Corporate Usage of Social Media

I recently read a couple of interesting reports on marketing trends. Both of these review how companies are adopting social media (Twitter, Blogs, Video, Wiki etc.) to communicate with their customers.

A number of points from the reports caught my eye...

  • Familiarity - In 2009 75% of respondents claimed to be 'very familiar' with social networking tools (up from 47% in 2007). The graph below shows familiarity with various social media tools.

    • Graph

    (Source: Center for marketing Research, University of Massachusetts)


  • Twitter goes mainstream - No surprise that Twitter has entered the tool set as one of the most used / known about tools. Twitter, the micro-blogging site, has seen a huge rise in popularity, and has entered into main stream with 62% stating familiarity.
  • Social media success - Those polled overwhelmingly responded that using social media has resulted in positive results, reporting an increase in hit rates, comments, leads or sales.
  • Website evolve - Business website have changed. Initially brochure ware sites they have evolved into site to engage an audience and potential customers.
  • Content is king - I love the phrase 'Publishing is every organisations second business'. This is born out by the statistic that 'Ninety percent of HP's customers buy without ever touching the product' (Gilbane). Photographers need to create interesting content that engages with potential new customers.

Of course adoption of social media can be time consuming, and easier for large organisations who can redirect resources from traditional marketing to support new social media initiatives. But for small business, with limited resources, it may be harder to develop and implement a new successful social media strategy. But failing to do so may result in lost business.

Let me know how you are using social media, what tools you are using and is it working for you?

- Paul Hampton

You should follow me on Twitter here

Both of these reports are accessible from the web, so download (links below) and take a look.

Social Media in the 2009 Inc. 500: New Tool and New Trends
Lessons for Digital Marketers