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Last week, Coremetrics the provider of digital marketing optimisation solutions in the US announced the results of its Second Annual ‘Face of the New Marketer’ survey.

The survey was of 116 senior marketing professionals conducted during the third quarter of 2007 – the particpants were asked which social marketing tools and activities they were using or intended to use, and how much of their time and budget is spent on social media as opposed to traditional marketing activities.

The survey provides interesting reading and provides useful insight if you are in the US – however it is somewhat skewed as the respondents were ”top eCommerce and online media/content companies” as described in the survey. I’m not convinced that this is an accurate reflection of the business world at large.

The study found that the use of Web 2.0 or social media marketing tools, defined as user generated content (including reviews), RSS feeds, podcasts and wikis are becoming key parts of a complete online marketing programme, however this is not being reflected in marketing budgets at this time.

Here is a summary of some of the highlights of the report:

• 78% of respondents see social media marketing as a way to gain competitive edge, but only 7.75% of total online marketing spend is devoted to it  (this compares with an average of 33% of spend going to online advertising and 28% to online promotion design and implementation)
• 58% of respondents have implemented user-generated content or reviews in the past year
• 31% of respondents have implemented a blog in the past year
• 25% of respondents have implemented an RSS feed in the past year.

Most of the respondents reported that they had plans in place to implement a social media marketing programme at some point, even if not within the next twelve months. However some of the challenges that they face included a lack of tools and expertise to translate these plans into action and results.

The survey also reported that:

• 50% of respondents plan to implement user-generated content or reviews
• 22% of respondents plan to implement a blog
• 20% intend to implement social networks, and another 20% plan to implement an RSS feed.

Here in Ireland, it still seems to be the smaller enterprises that are adopting these tools aided by some great workshops being held across Ireland to introduce business leaders to blogging and new media marketing.

But I have it on good authority that that will be changing soon - certainly given some of the conversations I’ve been having with some key business leaders of large companies and organisations in Ireland in recent weeks – I can’t wait for 2008!