Paid Brand Conversations to Rise

PQ Media said such “sponsored conversations” — which compensate social media users for discussing brands’ products — grew to $46 million in 2009, a 14 percent increase from a year earlier. Even so, that figure represented a tiny chunk (2.7 percent) of the word-of-mouth marketing category, according to PQ.

The firm now forecasts what it terms “social media sponsorship spending” to rise 26 percent this year to $56.8