Jordan Stone at We Are Social has a useful digest of the Econsultancy Social Media and Online PR report. It’s based on talking to around 500 each of clients and agencies.
Jordan picks this out:
Just under half of companies (46%) are not yet using reputation or buzz monitoring tools to understand what is being said about their brand. Not even free tools? I find this slightly worrying, as there is virtually no barrier to entry and no shortage of free tools online. For instance, here’s a list I’ve helped compile on the Measurement Camp website.
First that’s a handy list. And in some ways it’s pretty remarkable that half the companies aren’t making use of simple free stuff. Then there’s this:
Whereas 61% of respondents personally see a tremendous opportunity for social media, less than a third (31%) say that their organisations as a whole have this same positive outlook.
That makes sense to me, social media is a personal tool so I’d expect individuals to get more excited about it than institutions. Jordan continues
The three most common reasons for not investing in social media up to now have been lack of knowledge and understanding (59%), company culture (41%) and lack of senior buy-in (41%). It would seem that change needs to start from the top, and agencies of all different stripes have a role to play in educating their clients.
Hmm, I don’t want to take Jordan out of context but I don’t think change needs to start from the top. The way I see it, change is already underway, some companies are slower than others and apparently management isn’t rushing to buy in. The great thing about social media, for me, is that it basically isn’t something organised by the top at all. While I can understand someone concerned for individual business that they get their act together, from a greater distance it seems to me half the point of social media that the top don’t need to be the first to get it.
