LONDON and CHICAGO, April 26 /PRNewswire/ -- Research organization,
Melcrum, today announces the preliminary findings of the first ever survey
into social media adoption by large corporations worldwide. More than 2,100
executives responded about how blogs, podcasts, wikis and other
collaborative technologies are being used to communicate with employees and
customers.
Blogs are widespread but online video is the number one application
Much of the hype around social media so far has centered around the
adoption of blogging as a business tool for communicating with customers
and staff. The majority of respondents (55%) were already using blogs or
planning to start in the next 12 months, but even more popular was online
video (63%) through video sharing services like You Tube.
Also increasingly popular were podcasts (43%), RSS/webfeeds (51%) and
social networks like LinkedIn (41%).
Robin Crumby, Melcrum's Managing Director and co-founder commented
that: "Big business has taken note of the popularity of sites like MySpace,
YouTube and Bebo and is beginning to figure out how to integrate the same
functionality and networking tools with their corporate intranets."
The gulf between the hype and reality
The survey also highlighted major discrepancies between the hype and
the reality of social media adoption with 73% of respondents having no
intention of implementing 3D web tools like Second Life for their
businesses.
Why is big business so excited about social media?
When internal communicators were asked about the top two perceived
benefits of social media for their organizations, 71% selected "improved
employee engagement", 59% said "improved internal collaboration" and 47%
chose "creating a two-way dialogue with senior executives".
Robin Crumby adds that: "The next generation of employees entering the
workforce will expect to be able to have their say and network with their
peers online. Corporations are preparing for this now. By encouraging staff
and customers to get involved and build communities around their brands,
companies know that they can get better results in terms of staff
productivity and engagement, but also customer retention and acquisition."
Risk to reputation needs to be properly managed
While there is widespread enthusiasm for social media in the corporate
world, 45% of respondents agreed that employees discussing their
organization online posed a significant risk to its reputation. And yet,
70% admitted that they had no guidelines or policies relating to blogging
or other social-media tools.
Even more worrying, was that only 26% were sure how to monitor what was
being said about their organizations, industry or products online.
Robin Crumby commented that "Smart organizations like the BBC, Sun
Microsystems and IBM are encouraging their staff to blog and participate in
online forums whilst educating them about the dos and don'ts, thereby
minimizing the risk of libel suits."
The future for social media?
While only a third of communicators described social media as a
priority right now, 41% reported that they were committed to two-way
communication with employees/customers online, and 52% anticipated their
social-media budgets increasing over the next 12 months.
When asked about the barriers for further adoption, 23% of respondents
highlighted gaining executive support as a key challenge, along with 13%
reporting IT constraints and restrictions.
Robin Crumby concluded that "It seems likely that social media is here
to stay and the key challenge for corporations is likely to be how they
integrate these new technologies into their existing media mix."
The survey was completed by 2,112 professional communicators (VPs,
directors and managers) working in internal and corporate communication.
Responses came from 41% in Europe, 32% in North America and 16% in Asia-
Pacific. Of these respondents, financial services sector accounted for 13%,
professional services 15%, government and public administration 12%,
technology 10%.
The survey forms part of Melcrum's ongoing research into trends and
best practice in corporate communication. The findings of this research
will be published in a forthcoming Melcrum report on social media in April.
Melcrum is a research and training business with offices in London and
Chicago. Founded in 1996 by Robin Crumby and Victoria Mellor, Melcrum has
customers in over 90 countries. Through its global networks, Melcrum
connects more than 18,000 professional communicators in sharing what works.
Definition of social media
For the purpose of this survey, social media was defined as:
The online technologies and practices that people use to share
opinions, insights, experiences and perspectives with each other.
A few prominent examples of social-media applications are Wikipedia
(reference), MySpace (social networking), YouTube (video sharing), Second
Life (virtual reality), Digg (news sharing), Flickr (photo sharing) and
Miniclip (game sharing). These sites typically use technologies such as
blogs, message boards, podcasts, wikis and vlogs to allow users to
interact.
Source: Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_media
SOURCE Melcrum
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Related links:
http://www.melcrum.com
http://www.melcrumblog.com
CONTACT:
Daniel Gregory of Melcrum Publishing, 020
8600 4670, daniel.gregory@melcrum.com; or European Office of
Melcrum Publishing Ltd., +44 (0)20 8600 4670, or Fax, +44 (0)20
8741 9975; or North American Office of Melcrum Publishing Ltd.,
+1-312-379-6500, or Fax, +1-312-527-4917, or info@melcrum.com
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