Forrester, as mentioned in Adweek, recently found that 75% of advertisers have budgets of less than $100k for social media in 2009. However, the study also suggests that just over 50% of advertisers intend to increase their spend on social media this year, while only 5% will decrease it.
Startups seeking venture financing need to realize that VCs are pretty skeptical these days around using destination social media sites with ad-driven business models. Advertising focused startups that are succeeding in raising financing are like Quattro Wireless (just raised $10M) - infrastructure type plays that are providing platforms or tools used to advertise across multiple sites.
