Social Media and Corporate Adoption MBA Survey - The Results
Transcript of Social Media and Corporate Adoption MBA Survey - The Results
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4.2 The identity of the survey respondents
In analysing the data, it is a good idea to start with the identity of the respondents
themselves. As suggested in chapter 3, respondents were given a choice by the
questionnaires very first question: to identify themselves in one of the following ways:
You are a social media consultant and/or involved in some capacity as a social mediaadvisor to your (or any other) organisation
You work for an organisation that to a greater or lesser extent uses social media as amarketing tool
If they ticked the first box, respondents were taken to a further 14 questions; if they ticked
the second, a further 20. This sorting device worked well as a reasonably even split
developed: 37 completed the first set of questions, 51 the second, a 42/58% balance. The
questionnaire asked for respondents to identify themselves by name and by company,
although it was stated that this information was preferred but not essential. Despite this,
90% gave their names and 88% provided their companys name.
The questionnaire aimed at organisations included more questions on the nature of those
organisations as this information was clearly instructive in terms of the research objectives.
4.2.1 The respondent organisations
The majority of the respondents were private companies based in the UK, although it should
be noted that there was an extremely healthy proportion of US respondents. This may at
first seem odd, given that this was a survey generated by a British student at a British
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university, but it should really be no surprise given the boundary-ignoring capability of social
media (or indeed that the two of the others were from New Zealand and Slovenia).
The pie chart showing the public/private split is best considered when placed next to the
data from the similar question in the consultants questionnaire. We can therefore
appreciate both the sectors worked in by organisations using social media marketing, and
the sectors worked in by the clients of social media consultants. Essentially, the two are the
same thing, although it could be argued that the clients of social media consultants have
potentially invested more seriously in social media in that they are actually paying an
outside agency to advise them on it. Interestingly though, the two pie charts are fairly
similar, and suggest that the majority of organisations using social media are in the private
sector.
UK57%
USA
35%
Other
8%
Figure 4.3:
Location of
organisations
using social
media
Respondents: Organisations
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Digging a bit deeper into the nature of the respondent organisations, the data demonstrates
that a majority provide services (46%) in a business-to-business context (46%), although
businesses targeting consumers do account for 35%. A range of sizes of companies are also
represented, everything from very small businesses to multinationals. The final chart shows
that out of 10 employment sectors represented, over a third were in the creative field. This
Public
16%
Private
84%
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.4:
Sector of
organisations
using social
media
Public
12%
Private
61%
Both public
and private
27%
Respondents: Consultants
Figure 4.5:
Type of
organisations
using social
media
consultants
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could to an extent be attributed to the types of person the author is following on Twitter,
and it may well be that this chart is more of interest as a footnote and that little significance
can justifiably be placed next to it.
The latter chart in this section (Figure 4.10) demonstrates the youth of this field, with 78%
of respondent organisations admitting to only having introduced social media within the last
two years.
Products
11%
Services
46%
Both
30%
Neither
13%
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.6:
What the
organisations
sell
Business-to-
business
46%Business-to-
consumer
35%
Other
19%
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.7:
Who the
organisations
are targeting
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01-10
24%
11-100
30%
101-500
16%
501-1,000
8%
1,001-10,00019%
Over 10,000
3%
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.8:
Size of
organisations
by number of
employees
11% 2%
3%
3%
21%
3%11%
5%3%
38%
Charity, voluntary or not-for-profit
Construction and property
Insurance
IT and telecoms
Leisure and tourism
Information
Technology/software
Public sector
Recruitment
Media, marketing, PR, digital and
creative
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.9:
Organisation
sector
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4.3 The usage of social media marketing
The first key set of data relates to the usage of social media technologies in a business
context. In this question, and indeed any question where the percentages do not add up to
100%, respondents were allowed to tick as many boxes as necessary. This was clearly
because organisations involved in social media tend to use a combination of technologies
and it would have been disingenuous to ask for just one or perhaps a preferred technology.
