87% of Israeli advertisers plan to invest in social media marketing in 2010

Israeli marketing specialists intend to increase their spending on social media marketing (SMM) in 2010, according to a survey conducted by the Israeli Marketing Association and Financial Daily TheMarker.

According to the survey, 87 percent of Israeli advertisers plan to launch social media marketing initiatives in 2010, by acting on social networks like Twitter and Facebook, and approaching bloggers.

The survey was carried out by research firm Meida Shivuki, which is owned by Meirav Shapira and Noam Raz.

The number represents an increase in comparison to 2009, in which some 83% said they invested in social media. It is interesting to note that more than 70% of those, who were not active in social marketing, last year, said they plan to do so this year.

The report said that many advertisers include social media initiatives in their overall public relations activities. This is in line with the fact that 16% of those surveyed said they intend to increase public relationships (PR) expenditures and only 2% said they intend to spend less.

The survey included some 70 CEO's and senior VP Marketing from 166 Israeli companies that are members of the Israeli Marketing Association. The report shows that 2010 will be the fifth consecutive year in which advertisers will increase Internet advertising as some 47% said they intend to increase their online advertising budgets.

IsraelTechNews ranked at top 25 most influential Jewish Newswires on Twitter

IsraelTechNews was named as one of the 25 most influential Jewish newswires in Twitter in a special survey conducted by Jewish New Agency JTA.

The report, which was titled "JTA’s 100 Most Influential Jewish Twitterers", ranked IsraelTechNews as 21 in the list of influential Jewish newswires. IsraelTechNews was ranked behind Britain's Jewish Chronicle, the world's oldest Jewish newspaper.

IsraelTechNews publishes the latest news about the Israeli technology industry, including news updates on internet, mobile, software, medical device, healthcare and Cleantech startups. It was founded by Boaz Babai founder and CEO of ARPU~UP, a provider of online marketing strategy consulting services.