By Nick Johnson - February 13th, 2013
In this extract from the forthcoming State of Corporate Social Media briefing, we take a look at financial resources allocated to social media by large companies.
The following is an extract from the forthcoming annual State of Corporate Social Media briefing. To sign up for a free copy, go here.
A breakdown of corporate social media budget allocations for 2013
While 4% of corporates have over $500,000 to spend on social media activity, the vast majority of our respondents have considerably less.
A full 48% of those corporates who completed our survey have less than $10,000 to spend per year, with another 21% working on a budget of less than $100,000.
Budget increases are slowing...
Over time, money pumped into social media adoption by big business is reducing. In 2011, In 2011 77% of our respondents were confident of a budget increase, and in 2012 this had reduced to 62%.
In 2013, for the first time since our study began, the majority of corporate respondents (a full 58% of them) don’t think their budgets will increase in 2013.
Those that do see an increase are doubtful of a significant rise. 20% of respondents think any increase will be between 1% - 5% of last year’s total, with another 21% expecting 10% or less. When one looks at those expecting a major increase, only 5% expect an increase of 75%+ compared to their 2012 resources.
Again, this tallies with a trend identified last year. In our first 2011 study, 29% expected the increase to be 75% or higher. In 2012, only 7% expected a jump of 75% or more, and this year that figure has reduced again.
The proportion of companies expecting significant increases in their social media budget is dropping
...But don’t worry - social is still important
It would be a mistake to read these figures evidence of social’s decreasing importance. After all, 93% of our 2013 respondents say that social is becoming a more important part of marketing strategy.
As we felt last year, this caution over budgets can almost certainly be explained by the ‘groundwork’ now being complete - hiring is slowing, and new technologies have now been purchased.
As corporate maturity with this new channel increases, the need for external help also diminishes - only 36% of respondents now pay for external advice/assistance with their social media presence. Costs are, perhaps thankfully, reducing significantly - and budget growth will slow accordingly.
The above is an extract from the forthcoming annual State of Corporate Social Media briefing. To sign up for a free copy, go here.
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