The below preview was originally posted at SocialTrenz.com by Sergio Balegno, senior analyst with the MarketingSherpa Research Group, and lead author of the 2009 study, “Social Media Marketing and PR: Benchmarks and best practices for harnessing the power of the social marketplace”.  Visit http://www.socialtrenz.com for the original posts or click here to buy the book.

During this period of continued economic uncertainty and the resulting pressure to cut marketing budgets further, social media has benefitted from the perception that it requires minimal capital investment to implement effectively. As one marketer told us, “I don’t understand big budget social media tactics. We use social media because it’s effective and FREE. The only cost associated with it in our organization is time (employee salaries), design (in-house) and occasional programming (in-house).”

Social media is a time-intensive tactic and while it may only require a minimal cash investment, unless outsourced, it does require a significant investment in human capital. Salaries will likely be the bulk of additional spending on social media.

An interesting point made by this chart is that social media and email are the only two tactics on which more companies are planning to increase spending than are planning to decrease spending. In all other online and offline categories, the number of companies planning to reduce spending exceeds the number planning to add to those budgets.