Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals
Santa Monica, California (PRESS RELEASE – November 8, 2009) – Business.com — the Web’s leading ally for busy people interested in making more informed and effective business purchasing decisions – unveiled today results of its 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study. Based on insights from 2,948 professionals across North America, the study provides extensive information on how businesses and business people use social media in the workplace.
Key survey findings include:
- Webinars and podcasts are top social media resources for business professionals, used by 69% of those who turn to social media channels for business information.
- Facebook is the dominant social network on which consumer-focused companies maintain one or more profiles, cited by 83% of respondents versus 45% for Twitter. Business-to-business (B2B) companies, however, maintain a presence on both platforms with 77% maintaining a profile on Facebook and 73% on Twitter.
- Current trends to restrict access to social networks like Facebook or Twitter at work need to be re-thought in light of the business value in such activity.
- Among respondents using social media for business purposes in their day-to-day jobs, 62% visit company or brand profiles on social networking sites and 55% search for business information on these sites.
- Consultants and marketing communications professionals are the most active users of social media as a resource for business information, particularly in micro (<10 employees) and small businesses (10-99 employees). IT professionals have the lowest participation rate.
- Both companies and employees are scaling a massive learning curve with social media.
- The average company in this study was planning, developing or running seven different social media initiatives; 65% of respondents staffing those initiatives, and 71% of companies themselves, have less than two years of experience with social media for business.
- Building brand awareness and brand reputation are two of the top social media success metrics, but nearly two-thirds of companies focused on these metrics have little to no insight into performance via standard or easily accessible reports.
“We are constantly analyzing trends to determine exactly what tools business professionals leverage most for purchasing,” said Ben Hanna, Ph.D., vice president, marketing, Business.com. “This survey was a way for us to benchmark where businesses, and business people, are finding value in social media in order to further enhance our site offerings and better serve our users.”
The study also delved into business participation on, and attitudes toward, Q&A sites to support development of the company’s new offering, Business.com Answers (http://answers.business.com/). Business.com Answers is an online resource where users ask questions about business challenges, products or services and receive high quality advice from experienced industry colleagues.
The survey was conducted online from August 11 to September 4, 2009. 2,948 unique respondents from the United States or Canada currently using social media as part of their normal work routine (e.g., read blogs, use Twitter to find business-related information, etc.) and/or work for a company involved in social media initiatives participated in the study. A copy of the complete study can be downloaded from http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study.
All questions about social media usage and specific results to the survey can be broken-out by one or more of the respondent profile dimensions. Contact Jonathan Cutler (jonathan@verseinc.com) for more information or to request a custom analysis.
About Business.com
Business.com (http://www.business.com), a wholly owned subsidiary of R.H. Donnelley Corporation, is the Web’s leading ally for busy people interested in making more informed, more effective business purchasing decisions. The site has more than 8 million unique visitors per month and the company maintains a strong presence in the emerging world of B2B social media through Twitter, blogging and the recently launched Business.com Answers. The Business.com site directly connects B2B advertisers with active business buyers searching for products and services across all stages of the purchasing process.
| Company: | Business.com |
| Company URL: | http://www.business.com/info/business-social-media-benchmark-study |
Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals http://bit.ly/48mHKw
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RT @smallbiztrends2: Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals http://bit.ly/48mHKw
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Study of #SocialMedia Used By Business #Professionals http://bit.ly/2EQQom B2C company => 83% FB & 45% Twitter / B2B => 77% FB & 73% Twitter
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This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @smallbiztrends: Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @smallbiztrends Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @smallbiztrends: Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
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Intersting article. Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
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RT @smallbiztrends: Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
This comment was originally posted on Twitter
RT @smallbiztrends: Large Study of Social Media Used By Business Professionals – interesting release: http://bit.ly/48mHKw
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I’m not surprised by the lower adoption rates amongst B2C companies. B2B usually entails a larger average ticket price, so you need fewer successes to justify the resources. I would be interested to know how the adoption rate relates to something like average sale price.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
Thanks for the statistics
One of the issues in small business is the lack of time to even socialize at any level.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
Thanks for the stats, they’ll definitely come in handy.
Most of the stats are not overly surprising. Larger companies have the bandwith to allow someone to monitor social media. I know Vodafone in Ireland monitor Twitter for disgruntled customers and openly relay the problem to their customer support team to find a resolution. Everyone wins in that scenario. This is not a weapon large companies had in their armoury a few years ago.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
Still somewhat of the wild west with social media… Lots of participants coming and going as the venue gets tested, tweaked and figured out. Still best to pick your spots and stay at it.
Loved Andee’s comment about tough to solialize at any level…
Cheers, Grant
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
I enjoyed this article & some of the comments greatly. We are just starting to see how powerful social media can be for businesses of any size. One thing besides obtaining knowledge of how social media can be used effectively through studying successful use cases etc. is availability of powerful tools to monitor and act immediately upon data found within social media. TipTop at http://FeelTipTop.com is one such tool that I believe everyone can leverage for their business objectives.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
Interesting that the much-hyped Xing business network doesn’t get a look-in. Not that I’d expect it to mind you, but it’s definitely a sign of LinkedIn’s domination in the space.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
Good article. Any data like this helps me understand trends and the importance of community building.
Thanks
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends
I think that the small businesses will be able to utilize social media due to the closeness to the local market place. It will take some time before many of the small business owners have implemented due to the time factor, priority issues and lack of resources.
This comment was originally posted on Small Business Trends