Holiday Shopping Forecast: Brands To Spend Big On Social Media, And Facebook Still Dominates

With Halloween just around the corner and the estimated $650 billion holiday shopping season square in the sights of marketers and retailers, all eyes are on the maturing power of social media to drive holiday shoppers to store and e-commerce sites.

According to recently released research from digital marketing platform Offerpop, 67 percent of marketers plan to increase their social media budgets this holiday season. Brands also appear to be sticking to proven social media platforms, with 92 percent of marketers saying they will spend the majority of their budget on Facebook.

However, maturing social networks like Instagram are gaining interest from retailers as well: 73 percent of marketers say Instagram is the breakout social network of 2014.

Offerpop’s survey comes at an interesting time for social media. Facebook and Twitter are both launching buy buttons that will allow e-commerce transactions without leaving the social networks. The new commerce capabilities are targeted at a rapidly growing mobile device audience and the more than 1.5 billion active users of both social networks.

The infographic below was made available to the public, and Offerpop's full research report is available through their Holiday Marketing 365 content program. The program, which launched last week, delivers seasonal marketing insights to marketers’ inboxes all year long.

With most retail establishments are counting on final quarter sales to move into the black, it helps to know where the big guys are spending, and what strategies are working for them.