Proof that social media is now part of the marketing establishment comes less from the scale of column (or blog) inches dedicated to it, and more from Gartner's recent claim that half of its spend will, like advertising, be wasted. However, unlike with its elder marketing cousin, we are in a much better position to judge which half will fail -- fundamentally it is whatever adds no recognizable value to people's time on Facebook, YouTube and the endless array of forums.
