Tech Marketers Adopting Social Media Faster Than Mobile Marketing, Study Says

Social media marketing is being used by tech marketers at a much higher rate than mobile marketing, according to a new study from IDG Research Services. But though it’s behind, mobile marketing is trending in the same way that social media has already, the survey suggests.

Social media adoption overall is at a whopping 95% of all respondents, while 64% said they’ve invested in mobile marketing initiatives. As the image below shows, tech marketers have “fully integrated” social media at about twice the rate of mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is still in the experimental stage for more than half of those surveyed.

IDG reports, however, that nearly half of the survey respondents said they plan to invest in tablet-based advertising in 2012.

Social media marketing is at a more advanced stage, with 75% of respondents saying that their social efforts are meeting or exceeding expectations.

Overall, about two-thirds of tech marketers plan to increase their marketing budgets in 2012 at an average of about 3.5% more than this year. Next year’s spending will be focused most on lead generation, followed by display/banner programs, search marketing and then email marketing.

Close to 300 tech marketers, most from the U.S., responded to the IDG survey this past August. International Data Group (IDG) is the parent company of several tech media brands, including ComputerWorld, MacWorld, PCWorld, CIO and others.