More than two-thirds (67%) of senior-level public relations (PR) professionals say their companies are now engaging in social media on some level and 69% say social media will be a top priority for PR in 2011, according to a survey from Vocus. Fully 80% of PR professional say social media will be more important in the coming year.

Surveyed PR professionals say social media is maturing in their companies:

Another 17% of companies are listening to social media conversations, and 7% respond only when necessary.

Below, other findings from the report titled Social Media Comes of Age: The Vocus 2010 Planning Survey.

Organizations of all sizes are expressing confidence with social media.

Larger organizations (annual revenues of $750 million to $1 billion) are the most confident: 50% say they are creating value via content creation.* Small ($1-5 million) and mid-sized businesses ($6-50 million) follow in confidence levels, 28% and 29%, respectively.

In 2011, social media will be a top priority for PR professionals, followed by strategic communications (66%) and measurement (61%).

Meanwhile, 76% of companies will spend either the same or less on traditional media relations, and 65% will spend the same or less on community relations and corporate philanthropy.

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Six in ten PR professionals (60%) say PR will be more challenging in 2011. Budgets are cited as the top reason (37%), followed by a variety of options (22%), social media (19%), and rapid change (19%). Only 14% cite the economy as their top challenge.

Moreover, marketing budgets are expected to improve in 2011: 42% of PR professionals say they expect budgets to "increase somewhat" or "increase significantly" over 2010 levels, compared with the 29% who said so a year earlier.

Roughly 20% say budgets are "decreasing somewhat" or "decreasing significantly" in 2011, compared with the 29% who said so a year earlier.

SEO and ad professionals are the most optimistic about their budgets in the coming year: 27% of search and SEO professionals expect their budgets to increase significantly in 2011, as do 25% of advertising professionals. Only 7% of PR and marketing professional are expecting such increases.

PR's role is gaining in importance: 63% of PR professionals say PR will be more important to the marketing mix in 2011, and 31% say it will remain the same. Some 5% say PR's role will be less important in 2011.

PR and marketing are working together on social efforts: 23% of PR professionals say marketing is leading social media efforts, while PR contributes, whereas 22% say PR is leading social media efforts with several other departments contributing.

* The participation was not necessarily proportionate to the budget (or funding for a program) based on the size of the company's earnings.

About the data: Findings are from a survey of 508 senior-level public relations professionals from Oct.26, 2010 to Nov. 21, 2010

Source:http://www.marketingprofs.com/