There’s an interesting report out on trends in social media among American businesses. The Gilbane Group’s Collaboration and Social Media-2008 research stems from a survey of senior marketing executives and their direct reports at medium to large companies in 17 industries across the U.S.
There is much for discussion here, but let me focus on these findings:
- 21% of those marketers surveyed listen to podcasts
- 16% rely on RSS feeds
- 14% are using social networks
Those numbers seem low to me. Either they’re very busy people, or, just not getting connected quite yet. I understand the podcast percentage – podcasts are convenient but you still have to spend time to take them in – but marketers should be using RSS feeds to stay on top of news in their industry. And, I would have expected social network participation to also be higher among this group.
In any case, this rather extensive report also asked the respondents about their plans for social media in 2008:
- 12% plan to start podcasting this year
- 13% plan to start business blogs this year
Speaking of blogging, the most common reason cited for a business blog is to seek feedback from customers as a way of forming a chain of ideas. 46% of business blogs are external. 39% are internal only.
The report identifies five trends in social media that are solving business problems:
- The growing appetite for innovative technologies
- The focus on vertical solutions
- The restrained role for IT
- The advent of rich media
- The importance of building communities
An interesting report, worth reading to digest some really useful trends in social media in business.
