Social Media spending is expected to increase from $716M in 2008 to $3.1B in 2014, a 34% CAGR. 1

That 34% CAGR means Social Media spending is growing faster than any other interactive marketing category 2

86% of Marketers plan to increase Social Media budgets in 2010 and 13% are planning to keep the same level of budget 3

Pepsi dropped TV advertising for the 2010 Super Bowl. Instead, they're investing in a $20M Social Media campaign. (After 23 years of Super Bowl ads!) 4

Best Buy has over 2,500 employees helping customers on Twitter as part of the Twelpforce initiative 5

In fact, Best Buy even purchased TV ads to drive awareness for their Twitter initiative. (Traditional media as the supporting channel and Social Media as the core channel?!) 6

Comcast has at least 11 full-time employees dedicated to customer service via Social Media. 7

Dell has attributed over $6.5M in revenue directly to Twitter 8 +=

99% of online retailers plan to have a Facebook page by 2011 and 91% plan to have a Twitter page 9

Social Media played a major role in 2009 Holiday Shopping – 28% of US shoppers say Social Media influenced their purchases 10

Small Businesses are catching on too... 68% will increase their Social Media marketing efforts in the next year 11

56% of Twitter users say they use the micro-blogging & communication service for business purposes 12

Social Media usage is taking hold at both B2B and B2C business... 81% of B2B and 57% of B2C businesses maintain company- related profiles on social networks 13

Over 40% of people have "friended" a brand on Facebook or MySpace 14

20% of tweets are about products such as invitations for product information, answers or responses from peers or directly by brand representatives 15

46% of Facebook users say they would talk about or recommend a product on Facebook. 16

44% of Twitter users have recommended a product. 17

58% of people said if they had tweeted about a bad experience, they would like the company to respond to their comment 18

Foursquare's estimated valuation is $6 Million 19

Twitter's estimated valuation is $1 Billion 20

Facebook's estimated valuation is $10 Billion 21