AD spending on social networks

The eMarketer released a report predicting that advertaising across the globe on soical networks will reach 5.97 billion U.S. dollars in 2011. This figure represents a growth of 71.6% from social media ad spend in 2010, which will translate to 8.7% of total online ad spend this year. In the United States, marketers will spend in excess of $3 billion on social networks this year, which represents 10.8% of total digital ad spend.

eMarketer last predicted 2011 social ad spend in August 2011, at which time it predicted US ad spend was $1 billion less than the figures just released. Facebook, being the biggest social network in the world, is the primary driver behind the massive growth.
eMarketer is predicting that ad spend on Facebook will double this year to $4 billion worldwide and $2.19 billion in the US.

http://www.socialmediaportal.com/News/2011/01/Social-media-ad-spend-to-hit-6-billion-worldwide-in-2011.aspx