Brands are using a new and expanding set of advertising tools to reach social consumers: 67% of surveyed brand managers say they conduct some type of social media advertising and another 18% plan to implement such activities in the next year, according to a new study by The Pivot Conference and Brian Solis.

Among brand managers who conduct social advertising:

• 94% engage bloggers and influencers to blog and tweet on behalf of their companies; among them, nearly three-quarters (or 67% of social advertisers) plan to increase spending on such efforts over the next 12 months.
• 67% conduct social media optimization (SMO) campaigns; among them, roughly six in ten (or 42% of social advertisers) plan to step up spending on such efforts over the next 12 months.
• 61% advertise on social networking sites (paid placement); among them, roughly one-half (27% of social advertisers) plan to increase spending on those effort s over the next 12 months.

Some 42% of social advertisers use Twitter's Promoted products and roughly one-half of them (21% of social advertisers) plan to expand those efforts in the next 12 months. By contrast, 30% of social advertisers do not use Twitter's Promoted products and do not plan to do so.

Meanwhile, 41% of social advertisers do not pay for Tweets and posts and don't plan to invest in that strategy in the future. However, 28% of social advertisers do pay for Tweets and posts; among them nearly half (12% of social advertisers) plan to increase spending on this front.

Below, additional findings from The Rise of Social Advertiser, a report by The Pivot Conference and Brain Solis, based on a survey of 230 brand managers, executives, and marketing professionals.

Marketers Optimistic 

Satisfaction is strong: More than one-half of social advertisers say they are satisfied (43%) or very satisfied (11%) with their social ad efforts so far; 45% are unsatisfied with their social ad efforts.

Meanwhile, regardless of their satisfaction with past efforts, 60% of social advertisers expect their social advertising efforts to be "very valuable" to their company over the next two years.

Integration With Overall Efforts

For the most part, social advertising is integrated into brands' overall marketing efforts:

• 70% of social advertisers say they use traditional media to drive engagement in social advertising, by incorporating a social network address into a traditional ad.
• Social ads are part of most marketing campaigns: Among social advertisers, 38% of marketing campaigns always have a social ad component; 34% frequently do.
• 70% of social advertisers say social ad planning is done at the same time as the rest of the campaign.

Top Social Channels

Facebook and Twitter dominate social marketing: 93% of social advertisers have already deployed campaigns on Facebook; 78% have done so on Twitter and 61% have done so on YouTube.

Although adoption levels on LinkedIn and Foursquare are lower, 44% and 16%, respectively, activity on those platforms will likely increase: 21% and 26% of social advertisers plan to explore ad programs on LinkedIn and Foursquare, respectively, over the next 12 months.

Despite its popularity, social advertisers aren't ready for Zynga: Only 2% use the social gaming platform and 49% report no plans to do so. However, 13% of social advertisers plan to explore using Zynga over the next 12 months.

Paid-Program Satisfaction, by Channel

Across major social channels, most social advertisers rate Facebook's paid-program offerings as excellent (31%) or good (38%), but no other social site received such praise. Despite Twitter's No. 2 ranking in adoption, only 11% rate its paid-ad offerings as excellent.

Satisfaction for YouTube, LinkedIn, and Foursquare is less favorable with most marketers rating ad efforts on those sites as good or fair.

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Defining Social Advertising

Asked to define what "social advertising" is, brand managers who plan to experiment with social advertising over the 12 months cited a diverse range of activities, including the following:

• Blogging and tweeting on behalf of a company, product, or brand: 83%
• Paid placements via social network advertising inventory: 69%
• Viral video creation: 67%
• Contest giveaways: 64%
• Promoted Tweets/Trends: 63%

Other key findings:

• Brands are encouraging user involvement: 58% of social advertisers encourage users to become involved with the brand (and welcome the outcome of customer involvement and participation) and an additional 16% encourage consumers to act as ambassadors (and endorse products in their social streams).
• 75% of social advertisers say their programs are ongoing throughout the year; 25% report episodic programming.

About the data: Findings are based on a survey of 230 brand managers, executives, and marketing professionals, May 18-26, 2011. Invitations to the online survey were extended via email, blogs, Twitter, and Facebook.