Echoed from Chris Crum over at WebProNews and a Twitter post I received earlier today regarding Michael's AWESOME and incredibly insightful social media marketing report...

Hats off to author and WebProNews Blog Partner Michael Stelzner, who authored a timely and statistically valid white paper about what some 900 online social media marketers, many of whom are small business folks - like we Real Estate Professionals - think about using the medium as a means of growing their business. 

Some of the more interesting statistics from the report include:

• Females edged out males, representing 56% of all participants
• 88% indicated they were employing social media for marketing purposes
• 72% have only been using social media marketing for a few months
• 64% of marketers are using social media for 5 hours or more each week
• 39% are using it for 10 hours a week
• 81% say the number-one benefit is generating exposure, followed by increasing traffic and building new business relationships
• Over half saw a rise in search engine rankings
• Out of social media tools marketers most wanted to learn about, social bookmarking sites ranked highest followed by Twitter.

Without a doubt, social media marketing is taking off, but as more and more people join the party - questions abound. The report looks at the top ten questions they have:

1. What are the best tactics to use?
2. How do I measure the effectiveness of social media?
3. Where do I start?
4. How do I manage the social balance?
5. What are the best sites and tools out there?
6. How do I make the most of my available time?
7. How do I find and focus my efforts on my target audience?
8. How do I convert my social media marketing efforts into tangible results?
9. How do I cohesively tie different social media efforts together?
10. Does social media marketing work, and if so, how effective is it?

It's clear from this report that social media marketing works.  However, those expecting overnight results will be disappointed.  Note, that 64% of the 900 folks surveyed reported that they spend an average of 5 hours or more on their social media marketing efforts!

As Chris points out in his article on this report, social media marketing is still pretty young.   Some of the best resources for answers on the topic are the people you see using the sites themselves.  So... what are you waiting for?  Time to hit Stumble, Propeller, Twitter, and Digg - create those accounts... and start marketing!  (Pssst...  Use the Sociable icons at the bottom of this post to start spreading the word!)

PS - Something I have to remind myself to do more of: Be more Social! These are SOCIAL media marketing resources.  Pay it forward, share the love, Stumble, Digg, Propeller, etc. posts for others and they'll return the favor!

PPS - You can see Stelzner's full report as well as a video narrated by Stelzner himself here.