4.3.1 The technologies and sites being used by organisations
Figure 4.11 shows that the vast majority (94.6%) of organisations involved in social media
marketing are using social networks, the clear leader over blogging (67.6%) and video
(62.2%). This data is supported by Figure 4.12, which pinpoints social networking site
Facebook as the most popular social media site used by organisations, ahead of YouTube,
Twitter and LinkedIn, all some distance back with around 50%. This chart also amply
demonstrates the breadth of sites being used: of the 20 options given, only the Google-
Under a year
40%
1-2 years
38%
2-4 years
19%
5-9 years
3%
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.10:
Length of
time using
social media
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operated social networking site Orkut received no votes. Among the sites provided by those
respondents who ticked Other were Typepad, Zoom, Last.fm, Wikipedia, Pipl and Xing.
8.10%
21.60%
37.80%
40.50%
40.50%
48.60%
54.10%
62.20%
67.60%94.60%
Other
Wikis
Podcasts
Microblogging
Social bookmarking sites
RSS
Photos
Video
Blogging
Social networks
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.11: Social
media technologies
used by organisations
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4.3.2 The effectiveness of social media marketing sites
Both organisations and consultants were asked to quantify what they considered to be the
most effective social media sites from a return on investment perspective. This is of course a
highly subjective notion and is difficult to measure in any way scientifically. However
investment, whether determined in a financial or other resource sense, is a significant
determinant of social media usage and uptake and it was judged that this was a useful
question to ask.
As both sectors of the questionnaire contained this question, it is appropriate to merge the
charts and draw comparison between the two. Twitter was determined the most effective
0.00%
2.70%
2.70%
2.70%
5.40%
8.10%
16.20%
16.20%
18.90%
21.60%
21.60%
21.60%
27.00%
29.70%
29.70%
37.80%
54.10%
56.80%
56.80%
86.50%
Orkut
Squidoo
HubPages
Blogger
Yammer
Bebo
Slideshare
Ning
Other
Digg
Reddit
MySpace
StumbleUpon
Delicious
Wordpress
Flickr
LinkedIn
Twitter
YouTube
Facebook
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.12: Social
media sites used by
organisations as a
marketing tool
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by both organisations and consultants, with 40.5% and 54.9% respectively. Facebook and
LinkedIn also received a consistent show of approval from both sectors.
In terms of differences between the two, consultants found YouTube much more effective
than organisations (41.2% compared to 21.6%), and blogging platform Wordpress was
considered the third most effective by consultants with 35.3%, but only received 10.8% of
the organisations vote. A far greater spread of boxes were ticked in this category by the
consultants, 17 against 10 ticked by the organisations, which could be assigned to the
reasonable conclusion that consultants would be aware of more sites and generally more
knowledgeable about their usage. It is also interesting to note that over a third of consultant
respondents, 37.8%, decided that the answer depended on the industry.
Bebo
Blogger
Delicious
Depends
Digg
Facebook
Flickr
HubPages
LinkedIn
MySpace
Ning
Orkut
Other
Reddit
Slideshare
Squidoo
StumbleUpon
Twitter
Wordpress
Yammer
YouTube
Organisations
Consultants
Respondents: All
Figure 4.13: Most
effective social media
sites in terms of ROI
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4.3.3 The least effective social media marketing site
Figure 4.14 seeks to identify the least effective social media marketing sites, as determined
by the consultants. This question was left out of the organisations questionnaire as they
were not deemed in the best position to be able to answer it in any meaningful fashion.
Similarly to Figure 4.13, a sizeable proportion of the consultants (37.3%) determined that
the effectiveness of a site depended on the industry. In terms of specific sites, MySpace was
identified as the least effective, with 27.5%, followed by Facebook (17.6%), Orkut (15.7%)
and Bebo (13.7%).
