I Blog Do You?
Results of the first (statistically significant) longitudinal study on corporate use of social media reveal some interesting statistics:
- 39% of Inc. 500 companies have blogs, compared to 11.6% of Fortune 500 companies
- In the past year, 20% more Inc. 500 companies started blogging, compared to 3.6% more Fortune 500s
- 44% of Inc. 500s think social media is very important to their business/marketing strategy, compared to 25% last year
- Inc. 500s are most familiar with social networking, while wikis have seen the most growth in terms of familiarity
- 77% of Inc. 500 companies report using at least some social media tool
It’s not surprising that the Inc. 500 companies are outpacing the Fortune 500s in social media adoption. It’s also encouraging to see the increased recognition of social media’s role in a company’s business/marketing strategy. However, simply using social media and thinking it is important is very different from effectively using social media and integrating it into a company’s everyday operations.
At Zappos.com (one of the Inc. 500), for example, almost everyone blogs. The CEO and COO have their own blog, and many other employees blog on Running, Fashion Culture, Outdoor and more. Zappos.com also uses Twitter (not included in the above study) as part of its customer service function, fostering a sense of community between the company and its customers, and between customers themselves.
Contrast that with the list of social media fiascos, like Whole Foods’ CEO hiding his identity and posting comments anonymously. Or Wal-Mart’s fake blog that was financed by Edelman.
An important and often neglected factor in effectively employing social media is the choice of people to “reveal” to the public. Unfortunately, not all bloggers are born equal - some people just have more personality than others. Figuring out who should be the “social media face” of the company is not a trivial matter.
Integration should also not be taken lightly. Social media tactics cannot be stand-alone events, but should instead be part of the execution of marketing strategy designed to meet business goals. I believe metrics for measuring the impact of social media (Return On Involvement?) will eventually develop to aid in the integration process.
Mashable does a nice job of highlighting many more examples of effective corporate social media.
