Communication agency Leads United, today presented the results of its third annual social media survey.
The company questioned 70 communication professionals and marketing managers from a variety of sectors (business and government). This year’s results show that social media can no longer be ignored by companies.

57% of the communication professionals use at least one form of social media for their company. Another 14% intend to go on the same path. Online social networks scored the highest (57% use Facebook), followed by microblogs (34% use Twitter), and videocasts (29% use YouTube). Social media can bring unmistakable benefits to companies, if used in an efficient manner, the researchers say. “Companies have great interest in their communication professional’s access to social media, as well as their knowledge on how to use them”.
 

Two out of three have access to all tools

The results show that 64% of the communication professionals have access to all social media tools. 77% have access to online social networks like Facebook and LinkedIn. Other social media tools like (micro) blogs and videocasts are frequently accessed in many cases as well. Fortunately, it seems that companies do not massively block the access to social media for their communication managers.

71% don’t have a social media policy

29% of the companies have their own social media policy. This is an increase of 12% in comparison to 2008. Still, most companies haven’t written down rules regarding the usage of social media by their own employees. Yet this is being advised, since the majority of employees (63%) are able to use social media at their workplace for private means. A clearly marked social media policy avoids misunderstandings, and might prevent negative attention for the company.

69% does not monitor what is being written about their brand

Only 11% of all communication professionals use social media for crisis communication. 31% of the communication professionals use social media as a monitoring tool to find out about the comments on the company. Companies that neglect this often don’t know what is being said about them in social media.

23% of all communication professionals start conversations with their target groups through social media. 4% are planning to do so. Thanks to efficient monitoring, a company is able to know how it is perceived. When the communication professional starts a discussion through social media, the company can respond to it. That way, it is possible to change directions if necessary to avoid a crisis.

Source: press release Leads United.