A couple of weeks ago, we wondered aloud if anyone could prove the benefits of social marketing through hard data. Despite the efforts of Garrett French and some other SMM professionals, I was skeptical at best.

This morning, I caught the newest MySpace marketing article from Marketing Profs. Stephan Spencer provides some pretty impressive numbers. Examples of MySpace pages including Apple Computer, the Brooklyn Museum as well as "Weird Al" Yankovic actually provide some clout for this media.

The Yankovic example deserves additional examination:

Yankovic told Reuters/Billboard in a recent interview that he had accumulated 155,000 MySpace friends since he joined the site in July—all of which he had personally added. He stated, "I used to be a little pickier. Now I just kind of click as fast as I can." (I can only imagine the Repetitive Stress Injury from that much clicking!) Here's the kicker: a week after this article came out, he was already up to 219,033 friends! Another seven days later, and Weird Al had gained another 24,000 MySpace friends (up to 243,221). Now, on December 3, it's at 325,614!

One could argue that the boost of friends could have come from the Billboard readers’ interest, but that’s not the point. In six months, he doubled his targeted audience within their comfort zone. Captive eyes interested in all things Yankovic…who would have thought it possible? God bless the white and nerdy.

Are you going to earn gobs of revenue by creating a corporate MySpace page? I still don’t believe so. Spencer notes that companies such as Blockbuster UK and 7Eleven have attempted this tactic, but their number of friends is underwhelming. However, I think there is an opportunity to expand the reach of the marketing relationship with a captive audience.

So at minimum, there is at least 1-2 degrees of separation between a MySpace marketing campaign and a conversion of any variety. But it’s possible.

More importantly, it makes sense to start reserving MySpace.com/YOUR-COMPANY addresses (and iterations) before someone else does. Spencer also touches on the unofficial MySpace pages (i.e. Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and Target).