public relations…social media…commmunications…marketing. Repeat.

According to research conducted during the October 2010 Pivot Conference in New York, marketing and adverting eyes are on the social consumer. With 58 percent recognizing the social consumer as a pivotal element to the brand, marketers and advertisers understand the value and power of the social consumer. In addition, 84 percent see social consumers as a primary or secondary target market this year.

Who is the social consumer?
They are tech-savvy consumers who speak to brands through social media. They “like” brands on Facebook and will retweet your brand’s newest promotion on Twitter. They will let all their social friends know they are spending some time with your brand when they check-in on Foursquare and spread online coupon love with your brand through Groupon.

Businesses keep social media management close to home.
The survey found that 52 percent of respondents run their social media efforts in-house, while 19 percent use full agencies and another 15 percent rely on specialized agencies to lead their social media efforts.

Among the 700 marketing and advertising professionals surveyed, 90 percent recognized social media as a marketing function. Public relations followed at 64 percent with sales not too far behind at 46 percent, and customer service at 39 percent. When asked what roles or functions they oversaw, the majority (64 percent) were responsible for social media marketing with brand management following closely at 58 percent.

So, how will marketing and advertising professionals divvy up their time in 2011?
The survey provides a quick breakdown:

• Social Media. Marketers plan to increase usage of social media by 75 percent. Only 19 percent will remain at current levels, while one percent of respondents actually plan on decreasing usage.
• Mobile. Apps for iPhone and Droid will see a rise of 62 percent, 21 percent will remain constant and 1 percent will decrease.
• Microblogging. More than half of marketing and advertising professionals, 61 percent, will increase use of streaming apps such as Twitter and Yammer, 27 percent will stay the course and 5 percent will reduce current usage.
• Video. At 55 percent, a little more than half of marketers will increase video production and distribution with YouTube, Vimeo and the like, 31 percent will continue as is, and no one plans to decrease their efforts in this category in 2011.
• Blogs. Contrary to a recent story in the New York Times insinuating that the statusphere would spell the end of the blogosphere, brands will increase their focus on top tier blogs to reach customers and peers by 52 percent, with 35 percent staying constant and 5 percent reducing focus.

Social Media ROI
Such a hot topic in the world of social media for business, isn’t it? According to the survey, the majority of respondents are measuring social media success against internal goals and objectives. Of those who measure, 73 percent find social media useful, however; four percent say it hasn’t been all it’s cracked up to be.

Hmmm…Interesting…
As the survey proves, social media use will definitely grow this year. On the contrary, certain platforms won’t be receiving the same love. Geo-location networks such as Foursquare and Gowalla and Review sites will see a 10 percent retraction in focus this year. However, brands will increase usage of virtual worlds such as Second Life by 11 percent.

For the complete Pivot Conference social media branding survey, click here.