All the talk these days is about social media and whether it will evolve into a  successful platform for advertisers at some point.

Media people are divided, but a goodly share see it becoming so over time.

That’s as long as you leave Twitter out of the discussion.

Twitter earns a big thumbs down from more than half of the media planners and buyers who responded to a recent Media Life survey on new media advertising and the areas of promising growth.

Asked to finish the statement: "Twitter is," 52 percent agreed with this statement: "For twits. I predict we'll look back on this silly craze as the Friendster of 2009. It holds little promise for advertisers (or anyone else)."

Another 24 percent agreed with this statement: "Still a mystery to me. It's gaining popularity like crazy, but I'm still having trouble figure out how it could help my clients."

Only a quarter saw any promise in the site, which allows users to update their daily doings in very brief statements.

They agreed with this statement: "A great way to market and do market research. You receive feedback on events and ideas in real time; it's really the future of word-of-mouth advertising."

As for social media generally, more than half of planners and buyers see a future emerging at some point.

Readers were asked whether social networks would ever succeed in monetizing their considerable audiences.

The most optimistic lot, 24 percent, saw it happening in a year or two. But a larger share, 29 percent, saw it coming about in five years or more, which in internet time is a lifetime. Another 31 percent were not sure, and the remaining 16 percent thought it would never come about.

Of all areas of new media, the one that continues to be seen as the most promising is search advertising, but video is not far behind

Asked to pick the new media options holding the most promise for advertisers, and told to choose one or more, the largest share of respondents, 65 percent, picked search. Video came in second at 60 percent.

But No. 3, and not all that far behind, came social networks at 44 percent. That put it ahead of email marketing at 38 percent and mobile at 34 percent.

Banner ads came in at 22 percent and blogs at 21 percent, while Twitter came in at 12 percent.

Most readers think attitudes regarding advertising on blogs have changed somewhat over recent years but not hugely.

Asked how much attitudes have changed, the largest share, 68 percent, agreed with this statement: "Some. There's a big difference between a blog backed by a large media company and one where the client's ad could end up next to a crazy rant about some political issue."

Half that number, 17 percent, saw a notable change in attitude, agreeing with this statement: "Yes. As blogs have broken more mainstream stories and attracted 'name' journalists, advertisers have come to see them in a different light."

The rest, 15 percent, saw no change, agreeing with this statement: "No. Blogs' audiences are too limited for it to matter much, though."

Finally, Media Life asked whether clients are interested in exploring new media options beyond the basics. Responses were split nearly equally among three answers.

Thirty-five percent chose, "They are uncertain. It's really up to me to sell this to the client."

Just under 33 percent apiece chose two other options, saying either their clients are open to ideas or that it varies a great deal from client to client.