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A little talked about study was recently release by Com.motion and Pollara that looked at how 401 Canadian business leaders plan on utilizing (or not utilizing) social media in 2009.  The results were quite telling.

Some key takeaways quoted from the report:

• Despite the economic slowdown forcing marketers to modify their spending, 82 per cent of Canadian business leaders and senior marketers say they will spend as much or more on social media in 2009 than they did this year. That’s more than for any other marketing communications discipline.

• Nearly four in five Canadian marketers (78 per cent) say senior management supports greater investment in social media. That’s up dramatically from 54 per cent a year ago.

• Canadian business leaders say it would be a mistake to cut back on social and digital spending in tough economic times, with 7 in 10 recommending increased investment.

• Two-thirds of Canadians (65 per cent) who use social media say social media tools are important for learning about products, services, organizations and brands, up from 59 per cent a year ago.

• The number of business leaders who say they are less familiar about social media than their customers has fallen to 17 per cent, down from 26 per cent a year ago.

• Just 7 per cent of Canadian business leaders see social media tools as a fad, down from 15 per cent a year ago. And one in two (46 per cent) say social media tools have forever changed the communications landscape and are becoming more important than communications tool such as television, radio, newspapers and magazines.

• Nearly four in five Canadians (79 per cent) say they have used social media tools. That’s up from 71 per cent a year ago.

Despite all the dark news about the economy it looks as though social media is here to stay.  There will definitely be a bit of rethinking going on in 2009 as companies start demanding more accountability and metrics around social media campaigns, but this latest poll certainly shows that there is a growing commitment to the social media model of marketing and consumer dialog.

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