Social media is changing the business world as more executives use it to improve the operations, marketability and profitability of their companies, according to an annual survey conducted jointly by MIT Sloan Management Review and Deloitte.
More than 4,300 executives, managers and analysts around the world participated in the survey, representing 109 countries and 26 industries and organizations of different sizes.
About 73% of respondents said “social business” is important or somewhat important to their companies, a 20% increase in positive responses from the first survey conducted in 2011.
Looking three years into the future, about 90% of survey respondents assigned importance to the impact of social business.
Social business is defined more broadly than social media, which includes Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. It also is social software, such as instant messaging, blogs and wikis, and technology-based social networks, such as employee and community forums.
Social media has often been relegated to marketing departments in the past. Some company managers saw social media as a distraction for employees who spent too much time checking Facebook and tweeting.
However, the survey showed that the potential of social business is being rethought as executives see data accumulations and anecdotal evidence demonstrating social media’s importance in communication and its impact on decision-making.
Through monitoring social media conversations, for instance, T-Mobile reached the conclusion that cell phone customers were sick of long-term contracts. The company took the unexpected step of tossing out contracts and saw its business pick-up.
The survey also found that 68% of businesses believe social media positively impacts connections with consumers.
Conversely, about 60% of respondents also reported growing reliance on social media in business to business relationships.
The survey also shows more types of industries are reexamining uses for social business. Previously technology, entertainment and telecommunications were its strongest proponents. Now energy, utilities, consumer finance and banking are getting involved with social business.
Human resource managers may want to take note. About 57% of respondents, ages 22 to 52, say a company’s use of social media plays a role when they choose their employers.
Though more business are using social, some barriers remain. Too many companies have competing priorities and lack an overall social business strategy.
One important barrier is falling away, however. In 2011 most company mangers reported they did not measure the value of social business. Today there is increasing use of traffic measurements and specific data to show the value of using social business.
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