Social media becomes strategically important for US and global businesses

Businesses in the US and worldwide are undergoing a gradual transition from presentingthemselves on social platforms to strategic engagement in social media which supports business

Conducted in cooperation with global communications firm Ketchum, FedEx’s second Social MediaBenchmarking Study analyses the changing impact of social media on business today. It updates andexpands the findings of the first study it released in 2010.

As part of the research, 55 communications and marketing executives in the US and worldwide havecompleted quantitative surveys, while detailed qualitative interviews were conducted with 30communications and social media thought leaders. These business executives believe that to have astrong framework for supporting the needs of customers and the general public online, using socialmedia is the most effective way to promote brand awareness and reputation.

According to the survey, these companies believe social media is particularly effective atstrengthening relationships among customers (51%), the general public (52%), as well as partnersand suppliers (40%). They are also increasingly enhancing communication with employees via bothexternal social tools and improved social functionality of internal platforms such as companyintranets.

Bill Margaritis, senior vice president of global communications and investor relations at FedEx,commented: “The rise of social media is both the biggest business communications challenge andopportunity in decades. Our survey provides a dynamic look at how business is evolving andexpanding its social platform use, what’s working so far, and what might be next. Younger audiencesin particular expect to interact with businesses this way; businesses building for the long-termwill benefit by learning from our findings.”

In 2010, about half of the study participants were focused on improving their intranets andexpressed an interest in redesigning them to include greater social media capabilities. The resultsof the recent 2012 study showed, however, that companies are increasingly encouraging employees toown social media efforts and act as confident and active ambassadors for the organisation.

Around 85% of the companies using social media to engage employees reported that employeeparticipation in their organisation’s social business efforts increased over the past 12 months.These companies believe they are effectively using these strategies to strengthen relationships(46%), share and tap into expertise (44%), foster collaboration, dialogue and discussion (44%) andincrease participation in a programme or an initiative (38%).

Generally speaking, social business is also driving organisations to become more adaptive tomarketplace needs as they use social tools to listen to their stakeholders and respond by providingthem with the content they want to receive in the channels they want to receive it in, the studyrevealed.

A significant factor in the evolution of social business can also be attributed to executiveleadership having a better understanding of how social media is a necessary component for businesssuccess. Seven in 10 of these companies with some executive engagement in social media say theirexecutives believe engagement in social media adds value through brand or reputation building. Onequarter of these companies report their executives have a high level of engagement in socialbusiness in their organisation.

Confirming the trend toward social media awareness, Canadian companies also consider engaging insocial media crucial and necessary, providing a competitive advantage and business opportunities,according to the latest survey by UPS Canada.