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Nearly Three-Quarters of Marketers Have Social Strategy

AUGUST 27, 2010

Debra Aho Williamson
Senior Analyst

Social media is becoming an even more integral part of the marketing landscape. According to a June 2010 survey by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42, 72% of US companies said they had a social media strategy.

The three companies surveyed 457 US marketers and managers; 52% of respondents were in the publishing, media, advertising and marketing industries.

The figure is one of the highest percentages yet among surveys that queried marketers on whether they had a social strategy. In May 2010, Digital Brand Expressions found that 52% of social marketers were “operating without a game plan,” similar to the 50% found in April 2010 by R2integrated.

Marketers are realizing that a strategy is important because it allows them to plan their social activities on a long-term basis rather than focus on one-off experiments. King Fish and its partners found that 75% of the companies with a social strategy said they planned to increase their investment in the next year.

As marketers continue to invest in social media, its share of marketing budgets is expected to rise. A February 2010 survey by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business found that respondents were devoting 5.6% of their marketing budget to social media, up from 3.5% six months prior. And marketers expected the allocation to increase even further, to 9.9% in the next 12 months and 17.7% within five years.

Companies in the King Fish survey were divided on where the budget for social initiatives would come from, however. While 35% thought that funds would be allocated to a specific custom project, 33% said their company would increase marketing expenditures to focus more on social media.