More than two-thirds of high-tech marketing professionals (68%) say lead generation is their top marketing priority this year and 74% cite social media as among the top emerging marketing channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, according to a Unisfair survey slated for release in late May.

In addition, 39% of surveyed tech marketers cite virtual events as one of the top emerging channels for lead generation in 2010 and beyond, and 34% cite mobile channels.

Among this year's other marketing priorities are brand awareness (cited by 17%) and customer retention (16%).

You can check out some of the other findings from Unisfair's The Future of Tech Marketing (a survey of 500 high-tech marketing professionals on their marketing priorities for 2010 and beyond) here.

About the data: Conducted by Zoomerang for Unisfair, the study surveyed 500 marketing professionals from technology companies, including B2B software (42%), B2B services (25%), B2B hardware (22%), B2C software (4%), B2C services (4%), and B2C hardware (3%).