A year ago, the results of this MarketingSherpa survey would have looked a lot different. Nearly half of respondents indicated that “social media is a promising tactic and will eventually produce ROI” and are increasing budget conservatively. This may not seem exciting, but a “cautious” commitment is a commitment nonetheless. Only 17 percent replied that they aren’t going to invest in social media marketing.

Of course, the group of respondents increasing budget “liberally” is small, but that’s to be expected for a relatively new approach to marketing that many are still exploring. For 7 percent to invest fairly heavily in social media marketing is impressive, especially this early in the innovation cycle. The remaining 27 percent is neither increasing nor decreasing, responding, “Social media value is unknown and something we do only as time permits. Why invest more?”

Has the entire world jumped on? Cleary, it hasn’t. Nonetheless, more than half of respondents see the value in increasing their social media marketing budgets — compared to only 17 percent that sees no value in committing financial resources.

Do the math: social media is where you’ll interact with clients and prospects in the near future (if you aren’t there already!).

[Source: MarketingSherpa]