Social media predicted to have massive influence on consumer spending

Social media strategies will influence at least 80 per cent of consumers' spending by 2015, according to analyst firm Gartner.

The more traditional mass-marketed, interruption-type campaigns can no longer be relied on as they see just a two per cent response rate, according to Adam Sarner, research director at Gartner.

"Although most marketers are using more than one digital channel, their approach is often no different from a spam model, with success driven by high volumes. Just using digital channels is not the answer.

"Today, activity on the internet has shifted to two-way interaction and participation; the hard sell doesn't work in this environment,” said Sarner.

In the report entitled Digital Marketing: The Critical Trek for Multichannel Campaign Management, Gartner also predicted that by 2014, 6.7 billion devices will be connected to the internet.