By Beth J. Bates, New Media Special Correspondent
In September, 200 CEOs participated in a survey by Burson-Marstellar regarding their participation in professional and personal social media networking. The survey revealed that 43% of executives use some sort of social platform such as Facebook, MySpace and Twitter for personal engagement on a regular basis (at least a few times per week). However, only 18% use social media to engage stakeholders.
- While 50% of executives feel that industry blogs are more influential today than three years ago, 60% think that word of mouth is still the most effective means of communication.
- Although only 18% of CEOs polled use social media to connect with stakeholders, 78% of these executives are communicating through Facebook.
- An equal number of participants feel that social media is extremely effective vs. ineffective.
- 62% of executives believe that social media has an impact on their company’s overall reputation, while 37% are concerned about losing control of the message.
- 45% of executives cite that a serious barrier to leading social media participation is lack of relevance to target stakeholders.
Results like these show that while there is still hesitation over the corporate use of social media, attitudes are slowly changing. As CEOs become more familiar and comfortable with the technology — a barrier three years ago — more and more of them are eager to understand how to put social media to work in their businesses. As early adopters prove success and standards for measuring success are solidified, social media is expected to become an accepted form of marketing for most corporations.
Beth J. Bates is a freelance social media strategist. Beth consults with Hinge on social media tool selection and strategy and helps its clients find effective ways to leverage these new mediums to meet business goals.
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