Soci@lByte

The last few weeks I’ve been immersed in new business hell, I should actually say ‘heaven’ seeing as this time last year there was very little, if any new business. Which brings me to my point and the main reason I’ve been slammed: according to BtoB magazine’s “2010 Outlook”, social media marketing will be of rising importance for business-to-business (B2B) marketers. In fact, six in 10 B2B marketers plan to up spending on social in 2010. This point was backed up in another recent report StrongMail did, “2010 Marketing Trends Survey”, which notes that 59 percent of businesses plan to increase spending on social media. The same report says that 19 percent of businesses plan to increase their spending on PR.

I have to say that I concur. We have seen more and more B2B (and B2C) clients and prospects wanting a social media program integrated into their traditional PR programs to help generate awareness, build thought leadership and support their overall sales initiatives. Have you been seeing the same? What are some of the main reasons they – being your clients or your company – want to create a social media program?