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By on March 16, 2009

Forrester Report Suggests Marketers Still Spend Peanuts on Social Media, But Increases Planned

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Forrester Research just released a report that suggests the tough economy will be the catalyst for more spending on social media marketing.

The survey of 145 interactive marketing professionals snuggles-up nicely with cScape’s research published in December that suggested companies will focus more on customer engagement in 2009.

Highlights from the report authored by Jeremiah Owyang include:

  • 53% of interactive marketers expect their budgets for social media marketing to increase as a response to the recession.
  • Social media budgets remain miniscule compared to the rest of interactive marketing. Three-quarters of marketers say their social media spend is $100,000 or less over 12 months.
  • Social media is not yet a marketing line item. 45-percent of marketers say their social budgets are determined as needed and 23-percent say they scrape together funds from wherever they can find them.

Only 25% of companies are spending more than $100k a year on social media and it’s not yet a line item? Reminds me a lot of search engine marketing circa 1999. If you spend peanuts on social media, you’ll get…peanut butter–not filet mignon–when it comes to seeing results. Something Owyang agrees with:

“If you continue to fund social applications only as experiments, you’re unlikely to be able to do enough to make an impact, or to have a secure source of funding for the future. One way to put these efforts on a firmer footing is to concentrate on objectives and measure progress… rather than just experimenting to see what happens.”

You can purchase “Social Media Playtime Is Over” from Forrester for $749.


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8 comments on “Forrester Report Suggests Marketers Still Spend Peanuts on Social Media, But Increases Planned”

  1. Katelyn Cole Says:

    March 16th, 2009 at 9:54 am

    Everyone has to tighten their belts in this economy and social media marketing is one good way to stretch their advertising dollars farther than it might go otherwise I believe but that’s my opinion.

    Katelyn Cole’s last blog post..So many in financial trouble

  2. Andy Beal Says:

    March 16th, 2009 at 9:56 am

    @Katelyn – thanks for sharing your thoughts! Maybe one of the reasons 75% spend less than $100k is that social media really doesn’t cost that much.

  3. Bo Tipton Says:

    March 16th, 2009 at 10:00 am

    We will see people start to do things different on the Internet with the way the economy is. There will be some great new ways to do business come out of all this as people try new strategies. It will be interesting to see how Social Media evolves.

    Thanks
    Bo Tipton
    The Ornery Marketer

    Bo Tipton’s last blog post..Can I Make Money In The Next Thirty Days

  4. Michael Cayley Says:

    March 16th, 2009 at 10:21 am

    Once corporations come to understand how social media is connected to their value, the value proposition of social media will shift from being: “let’s save some money” to “we need to put our best people on this & invest heavily in order to save millions/billion in corporate value and survive in the future.

    Cheers,
    Michael

    Michael Cayley’s last blog post..SCVA in 90 seconds

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