{grow} » Research shows fastest-growing businesses pile on to the social web

Feb 17 2010

Research shows fastest-growing businesses pile on to the social web

A brand new study from the University of Massachusetts Center for Marketing Research compares adoption of social media over three years (2007-2009) by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies.

In 2007, the Center’s first study of this group was released and revealed that the Inc. 500 was outpacing the Fortune 500 companies in their use of social media. For example, 8 percent of the Fortune 500 companies were blogging compared to 19 percent of the Inc. 500. This difference accelerated in 2008 with 16 percent of the Fortune 500 blogging vs. 39 percent of the Inc. 500. And in 2009, it was 45 percent versus 22 percent fo the Big Boys.

This research shows that social media has penetrated this part of the business world with tremendous speed:

Not just for customers and employees – As the graph above depicts, many companies are using the social platforms to connect to other stakeholders such as vendors and business partners. This was a new question for 2009 and the first time I have seen this kind of data. Interesting!

Social media marketing has been “successful” – When asked if the use of social media has been successful for their business, the overwhelming response is that it has. Twitter users report an 82% success rate while every other tool studied enjoys at least an 87% success level. Measuring success was investigated and most respondents report using hits, comments, leads or sales as primary indicators.

Policy use still low – 61 percent of the respondents did NOT have a corporate social media policy

Importance and adoption — When queried on the importance of social media, 44% of respondents felt that social media is “very important” to their business and marketing strategy, up from 26 percent. And a walloping 91 percent of the Inc. 500 is using at least one social media tool in 2009 (up from 77 percent in 2008).

Monitoring gains – 68 percent of the companies formally monitor company and brand information on the social web. That number is up from 60% in 2008 and 50% just two years ago.

Further immersion – The companies clearly intend to continue immersing themselves in these tools. 44 percent of those without corporate blogs intend to have one. 27 percent of respondents who do not currently have a business presence on Twitter plan to move into that space.

Social networking leads – The technology that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 75 percent of respondents in 2009 claiming to be “very familiar with it” (compared to 57 percent in 2008). Another noteworthy statistic around familiarity is Twitter’s amazing “share of mind” with 62 percent of executives reported being familiar with the new microblogging and social networking platform.

Adoption curves for social media technologies vary – Interestingly, while social networking and blogging have enjoyed growth in actual adoption, the use of message boards, online video, wikis and podcasting has leveled off or even declined. The addition of Twitter for the first time in the latest study shows that an amazing 52 percent of the Inc. 500 companies are already using this tool for business.

What stands out for you in this research? Any big surprises? Or is it ALL a surprise? : )

Many thanks to the authors of this study, Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, and Eric Mattson.

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Filed in best practices, blogging, business strategy, research | Mark

15 Comments

By Jon Buscall, February 17, 2010 @ 12:39 am

Very interesting. The figures for the growth of blogs and Twitter are quite impressive. I’m not too sure about the figures for social media being successful but it depends on how you actually term success (or ROI).

No sign of video taking off. It’s amazing really given the ease in which anyone can post video content now but I wonder if it isn’t just them worried about producing quality content rather than lack of technological no how.
By Mark, February 17, 2010 @ 7:05 am

@Jon — I agree on your point about defining “success.” Lumping “page views” and “sales leads” in the same category seems to be a weak point in the study. I am also puzzled that video has flat-lined.
By Jody Pirrello, February 17, 2010 @ 8:26 am

Thanks for sharing – I had missed this study.

Like Jon and yourself, I agree that measurement continues to be the weak link.

A couple other observations/predictions:

- Given how bullish people are on blogging (44% plan to begin blogging this year) compared with the effort to maintain a blog (very high), I’d expect the number using blogging (or, at least, using blogging *well*)to go down in next year’s study. Reference Marketing Sherpa’s Effort vs Effectiveness chart here http://www.marketingexperiments.com/blog/general/social-media-marketing-using-data-and-metrics.html
- I found the answers to “how important is social for your biz/mktg?” question interesting – “very important” lost 1% and “somewhat unimportant” gained 4%. Can’t help but think measurement is related to these numbers. How can you “know” that something is working and has an impact if you can’t quantify it?
By Mark, February 17, 2010 @ 9:38 am

@Jody Brilliant observations and predictions. I think the blogging bubble has to burst at some point and maybe we will start to see this show up in the data, too. Thanks for making these connections for the {grow} community!
By Lisa Foote, February 17, 2010 @ 10:35 am

Great post, Mark. Marry this data to Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s comments at World Mobile Congress this week and you get a 3D view of the future. http://bit.ly/d7IpNu

Just a few recent data points on convergence of social + mobile illustrate the monster growth rate: Facebook use over mobile up 600% in 2009; unique Facebook users via mobile rose from 65mm Sept 2009 to 100mm Feb 2010 (over 200% growth annualized).

While this change will challenge those already using social media to adapt quickly to mobile and realtime, it will put those still sitting on the social media sidelines today further and further behind every month.
By Mark W Schaefer, February 17, 2010 @ 1:26 pm

@Lisa. You rock. Great contribution to the community! We really need to hit the whole mobile subject more.
By Jon Buscall, February 17, 2010 @ 1:38 pm

@Jody & @Mark
Great point about the blogging bubble potentially bursting. Before it got going in some places, too!

I think it comes back to the slow burn of a blog. You can’t just jump on in and get an instant readership (unless you’re super lucky and talented) and interested community. Microblogging allows you to monitor and interact more readily.

There’s a great slideshare on Corporate blogs being a dying fad http://www.slideshare.net/3wpr/corporate-blogging-a-dying-fad
By Jayme Soulati, February 17, 2010 @ 3:57 pm

I’m thrilled you’ve provided this info. I continue to get naysayers amongst colleagues, and there’s no better way to show the proof than in the pudding. Thanks, Mark.
By Mark, February 17, 2010 @ 7:46 pm

@Jon — Wonderful document to share with the group. Thanks!

@Jayme — It is a battle, isn’t it? i gave a presentation today and summed it up by saying “deal with it!” Meaning, you just can’t ignore what’s going on.
By Mark, February 17, 2010 @ 8:40 pm

Jon and all — Interesting — I’ve had some time to look at this link carefully and the “dying blog” presentation is actually a misnomer — it presents a balanced view but actually seems to support the future of corporate blogging. I’m not so sure.
By steve dodd, February 17, 2010 @ 10:06 pm

There is no question the corporate world is starting to pay attention. What I’d really like to know is what kinds of decisions have been made base on their use / findings and what the results of those decisions were.
By Jon Buscall, February 18, 2010 @ 2:08 am

@Mark – Re “dying blog”. Think you’re right. It is a misnomer.

Clearly there’s a lot of thoughts flying around at the moment regarding the future of business blogging. My feeling is that businesses are increasingly wary of blogs because of the attraction of Facebook right now. Blogs seem so much more hard work, is the kind of comment I’m getting back.

I just talked with a company who decided to go solely with a Facebook Fan Page.

They felt a blog would be too much hassle, too much work. They identified that their audience was on Facebook and that was enough for them.

I’m naturally more cautious.

My fear is that with this kind of approach a business risks being at the mercy of Facebook. By this I mean that if they put their resources into solely building a tribe there, what happens when (or If) Facebook loses energy and the community goes elsewhere?

You’ve spent all your time building Facebook’s value instead of your own content marketing site.

From the work I’ve done, I truly believe you need to be directing traffic on some level back to a corporate blog because you have more control of that.