Social Media Marketing Budgets Increase

Small Organizations Show Largest Increase

Social Media Expenditures Increase The Most

A few weeks ago Hubspot did a webinar on the state of inbound marketing.  It was a really powerful presentation covering where companies and organizations are spending their marketing dollars and resources.  You can see a PDF of the full report here, or click on the image to the right to see the slide show presentation.

From the report:

Fastest Growing Marketing Category is Blogs/Social Media – Budgets are up 67%

Businesses are responding to the marketing success they are experiencing with social media and company blogs by increasing the percentage of lead generation budgets being allocated to the category.  In 2009 blogs/social media garnered 9% of the average lead generation budget.  For 2010 blogs/social media has been upped to 15% of the average budget; the largest increase of any lead generation category.  61% of respondents reported that they publish a company blog now compared to 48% a year ago.

Blogging is Separated from other Social Media Channels

While the increase in expenditures from 9% to 15% is really significant, I find the break out of blogging from other social media channels really interesting.  Blogging is significantly different from other channels, i.e. twitter, facebook, linkedin, etc.  Blogging, if done right, is the best way to add valuable content to your website, show your expertise, and embed information from other social media channels, i.e. youtube, slideshare.  Social Media channels like twitter should be used to promote your website and blog and interact with your network.

This is the model that most successful organizations are using, blogging to add valuable content and other social media channels to interact and promote.  We really like that Hubspot broke blogging out as its’ own catagory.

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