Social media is rapidly becoming an important component of almost every enterprise's marketing efforts. As expected, businesses are now trying to measure the ROI of these efforts, but they are having to adjust to entirely new metrics:

"If you're using the available mainstream social media that you don't have to serve, host or secure, then you're talking about a number of different value drivers," ... "And when you look at the value of conversations with people, then you can ask whether you can spend less time in a 140-character tweet versus a 15-minute conversation on the phone. So we're beginning to measure that: Is it a less costly service channel than phone or e-mail, and is it preferred?"

Read more at ComputerWorld - What's Your Twitter ROI?

In a desperate search for simple truth in a chaotic media environment characterized by information overload, and relentless spin, consumers are turning to 'reviews' as their best hope of finding the facts necessary to make decisions. In the end we trust our peers (though they may be strangers) more than we trust the companies that are selling the products and services we are seeking to buy.

There are many more research studies, findings, dissertations, and so on that confirm the same fact: reviewing is the new advertising. This shouldn't come as a surprise: just as with other trends, what's unfolding now is a 'forever need' among consumers, one that's now being satisfied in a superior and previously unattainable fashion. In this case, the need is for trusted advice and recommendations--for feeling in control, for knowing the facts, for avoiding mistakes and disappointments--in order to make that perfect purchase. Which has become even more pressing as choice-overload continues: never before was there so much to choose from, in mature consumer societies, and thus such a need for reviews.

Read the whole article at TrendWatching.com