A new IAB study released has found that 88% of UK brands rate social media as ‘Important’ in their marketing activities. The research subsequently found that brands are expecting to spend more of their budgets on social media activities in 2010.

The study conducted in partnership with Opinion Matters found that 1/3 or marketers expect to allocated between 6-20% of their digital marketing budget on social media marketing. This was a substantial increase on the 14% in this category one year earlier, though is still behind in proportion to the time spend on social media by internet users.

The participants in the study were 80 senior level marketers. Interestingly, whilst a majority of marketers felt social media was a strong tool for growing engagement and brand advocacy, less than half were using it to grow sales. Further to this, effective ROI measurement was seen as the areas’s greatest challenge to future growth.

Further information can be found at the IAB website. Social media illustration courtesy of Matt Hamm.

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