Technology, Web 2.0 and Beyond

Este es un estudio conducido por la Universidad de Massachusetts por el Center for Marketing Reseach; este es un interesante estudio que realizaron a las Inc.500 en el 2007 y ahora en el 2008, donde compararon los datos obtenidos.

Source

Social Media Familiarity in the Business World

To begin, respondents were asked to rank their familiarity with each technology from "very familiar" to "very unfamiliar."

The social media that was most familiar to the Inc. 500 in both studies is social networking with 42% of respondents claiming to be "very familiar with it" in 2007 and 57% in 2008. However, as the graph below shows, across the board a significant percentage of the companies are "very familiar" with each of these technologies.

In the 2007 study wikis were the least familiar to the Inc. 500, but in 2008 wikis jumped ahead of podcasting in familiarity.

The social media that continues to be the most familiar to the Inc. 500 is social networking with 57% of respondents in 2008 claiming to be "very familiar with it" (compared to 42% in 2007). Familiarity is related to usage. It is interesting to note, however, that even those forms of social media less familiar to the participants are still used by at least 20% of them.

Social Media in the US Corporate World: From Familiarity to Adoption

From familiarity, the survey moved into the companies’ actual usage of social media.

The companies were asked in 2007 and again in 2008 if they were using the six social media discussed above and, if yes, for how long they had been using them.

Again, the results are surprising.

a) While familiarity is related to adoption, even the least familiar media has 21% adoption (podcasting).

b) All six forms of social media have enjoyed growth in the adoption of these tools with an amazing 77% of the Inc. 500 reporting use of at least some social media tool.

Social Media in the US Corporate World: Acknowledgment of Strategic Role

Not only is this widespread adoption being driven by strong familiarity but also from the recognized critical role of social media to a company’s future success in today’s online world.

When queried on the importance of social media, 26% of respondents in 2007 felt that social media is "very important" to their business and marketing strategy. That figure rose to 44% in approximately one year. It is clear that this group of fast-growing companies considers the use of social media as a central part of its strategic plan.

Saludos

Ferglo