Forrester has come out with a study about European marketers and their attitude towards social media.
The good news if you are someone like me earning their living in this industry? They "are as excited about social media today as ever before." The bad news: A quarter intend to spend less than 35,000 euros this year (US 48k, GBP 30k)
Forrester's Nate Elliott says it comes down to a mixture of resourcing and the inability to prove ROI.
Measuring social media is actually pretty easy. However, as I've heard said many times before, it is tracking the right things that is difficult. On that note check out this SEOMOZ article on social media KPIs, one of the best I've read
There is a third problem though, one that revolves around the perception that social media campaigns are free. They are not. Some investment, at the very least in monitoring what people are saying about you, needs to be made.
So how much does a social media campaign cost? It depends on a whole range of factors, but this piece where various (US) social media practitioners took hypothetical ad budgets and scoped out what they would do with it is useful (thanks @shannonpaul for reminding me about the link!).
It shows you how can indeed build a year long programme for the price of a few magazine ads...but not for 35,000 euros.