Study Suggests Social Media Revolution

The results prove that social media is coming to the business world at a faster rate than many anticipated. It was undertaken “to see if there was a difference in the knowledge and usage of social media in companies selected by growth rate rather than revenue.”

Respondents were from Inc. Magazine’s Inc. 500, a list of the U.S’s fastest-growing private companies. The report surveyed marketer’s familiarity with six prominent social media (message boards, blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, wikis), and the importance they placed on its inclusion in their marketing strategy, along with which they were currently using.

Of the 121 Inc. 500 respondents, 66 percent felt that social media was “somewhat important” or “very important”.

Social networking was one of the most recognized of the six choices of social media at 42 percent, followed by message boards with 38 percent. Despite that, message boards were being used the most, 33 percent, and not social networking which was being used by just 27 percent. The difference in usage may correspond to a relative lack of knowledge of implementation of social media, whereas message boards are now becoming the norm.

In the past few years, many social media sites have become huge hits with users. Flickr is a premier photo sharing site and del.icio.us has become a major hub for sharing website recommendations. Both Google and Yahoo have purchased social networking sites and many more companies, such as Disney.com and Time Magazine, have revamped their websites to include social networking capabilities.

“The hype is real,” states the executive summary. “The social media revolution is coming to the business world.”

Tags: social media