The use of social media has grown significantly over the past two years but new research from E-Consultancy indicates that most businesses are still in the experimental stage when it comes to their efforts.

61% say they have experimented with social media, but not done that much whilst 90% say they expect social media to take up more time in the next year. Only 2% expect less time to be spent on social media next year.

Whilst it seems most businesses are still only experimenting with social media, the future looks set in that direction.

Facebook is most commonly used in social media, with 85% of companies surveyed using it as part of their marketing strategy. This is followed by Twitter (surprisingly) at 77%, LinkedIn at 58% and YouTube at 49%.

Over 60% of respondents say that the amount of money spent on social media has increased since last year and 81% of companies expect social media budgets to increase over the next year. So whilst the majority of companies are experimenting for now, they must be seeing results otherwise why would they forecast such increases?

Do you agree with these results? How important is social media to your business?

Let us know…