Social Media Budget Trends

According to Bazaarvoice’s 2009 survey of 133 chief marketing officers, 62% said they would increase social media budgets for 2010.

eMarketer published a report that found a 23% increase in social media spending in 2009. What’s more interesting is their forecasted increases:
- 2010: 35%
- 2011: 60%
- 2012: 85%

In 2009, web-strategist.com published research that found 53% of marketers were determined to increase social media budgets during the recession.

In December 2009, Pepsi announced its plans to shift its 2010 Super Bowl advertising dollars ($20 million) to social media.

Social Media Concerns

As social media budgets increase businesses are finding common concerns:

- Uncertainty about ROI (return on investment)
- How to track success of social media
- Where should the budget come from? New budget or existing budgets?
- Increase of internal workload

What We Are Finding Among Our Clients

- Our clients who have start-ups or younger businesses are choosing to budget for social media over traditional marketing
- Some of our clients are increasing social media budgets by shifting funds FROM existing budgets (most often print related marketing)
- Some of our clients are making tough cuts in their operating budgets in order to begin social media marketing
- Company executives are utilizing personal time to create and publish social media content
-  Some of our clients are increasing their media budget in order to facilitate the production of more web related content

What We Suggest

1. The time for experimenting with social media marketing is over. If you haven’t already, we suggest committing to a social media plan.
2.  Define your goals early on and stick to your strategy. Avoid jumping into new areas for the sake of something new unless it directly supports your initial goals.
3. Understand that social media marketing is an everyday practice. It will not be mastered in a few weeks.
4. Stay the course and do not throw in the towel when the metrics are less than expected. Instead use these metrics to make adjustments.
5. Increase department and employee involvement by creating a variety of supporting roles. Who are your writers, your media producers, your publishers, and your techies?