4 March 2008
Executives slow to social networking
Yet 50% of US businesses believe social media is important to their brands.
The Financial Times newspaper online recently announced that UK senior executives are missing the marketing potential of social networking sites.
“A poll of marketing executives in the US, Canada, France and the UK found that all believed social networking was a lasting phenomenon, but UK businesses had encountered far more resistance from their boards to investing in the medium,” says FT.com.
Slow to catch on
Less than a 5th of UK businesses in the survey believe social media is important to their brands. By comparison, nearly half the US businesses questioned believe in its importance.
Many UK marketing executives believe they're still learning, while across the pond their counterparts say they're already experimenting.
Media watchers are surprised the UK is so slow to catch on. But this could be because many UK marketing executives believe they're still learning, while across the pond their counterparts say they're already experimenting.
Perhaps marketing executives are still nervous of the medium, or maybe they see it as “too American” – most social network companies have originated in the US. The recently reported first drop in the number of monthly unique users at Facebook and MySpace may also be adding to their caution.
US versus the rest of the world
So far, advertising has been rather intrusive. This isn't something that will work in the world of social media and means that marketing will need to develop new approaches.
The Hub asked Lee Hopkins (left), consultant and commentator on communication issues, if the difference in uptake between the US and other countries has anything to do with social networking companies hailing from the US. “No, the fact that the US hosts the vast majority (but not all) of social networking companies is just a reflection of how far along the track it is in terms of takeup and innovation,” he says.
“Don’t forget there's a huge ‘start up’ mentality in the US technology industry, with dreams of million dollar exits after a few years of sweat equity,” Hopkins says. He thinks that, in general, communicators are taken more seriously in the US than in Europe or Australasia and the very loud communicators are trumpeting "Social Media" to all and sundry.
Reluctance to take risks
“Perhaps our feelings of the US being ahead of us is a result of what we're seeing – a stereotypical US outward expression of take up versus the more subdued approach popular in Europe and Australasia,” Hopkins says.
But why are UK marketing execs being so slow to climb on this particular bandwagon? Hopkins thinks there's a natural reluctance to make errors. “That’s a pity, and explains why the US are often such great innovators – they aren't afraid to fail,” he says.
70% of respondents said that they thought social networking tools like Facebook had a part to play in internal communications.
“There’s a strong cultural belief in Europe and Australasia that ‘failure’ will haunt you forever – that it will be the ruin of your career and that your peers will laugh at you behind your back,” Hopkins concludes.
Internal communicators confident
The March edition of Communicators, published by Communicators in Business (CiB) says, “In the latest CiB e-zine survey, 70% of respondents said that they thought social networking tools like Facebook had a part to play in internal communications.”
Hopkins says he's seeing many social networking initiatives happening in Australia that are “behind the firewall”.
“These are usually inspired either by communicators themselves with their teams, or else by the techies and other evangelists,” he says. “The most used tool is a wiki and second, blogs. The most unused and underrated is Twitter and the most blocked are Facebook and MySpace.”
Have your say
How much of the social media boom is merely hype in terms of its use in organizations? Are you already using these tools – and what are your plans for the future? What seems to work best – and what’s the staff uptake like?
Discuss these issues with other comms practitioners by joining the Internal Comms Hub members' group on the Communicators' Network.
Other recommendations:
VIDEO GUIDE: 3 ways to get social media started
Got a news story? Contact the newsdesk