Social Network Ad Spend Set to Grow During 2010

With hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide registered to social networks, eMarketer reports many businesses intend to increase marketing expenditures on the platform.

The research firm predicts that marketers will spend more than $1.6 billion advertising on social networks this year, with expenditures up nearly 20 percent over 2009. Next year, businesses will increase ad spend by nearly 25 percent, accounting for $2.09 billion marketing dollars.

While MySpace’s popularity continues to wane, eMarketer expects Facebook to account for the majority of social media marketing budgets. Additionally, with Twitter slowly introducing new ways for businesses to advertise on its social network, the source predicts marketers will dramatically increase their ad spend on the platform by 2011.

This trend was also observed worldwide. By 2011, eMarketer anticipates that international companies will account for 50.9 percent of social media marketing dollars, spending $2.17 billion on the platform.

While eMarketer doesn’t expect Twitter to become a major marketing platform until 2011, usage of the site among consumers surged recently. According to comScore, Twitter use was up 109 percent globally in July.