Social marketing goal is to get "Likes"

Marketers are increasing their social media budgets in a bid to get more fans to "Like" them, according to a new poll from Effie Worldwide and Mashable.

The poll of agency executives and marketers from companies such as Mini USA, Bank of America and Colgate-Palmolive revealed the growing importance of social media. A whopping 87% said social media was "important" or "very important" to achieving their biggest marketing goal this year.

The majority (70%) of respondents plan to increase their social media budget by more than 10% during 2011. Furthermore, 11.9% of their overall marketing budgets will used for social networking activity, not too far short of the 13% being allocated for television.

Over a third (35%) of those polled cited attracting Facebook "Likes" as their main goal this year.

As well as targeting Facebook users, respondents also want to prioritize increasing their presence on mobile, while a massive 80% said they were planning either iPad-based advertising and/or an iPad app for 2011.

Tags: budget, Facebook, social marketing, social media, social networking