Inc. 500 Social Media Use: Facebook, Twitter Up; Blogging Down
Facebook and LinkedIn are now the most popular and most effective social media tools among the nation's fastest-growing private companies, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, Center for Marketing Research, under the direction of researcher Nora Ganim Barnes, PhD.
Meanwhile, the number of Inc. 500 businesses that publish a corporate blog has fallen over the past year, the study found, as companies appear to be shifting away from maturing tools (e.g., blogs, message/bulletin boards, online video, and podcasting) toward popular platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, and Foursquare.
Key social media-related findings among companies listed on the 2011 Inc. 500, according to the study:
- Facebook and Twitter use is still growing, albeit slightly: 73% of Inc. 500 companies use Facebook, up from the 71% that did so in 2010, and 64% use Twitter, up from 59%.
- Blogging and online video are down: 37% of Inc. 500 companies now publish a blog, down from 50% in 2010, and 24% use online video (vs. 33% in 2010). Among those not using blogging, 56% plan to start, whereas only 34% of those not using online video plan to do so.
The use of podcasting has also fallen sharply—from 16% in 2010, to 6% in 2011.
Below, other findings from the 2011 Inc. 500 study of social media use, conducted by the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, Center for Marketing Research.
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Interesting because we're seeing the opposite within the B2B environment, specifically among professional services firms - blogging is not only increasing, but it's directly impacting buying decisions.
We recently (Dec. 2011) surveyed more than 300 in-house counsel (buyers of legal services) on their social media habits, in partnership with Inside Counsel magazine, and found that 76% of these buyers feel that blogs are important when deciding which law firms to retain and 55% feel that a law firm blog can influence the hiring process.
Additionally, respondents told us they actually prefer law firm blogs over those hosted by professional media outlets.
Interesting to compare those results with these. It's probably safe to assume that most of the companies in the Inc. 500 are consumer-driven in which case blogs probably aren't as effective as other social media tools. But in the B2B space, they're as relevant as ever.
More here if you're interested: http://www.greentarget.com/2012-in-house-counsel-new-media-engagement-surve...
I think for B2B it may be different like Aaron said.
The B2C environment is different and may benefit more from other channels vs. blogging.