name and turned him into the most powerful new national brand in a generation," said Fast Company. As they described on their cover, Team Obama beat out Google, Facebook and Amazon to be their No. 1. Obama raised our awareness as to the power behind social networks.

The Obama team was the first to have the vision to use the technology in a way that further defined the statement - it is not the technology, it is how you use it. They took the political election playbook, applied it to an online community framework and targeted the young voter (considered unreachable).

We can all learn a lot about the tools they employed but one important fact is the big take away — they inspired their constituents with a consistent and clear message that resonated with them and they empowered them with community tools and a presence

To talk further about my previous post about why social media is critical to your short term survival and long term prosperity, I thought it might warrant a further discussion about how social media infiltrates your organization. Which departments should it live and why, what types of expertise can be tapped to participate and when should it be outsourced to jumpstart the process?

Since this is a new medium that affects marketing, PR, product, customer service, advertising and sales, it all comes down to having a strategy which will determine the length and the scope of the organizational support that will be required. It can be as little as having a very small group that is dedicated to building community to having the entire organization using social networking tools that are integrated with all online initiatives.

Every company by now has heard the term (or buzz) about social media and they might even know that they need to do something about it. The trouble is, to venture into this new medium requires a fundamental change in thinking and approach to marketing...one that requires something that is very hard for marketers to do. Giving up control!