As with many (and likely most) reports on Corporate Social Media Budgets, the current level of spending is significantly below what industry experts believe is both an effective level, and a reasonable proportion of the overall corporate budget.

While the report in it’s entirety is a worthwhile read, we’ve put together a few of the relevant high-level points to share:

- Social Strategists have proven to meet integral business imperatives, and have proved themselves beyond “mere experimentation and evangelism.”

- Budget increases should rise in line with the maturation of the social media teams.  As social business teams mature, team sizes grow and spread across the business as  cross-functional teams.

- As Social Business matures, the teams’ structure(s) will evolve to meet cross-functional Social Business needs; most commonly from a centralized team, to a “hub and spoke” model.

- Average Enterprise-Class Social Media Budget – $833,000

The three spending areas which comprise the bulk of this budget are:

1 – Internal Soft Costs: Staff, Education, Training, R&D, etc.
2 – Customer Facing Initiatives: Marketing, Blogger Outreach, etc.
3 – Technology Investments: Social CRM (SCRM), Social Media Management Systems (SMMS), Community Platforms, etc.

Of these areas, Training and Education is the most underfunded, but one of the most integral components “to foster a culture of change management.”

Novice Social Business Programs
Average Team Size: 3.1
Team Members Budget: $66,000

Intermediate Social Business Programs -
Average Team Size: 8.2
Team Members Budget: $1,002,000

Advanced Social Business Programs -
Average Team Size: 20.8
Team Members Budget: $1,364,000

Advanced Social Businesses will soon seek out the following services/initiatives:

- Shift resources to enlist in specialized expertise from “Boutique Agencies”
- Secure technology that “keeps the the conversation on the corporate website”
- Develop an infrastructure for scalable solutions, such as Social Media Monitoring Services (SMMS) and Social CRM (SCRM)
- Engage employees with Social Business initiatives internally and “prepare for social business to permeate the entire enterprise”

In addition to their insightful observations on the current state of affairs, Altimeter has included in this report some valuable insights for businesses looking to understand how to prioritize their Social Media budget, and steer their organizations in a progressive direction.

Check out the full report here: http://slidesha.re/fyXSyB