The folks at DNN Social competitor NewsGator* have released the results of a survey of 200 of their existing clients at Fortune 1000 companies. The results, while biased, are intriguing.

Per their survey, among respondents:

• 73.3% said that "employee satisfaction" was their #1 measurable objective in going social
• 45.6% said that it was "reduced costs"
• 42.1% said it was "improved revenue" 

(At this point, you may have noted their percentages add up to 161%, which implies people answered that they have more than one #1 reason, so take these figures with a grain of salt.)

I'm guessing that among the surveyed audience the focus is on a social enterprise intranet solution, which would account for the goal of employee satisfaction being so important. We can see how many companies will see an enterprise social intranet as an easy win, but will venture into more external outreach once their own employees have accepted and adopted the platform.

Additionally, among respondents: 

• 72.8% reported that social software more than paid for itself through greater collaboration among employees.

That's an interesting figure! If you ask DNN Social adopters, who pay significantly less for a license, I wonder what this figure would be?

• According to 98% of respondents, "enhancing collaboration positively impacted the bottom line by driving new products, services and other innovations." That's terrific, as that's a key hope of launching an enterprise social solution. We see big opportunities for this very result using the Ideas tool (with social vote up) in DNN Social. We're looking forward to sharing a stat like this, too.

I'm delighted to read that this user base is finding so much success. I think these figures might offer more insight on the use of enterprise social in general, as opposed to the platform (there's no data on adoption rates, user experience, or actual employee satisfaction), but it doesn't make them any less interesting to note. The numbers seem to validate what we're hearing in the market. Enterprise social is continuing to gain momentum. Adoption rates and trial efforts are both very high.

We'll be watching stories like this one (though more ideally from neutral trade sources and analyst groups), and paying close attention to see more about how the platforms compare and compete against one another. Because in the end that's what you want to know, right? "Which social solution is right for my company?"

It's early to know for certain, but we can say this -- whether your main site is on DotNetNuke or not --if you're looking to put you toe in the water in business social 2.0, DNN is a great starting point given all the features you get for the price.

* NewsGator's marketing assertion is that they "provide the #1 social business solution for the Microsoft ecosystem." As DNN's is that they are the #1 Content Management System within the Microsoft ecosystem, with over 1,000,000 developers using the platform, how long before Social can overtake NG in the space?