New research from Forrester shows that 26% of respondents to their survey plan to increase their interactive marketing investments, and 46% will maintain them at current levels.  

Every single form of online marketing Forrester surveyed had at least half the marketers increasing or maintaining their investment. and it looks as though social networks is the number one priority.

Forrester has this advice for marketers: measure what you do, so you can justify it when the axe comes. And build assets, not campaigns, it's a better use of your money.

What's your plan for 2008?  Do you have social media in your marketing and PR activities?  What are you planning to increase this year?

The conference I like the most is the Society for New Communication Research's New Comm Forum, because it's a meeting of some of the best minds in social media. 

Joe Jaffe, author of Join the Conversation, was the opening keynote speaker nysterday. An ex-advertising Madison Ave man, Jaffe says he 'saw the light' and has been evangelising the need for conversational marketing for some years now.

He asked the audience how many people think the customer is in control and about 60% say yes.  He says that it's not about control. Customers don't want control, they want to be acknowledged, and engaged. It's about community, dialogs and partnerships.

Communication wil get you to their door.  Conversation is what will get them to invite you in.

Jaffe's research study conducted with SNCR indicates that spending on social media and conversational marketing will outpace that of traditional marketing by 2012,

• 81% of all respondents project that by 2012 they will spend at least as much on conversational marketing as traditional marketing.
• Companies will have conversation departments
• There will no longer be campaigns that begin and end - no going dark
• Talent is the biggest barrier
• This is not just a change in marketing and PR it's a fundamental shift in how we do business
• Listening is the key - and only 30% of customers think companies are actually listening.  Example:  the new Sprint TV ad gives the CEO's email at the end.  But when you send an email you get a mass corporate response thank you type email back.

The road ahead is not going to be without bumps. If you don't have the expertise find someone who does and learn from them. Some comments from the audience, many of whom were Twittering duing the session, indicate that other practitioners are finding that social media adoption is slow.  And Jaffe agrees - change will be slow, but it is happening.

Over the next few years we will see not only massive budget reallocations, but also tremendous strategic and cultural realignments and organizational shifts, says Jaffe. To keep brands fresh, relevant and plugged into the conversation, marketers will need to be proactive in terms of embracing and investing in ongoing, well-structured experimentation.

His advice? Do four conversational experiments each year.  Don't look for the traditional,immediate ROI.  Be willing to commit to a year long investment in nuturing the conversation.  It's brand value you should be looking for as an ROI. And better insights and understanding of your customers.

After the session I did a video interview with him and asked him what he sees as the most challenging aspect of the changes for PR.  Watch this space - it should be up soon. 

Diane Mermigas, editor-at-large at MediaPost, says that if marketers want to tap into the promise of new technology during this economic downturn they need ti redefine relations with target consumers by mining analytics for a deeper understanding of who they are and how they behave.

While offline retail predictions are bleak, The State of Retailing Online 2008 shows that online sales are expected to exceed $200 billion - a 17 percent increase over last year. The sales categories expected to do the best include apparel, with $26.6 billion, computers at $23.9 billion, and autos at $19.3 billion.

"Online retailers are not immune to the current economic climate," said Scott Silverman, executive director of Shop.org. "But the fact that online sales will increase substantially this year demonstrates the resilience of the channel and is a testament to the value and convenience most customers find when shopping online."

Learning how to tap into an engaged audience bound by common interests and zealously sharing insights and information is one of the hidden e-commerce jewels of the digital age, says Mermigas.

There are many articles about how advertisers can take advantage of the growth of social networking and social news sites. But it is just as rewarding for PR content, if you learn to do it right. 

Robert amazed the audience with a walk through how he uses the latest technology tools.

He asked the group who has never seen Twitter and about 75 percent raised their hands.  And even more had never heard of Friendfeed.  Yet he says if he were to choose one application only it would be Friendfeed.

He demos twitter for the group and he twitters that he is speaking at the conference.  Within a few seconds he has a tweet back commenting on what he said.  He uses many new technology applications but Friendfeed allows him to collect and glue all these content pieces into one place.

When you join these services, you have no friends yet and so you have no feed of information.  But as you add friends and you choose people to follow you tap into what is being said.

He starts his day by reading Techmeme. Techmeme collects and aggregates tech news and brings you the big stories.  He reads this to find out what  happened overnight.

There are many similar sites, such as Memeorandum, which concentrates on news. It's much faster that print news and you get a wider perspective.  Scoble says he would much rather watch these sources than traditional news sites.

He gives an example of how fast this can be used by marketers and PR people. He was in H&R Block on the West coast and he twittered about it.  Before he left the building he had a twitter message back from an H&R Block employee in New York saying if you have any concerns or questions please let me know.

He makes the point that these services make the conversation live and lightning fast.  As PR people we have to keep up.  And these tools allow us to do so.