17.60%
5.90%
7.80%
7.80%
2.00%
5.90%
9.80%
5.90%
0.00%
5.90%
0.00%
9.80%
5.90%
3.90%
5.90%
13.70%
15.70%
27.50%
37.30%11.80%
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flickr
Slideshare
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
YouTube
Yammer
WordpressNing
Squidoo
HubPages
Blogger
Bebo
Orkut
MySpace
Depends on the particular business or industry
Other
Respondents: Consultants
Figure 4.14: Worst
performing social media
sites in terms of ROI
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4.3.4 The sites that will grow and decrease in popularity over the
next 12 months
The consultants were asked for their verdicts on which sites would demonstrate the fastest
proportional growth, and the fastest proportional decrease, in business usage over the next
12 months. This could also be interpreted as an indication of effectiveness. Again the results
were merged (Figure 4.15). Twitter was again the clear leader, with 84.3%, followed by
YouTube (64.7%), Facebook (52.9%) and LinkedIn (51%). Facebook had the most mixed
response from the consultants, with 25.5% also predicting it would decrease in business
usage over the next 12 months, an interesting point considering Figure 4.12, which placed
Facebook well ahead in terms of actual usage. It was MySpace however that received the
biggest thumbs-down from the consultants, with 52.9% believing it would decrease in
business usage over the next year, against only 3.9% who thought it would grow. Other
notable trends include the resounding vote of confidence for Wordpress, with 45.1%
believing it would grow and no respondents at all suggesting it will decrease.
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4.3.5 The sites organisations intend to try for the first time over
the next 12 months
A further indication regarding the future direction of social media marketing can be seen
from Figure 4.16. In this instance, it should be noted that the answer Other drew such a
high proportion of responses chiefly because no option for none of the above or similar
was provided; this was probably an oversight. Of the 16 people who ticked Other, 11 said
that either they had not yet decided, or that they were not intending to try any of the sites
listed.
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% 70% 80% 90% 100%
Facebook
Twitter
LinkedIn
Flickr
Slideshare
Digg
Reddit
StumbleUpon
Delicious
YouTube
Yammer
Wordpress
Ning
Squidoo
HubPages
Blogger
Bebo
Orkut
MySpace
Other
None
Fastest growth
Fastest decrease
Figure 4.15: The social
media sites that will
grow and decrease the
most over the next 12
months
Respondents: Consultants
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4.4 The adoption of social media marketing
The remainder of the survey set out to discover the reasons and motivation behind the
adoption of social media marketing by organisations. It did this by investigating reasons for
non-adoption, initial motivation and primary benefits of usage, the effect on other
marketing channels, and the impact of the recession.
4.4.1 Reasons for not adopting social media marketing
Both sets of respondents were asked for the primary reason, in their experience, for
businesses deciding not to adopt social media as a marketing tool. In the case of
organisations, this is more likely have been interpreted to have meant other organisations
that they were aware of, and perhaps even reflected their own reasons before deciding to
3.90%
3.90%
5.90%
5.90%
11.80%
11.80%
15.70%
15.70%
15.70%
17.60%
23.50%45.10%
49.00%
80.40%
88.20%
Cymfony
Techrigy
Core Metrics
DoubleClick
Omniture
Yahoo Web Analytics
Blogpulse
Hubspot
BuzzMetrics
Blogsearch
OtherAny Twitter tool
Technorati
Google Alerts
Google Analytics
Respondents: Consultants
Figure 4.17: Tools
used to measure
performance
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use social media. In the case of the consultants, it is likely that their answers referred to a
wider group of organisations.
After merging the results, it is clear that the most popular reason for all respondents relates
to ignorance about the benefits social media might have. A total of 48.1% of organisations
and 45.1% of consultants cited this as the key reason. Interestingly, many more
organisations pointed to nervousness of the consequences of getting involved (21.6%
compared to 5.9% of the consultants). The consultants also provided a long list of Other
reasons not provided by the questionnaire. These included:
Lack of measurability Too time-consuming Inadequate resources Reluctance of management to change
Nervousness about its potential consequences
Ignorance about its potential benefits
Belief that it was not appropriate for theirindustry
Unsatisfactory previous experience
Concentration on other marketing channels
Other
Organisations
Consultants
Figure 4.18: Reasons
for not adopting social
media marketing
Respondents: All
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4.4.2 Initial motivation for the organisations adopting social
media marketing
This sought to identify the reasons behind the respondent organisations decision to use to
social media marketing, a decision that according to Figure 4.10 was most likely taken within
the last two years. This focused in on the reasons why an organisation would use social
media as a marketing tool, not in this instance for any other reason, such as increasing
productivity or collaboration. The data shows that almost a third of organisations, 29.7%,
initiated social media marketing as a way of increasing awareness of their business within
the marketplace. The second most popular reason was increased lead generation and/or
profitability.
