75% of marketers to up social media spend in 2012

Social media is becoming an increasingly valuable marketing channel and marketers are getting onboard and finding success. Eighty-eight percent believe they are getting a positive return on their ROI.

How they measure success varies from business to business. "Different businesses are measuring the benefits and measuring the ROI in different ways, which I think points to in some cases just how early businesses are in the cycle of social media," said Victoria Ransom, founder and CEO of Wildfire. "In other cases I think it just points to how a business would measure success in marketing."

Thirty-eight percent of respondents said they measure social media's success in terms of increased numbers of Fans, Likes and comments, 24% measure success in terms of increased revenue and 15% by increases in brand awareness.

Not surprisingly, Facebook was ranked the number one social media marketing channel (94%) followed by Twitter (74%) and blogs (41%). However, Wildfire forecasts this will all change with the launch of Twitter's branded pages, LinkedIn's developer launch and the continued growth of blogging networks.

Wildfire's infographic reveals that nearly 70% of respondents believe Facebook Fans are more valuable to them than non-Fans, and the top three reasons why are:

• New customer recruitment - 44%
• Higher conversion rates - 18%
• More frequent purchases - 18%.

Three-quarters of marketers surveyed said they intend to increase their spending on social media over the coming year.

Tags: brand awareness, customer acquisition, marketing spend, social marketing, social media, social network