Earlier this year, we reported that 63 percent of companies planned to increase their spending on social media in 2009. Thus, it’s not too surprising that a recent study from the Association of National Advertisers reveal that 66 percent of marketers have now used social media in some capacity in 2009. Also not surprising, the top platforms being utilized: Facebook (74%), YouTube (65%), Twitter (63%), LinkedIn (60%). Combined, this usage represents significant growth from 2007, when the same survey indicated that just 20 percent of marketers were using social media. Although social media marketing is clearly on the rise, it remains a relatively small part of most marketing budgets. ANA reports

that the bulk of spending will still go to maintaining a company website, search marketing, and online display ads. That said, social media (including blogs) remains the quickest growing marketing segment, and as we recently reported, it’s expected to grow to a $3.1 billion industry by 2014. In all, it looks like social media marketing still has a healthy amount of growth in front of it. See Also: How to Measure Social Media ROI for Business Image courtesy of iStockphoto , alexsl Reviews: LinkedIn , Twitter , YouTube , facebook , iStockphoto Tags: social media

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STUDY: Two-Thirds of Marketers Now Use Social Media