4.4.3 Direct benefits of using social media marketing
Where Figure 4.19 concentrated on the motivation behind initially using social media
marketing, Figure 4.20 looks at what has actually happened whether that motivation has
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
0.00%
5.40%
8.10%
8.10%
13.50%
13.50%21.60%
29.70%
To increase the relevancy of the website traffic
To improve search rankings for your keywords
To increase RSS subscribers
To improve internal communications
To improve understanding of company's reputation
To reach a particular market segment
Other
To increase website traffic
To improve networking/engagement with customersTo increase lead generation and/or profitability
To increase awareness of business within market
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.19:
Initial motivation
for investing in
social media
marketing
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materialised into tangible benefits. Both sets of respondents were asked for this
information, so the consultants will clearly be talking about the benefits experienced by
their client base.
Although a number of organisations said it was too early to identify clear benefits (note that
none of the consultants ticked that particular box, probably because they could draw from a
wider field of experiences with their clients), their responses demonstrate greater variety
than Figure 4.19. Increased awareness within the marketplace is again highlighted, but by a
smaller majority than Figure 4.19 and there is now a greater variety of other reasons.
There are two clear benefits to social media marketing according to the consultants: an
increased awareness of your business (31.4%) and improved networking or engagement
with customers (33.3%).
Increased awareness of your business within market
Increased lead generation and/or profitability
Increased website traffic
Increased relevancy of website traffic
Improved search rankings for your target keywords
Increased RSS subscribers
Improved networking/engagement with customers
Better internal communications
It's too early to tell
Other
Organisations
Consultants
Respondents: All
Figure 4.20: Primary
benefits of using social
media marketing
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4.4.4 The effect of social media marketing adoption on other
media channels
This question was designed to elicit some indication of whether social media is adding to the
marketing spectrum or, rather, replacing more established techniques and channels. The
data shows that although 37.8% of organisations are choosing simply to add social media to
their armoury, the remaining majority are cutting back in other ways in order to facilitate
the new style of marketing. The main losers are direct mail and print advertising, with 18.9%
each, but no other form of marketing is remaining unscathed.
4.4.5 The impact of the recession
Both sets of respondents are unanimous in their opinion that the recession is going to have
a positive effect on social media marketing (Figure 4.22). A total of 91.9% of the
organisations, alongside 84.3% of the consultants, believed it would have a directeffect on
the new channels popularity.
18.90%
10.80%
10.80%
18.90%
13.50%
5.40%37.80%
13.50%
Print advertising
Television/radio advertising
Trade shows and/or exhibitions
Direct mail
Untargeted email marketing
Cold calling
None of the above
Other
Respondents: Organisations
Figure 4.21: Cut
back in marketing
channels as a
result of social
media investment
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Asked to expand on the reasons for this in the only joint question of the survey, 41.6%
pointed to its cost-effectiveness, with the declining effectiveness of other marketing
channels claiming 19.5% as the second most popular explanation.
It will decrease in popularity
No, the recession won't affect it
Yes
Organisations
Consultants
Figure 4.22: Will the
recession increase
popularity of social
media marketing?
Respondents: Organisations and Consultants
6.50%
7.80%
10.40%
14.30%
19.50%
41.60%
Its measurability
Other
All the hype surrounding it currently
Its ability to generate new leads and customers
The declining effectiveness of other marketing
channels
Its cost-effectiveness
Respondents: All
Figure 4.23: Reasons
for SMM benefitting
from a recession