The state of Corporate Social Media in 2011 [Stats]

Never before has the term ‘theatre of public opinion’ been so applicable – with the growth of social media, companies are constantly in the spotlight. Twitter, Facebook and other platforms have changed the way that businesses communicate, market their brand messages and engage with their consumers – this is old hat now, we are already (or should be) socially aware!

It’s common to see brands with hundreds of thousands of followers and friends – clearly the chance for interaction has never been greater. Yet in a recent Twitter survey, 53% of corporate accounts did not ‘humanise’ their brand, 68% had less than 1,000 followers, and 15% were completely inactive – hardly an example of social media best practice!

Social media has many powers – to engage, alienate, create mistrust and make us customers for life who will continue to be brand ambassadors for as long as companies value our relationship. A pretty empowering marketing tool then……and therefore it’s rather unsurprising that corporate take-up has been so significant!

79 out of the Fortune 100 are using social media as major channel for their marketing and communications
88% of surveyed US companies say that their budget will increase for social media in 2011

But is there more to come from corporate social media adoption? Will 2011 show us new, innovative ways companies can leverage its power to improve their business? Will brands continue to take social media seriously?

In my opinion the answer to all of the above questions is an emphatic ‘yes’ – and I would expect you share that view. It’s a view backed up by a recent survey carried out by the team here at Useful Social Media. Of US companies surveyed in 2011, 100% said that they were placing an increasing importance on social media as a marketing tool.

And social media as simply a marketing tool is only the start. The survey results indicate 2011 will be an interesting year! Although we can’t predict the future, we have been able to make some educated guesses on how corporate social media will change and evolve over the next twelve months.

The briefing written about our survey results is called ‘The State of Corporate Social Media in 2011’. Our aim in producing the document was to put together solid facts and statistics on corporate social media adoption; along with information on how this adoption will evolve. The briefing covers:

• How large business organises social media expertise within their organisation

• Current and predicted budget levels for social media

• The development from social media as a marketing tool to its broader role within business

• An investigation into the differences in corporate social media between Europe and the USA

To get your copy of the briefing click here.

Is your corporate business making best use of the social media channel? What challenges are you facing, tell us in the comments below and let’s see if we can all help.

Thanks to Harry Rollason from usefulsocialmedia.com for this guest post and great stats. Check their site for further insight and data.