Social Media Outlay Still Small

Forrester finds that marketers still relegate efforts to the sidelines

Forrester found that 75 percent of marketers have budgeted less than $100,000 for social media efforts over the next year. The firm concluded that social media has not yet entered the marketing mainstream, but is largely relegated to experimental budgets -- despite the fact that social media marketing typically costs less than traditional ad programs.

Social media had yet to prove its impact, using accepted measurement standards, in moving customers through the marketing funnel, Forrester said. That lack of proven impact has relegated efforts to the sidelines: 45 percent of respondents said their social media budgets are determined on an "as-needed" basis.

The good news: Even with the economy in recession, a majority of marketers -- 53 percent -- said they expected to increase spending on social media. Just 5 percent said they would decrease spending and 42 percent said their outlays would remain the same. (Forrester did not ask marketers to specify if they were including ad programs on social sites.)