ReadWriteWeb

Not every click is created equal. While publishers know exactly how many visitors per day their sites get, this aggregate data doesn't say much about the actual value of the individual visitors and what they do on the rest of the Web. Social media analytics and monitoring firm Sysomos wants to bridge this gap with its latest product: Sysomos Audience. Using proprietary technology, Audience can automatically assign a certain value to individual visitors, based on the other sites they visit and other factors users can tweak in the service's scoring engine.

Earlier today, conversation tracking site UberVu launched Compare. The service allows you type your name and a competitor's name into search boxes to produce information on your competing brand conversations on Twitter, Blogger, Friendfeed, Facebook, WordPress, HackerNews and Youtube. After all, if social media is the lead generator and customer service tool that we think it is, then it's important for us to know where we stand against our competitors.

While few of us are bold enough to lay claim to Nostradamus-like powers of prophecy, it's still interesting to read industry predictions. ReadWriteWeb recently released a list of tech predictions for 2010 and as of a yesterday, Senior VP Steve Rubel and the folks at Edelman PR agency uploaded their predictions entitled Digital Visions: 10 Ideas for the New Decade.

Aptly-named consumer trend blog TrendsSpotting just released its poll from more than 30 social media influencers. The market research presentation identifies six trends that will change social media in 2010. In accordance with Ustrategy co-founder Ravit Lichtenberg's predictions, the experts believe that 2010 will be the year that social media ROI is effectively measured. The question is, how do you measure a dollar value from Tweets and status updates?

Dell Computers announced last night that it has surpassed $3 million in sales via links from one of its Twitter accounts, making one of the most high profile examples of social media Return on Investment (ROI) all the more juicy.

Telling your reluctant boss that social media is worth using because Dell made $3 million on Twitter, however, runs the risk of encouraging e-commerce broadcast as the model for engagement in conversation. Other, more conversational, examples of ROI make important additions to conversations about Dell and social media. (They also concern a lot more money.)

Microsoft today announced the release of a new ROI measurement tool called "engagement mapping." Rather than measure ROI based on the last ad a user clicks, Microsoft's new tool attempts to take into account all the interactions with a company's marketing message and brand that may have lead up to a purchase or other user action.