Social Media is becoming a Mainstream Marketing Channel for Businesses - Don't get left behind

Internet consultants and others appear to be interested in the power of social media, as new research has revealed that the majority of them rate this as important to their business.

Conducted by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), the report indicated that 88 per cent of respondents hold this opinion, while one-third plan to spend between six and 20 per cent of their budgets in the social sphere this year.

This compares to 14 per cent in 2009 and chair of the IAB social media council Tony Effik said that "this is going to be a big year for social media".

It was also seen that Twitter has climbed in popularity, with 51 per cent saying it is very important to them, while Facebook received this compliment from 47 per cent of those asked.

And Facebook itself is proving popular among users as well, with approximately 175 million people logging onto the site every day, the company recently revealed at the World Economic Forum.

Regarding the IAB's work, Mr Effik continued: "The research highlights some of challenges we have, such as ensuring clarity of new social concepts, such as crowdsourcing, and in ensuring that ROI, and accountability in general are essential in the drive for growth."

Source: IAB