Marketplace Today Blog

In May, MarketingSavant and the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce conducted a comprehensive survey on the state of social media marketing in Northeast Wisconsin, the first attempt at a comprehensive public survey to gather usage data and to determine the importance of social media to the business community of Northeast Wisconsin.

The results overwhelmingly pointed to the fact that social media marketing is here to stay in Northeast Wisconsin. All survey respondents indicated they believe social media has a place in the business world. In addition, 87 percent of respondents claimed awareness of the social media vehicles discussed in the survey and 69 percent of companies are using some form of social media in their organization today.

The adoption of social media by Northeast Wisconsin companies rivals the adoption rates reported in similar surveys of Inc. 500 companies and surpasses that of most Fortune 500 companies. “It’s apparent we’ve moved behind the ‘fad’ or ‘nice-to-have’ stage of social media adoption in the area,” said Dana VanDen Heuvel of MarketingSavant, co-creator of the survey.

Not surprisingly, 89 percent of respondents state they use social media at least sometimes to communicate with others. Nearly 83 percent said they use social media to market their business.

Of the social media marketing tools and technologies available, survey respondents indicated that they were most familiar with text messaging, Facebook and blogs, while they were least familiar with online virtual worlds like Second Life.

On the usage forefront, 91.1 percent reported using social networking sites, such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace, while 43.8 percent reported using Twitter and microblogs. While 48 percent of businesses report they have experienced and implemented no changes to their business as a result of engaging in social media, 89 percent intend to include social media in their future marketing plans.

Of those who indicated they will begin using social media in their businesses, 53 percent indicated they anticipate doing so this year and the remaining 47 percent by the end of 2010.

Respondents see the top business benefits of social media to be brand-building at 82 percent, its low-cost structure at 81 percent and the ability to communicate directly with customers at 70 percent.

On the opposite end of the spectrum in the survey are those 30 percent who feel that social media’s greatest benefit is the “credibility of the crowd” or “third party credibility” that it brings.

Other reasons companies use social media:

• 70 percent believe it’s beneficial for direct customer communications.
• 65 percent cite its reach.
• 61 percent cite learning customer preferences.
• 59 percent use market research.
• 57 percent credit the speed of feedback/results
• 54 percent use customer service.
• 49 percent use lead generation.

Of respondents, one in three reported gaining customers through the use of social media, while one-third also reported that a customer had encouraged them to get involved in social media for the organization.

Employers expressed mixed feelings about “non-company” social media use, which may include commenting on a newspaper article about the company, participating in an industry discussion group, blogging on an industry blog or setting up a Twitter account for corporate use. Twenty-seven percent of companies surveyed reported to have either some general or specific guidelines on social media and nearly one-third reported the organization knows nothing about ongoing social media activity. This exposes an opportunity for organizations to create guidelines, education their teams about social media and deepen corporate involvement in social media governance.

“Companies continue to be challenged with the implications of participating in social media without training, policies or structure,” said Paul Jadin, president of the Green Bay Area Chamber of Commerce. “It’s much like what we experienced when the Internet first entered the business realm.”

One-hundred twenty people completed the survey, primarily in the business-to-business segment vs. business-to-consumer. Fifty-five percent of respondents work at firms with fewer than 100 people. Respondents were split among B2B (36 percent), B2C (28 percent and nonprofits (27 percent). Thirty-two percent of respondents consider themselves beginners in regard to their social media skill level; another 28 percent consider themselves advanced beginners.