Most companies are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to a study conducted in the UK.

Published: 27 Nov 2009

Most companies are planning to invest more in social media next year but are struggling to find the time and resources to manage their activity, according to a study conducted in the UK.

Econsultancy’s Social Media and Online PR Report, produced in association with bigmouthmedia, has indicated that 86 percent of companies plan to spend more money on social media in 2010, and a further 13 percent are planning to keep the same level of budget. 54 percent cited their biggest barrier to better social media engagement was a lack of resources, with 90 percent of businesses stating that social media is taking up more time internally than a year ago.

The report is based on a survey of over 1,100 companies and agencies.

Report highlights include:

· Almost two-thirds (64 percent)of companies say they have experimented with social media but have not done much.
· Micro-blogging (i.e. Twitter) is now the most widely adopted social media tactic, used by 78 percent of company respondents.
· Just under half of companies (46 percent) are not yet using reputation or buzz monitoring tools to understand what is being said about their brand.
· Nearly a third of respondents (31 percent) are not spending any of their budget on social media.
· There is a mixed view of the benefits of Twitter, with almost a third of respondents (31 percent) saying that there are tremendous opportunities available, but exactly half reporting that their companies are open-minded but not fully convinced about the value to the business.
· The biggest barrier to better social media engagement for companies surveyed is the lack of resources (54 percent).

Social media has evolved from being a rather vague and ambiguous term to becoming the star of online marketing. As the 2009 Social Media and Online PR Report shows, nearly two-thirds of companies believe that it provides tremendous opportunities for their businesses. Perceived benefits of social media engagement include increased customer engagement, better brand reputation and increased communication with key influencers.

Another interesting fact is that most social media tactics – regardless of company and target audience - seem to use the same social media sites, with Twitter and micro-blogging being the top choice for 78 percent of organisations and 74 percent of agencies. The results of such strategies in terms of effectiveness might explain why the survey also points to a significant fall in the number of companies who are “very satisfied” with their agencies, with confidence in agency knowledge dropping from 21 percent to 13 percent in a single year.