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A recent study by Forrester Research found that over half of global marketers will increase their spend on social media in 2010.  Of those who knew their marketing budget, 75% said they were planning to spend upwards of $100,000 on social media marketing. Where spend was already planned this would be on social networks, blogs and user-generated content.

The research highlighted that money being allocated to social media typically comes at the expense of other budgets, with the biggest proportion of respondents (35%) identifying the source as their corporate marketing coffers; while 24% said that it would come from the advertising budget.

The report includes recommendations for marketers. Here are some repeated for my blog readers:

• If you are a marketer interested in social media, use these stats to get management support and a realistic budget, then concentrate on measuring the results of your efforts to prove they work.

• If you are a web consultant, this is a growth area. To become successful, concentrate on developing expertise in implementation, management, moderation, or measurement of social media efforts; that’s where the need appears to be.

• If you are a technology vendor, case studies with proof of value will be far more effective than features, functions, and technology claims. If you can offer a consultative sale and hand-holding service, you’ll be a lot more likely to win clients and thrive in this space.

Forrester surveyed 145 global interactive marketers at business-to-business and business-to-consumer companies employing 250-plus staff. While we’re still not sure if the SME sector have as yet identified the benefits; for large companies and global brands the message is simple, and has been summarised by Forrester’s Jeremiah Owyang as simply that “Social Media Playtime Is Over”.