Social Media Marketing on the Rise in 2009

Com.motion just published some very telling statistics about the social media landscape in ‘08 and where it is heading in ’09. This second annual com.motion – Pollara poll reveals that, even as the economy dives, social media spend is rising. I am pretty sure that most Internet marketers and SEM companies around the globe already knew and felt this but it is great to have the stats that back us up in client meetings.

Here is just one of the key stats published on the com.motion site:

“Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year.”

Of course, there some other stats, followed by a table that breaks down social media spend as compared to other marketing mediums. Just as important as social media spend, though, is the dramatic rise in social media awareness:

“The number of business leaders who say they are less familiar about social media than their customers has fallen to 17 per cent, down from 26 per cent a year ago.”

I am interpreting this poll to mean that it is not just the guys who are already doing it that have seen the value of social media and, as a result, are raising their social media budgets. Instead I see more Canadian companies and corporations stepping out onto the social media marketing landscape. Whether they are doing so simply because they are desperate to try any alternative to traditional advertising methods, or because they really are true believers, still remains in question for me, but, regardless of whether they are “jumpers” or “feet draggers”, these stats show that they are all starting to end up in the same place!