Global Study Warns Old Fears Haunt New Media -- Report Shows Despite Benefits of Social Media, Loss of Control Means Low Levels of Executive Support
Ready or not, social media are changing the way companies communicate, both internally and externally. Ragan Communications surveyed nearly 1,500 communicators worldwide to explore trends and best practices for organizational communicators. The results are in.
Chicago, IL (PRWEB) May 23, 2007 -- Some bosses fear it. Many communicators don't quite get it. Yet everyone's talking about it.
Ready or not, social media are changing the way companies communicate, both internally and externally.
That's one of the conclusions in a new social media report from Ragan Communications, "The Social Media Revolution: A 2007 report on trends and best practices for organizational communicators."
Ragan's social media report (www.ragan.com/socialmediarevolution) includes survey responses from 1,450 internal communicators and external communicators around the globe.
Among the key findings:
| | - Executives hesitant: Only 7 percent of CEOs have blogs, perhaps because they fear losing control of the message
- Communicators still uncertain: Similarly, only 7 percent of editors have blogs
- Lines blurred between work and home: Respondents use the same social media at work as they do at home. It's hard to maintain a clear line between work communications and home communications
- One challenge -- planning: Communicators say that putting together a social media plan is their biggest need
- Another challenge -- measurement: Only 9 percent measure the return on investment of social media initiatives
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New media, old issues
"Blogs, wikis, podcasts, RSS and the other social media are exciting," said Mark Ragan, CEO of Chicago-based Ragan Communications, sponsor of the global report. "But what our research shows is that they simply represent the same issues for professional communicators we've seen throughout the 37-years history of our company: the need to get trained on a new technology, raise executive understanding, confront legal and budgetary issues, plan and measure.
"What's new with social media," he said, "is that they blur the lines between work and home -- that's where management's fear of losing control comes into play."
The report includes three in-depth case studies:
| | - IBM: The (social) media are the message
- Siemens: The giant just jumped in
- The uses of social media in higher education
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Also included are nine best practice reports on social media recorded at New Communications Forum, a March 2007 conference sponsored by The Society for New Communications Research and Ragan Communications.
| | - Adidas blog models online town hall meeting
- IBM's blogging policy
- Bob Evans: The right way to do a CEO blog
- CMS's video simulcast enlists employees as brand ambassadors
- Allstate video shows employee innovation
- Video at PNM: Everything old is new again
- The ROI of corporate blogs
- When to say "No" to blogging
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Lawrence Ragan Communications, Inc. (www.ragan.com) is the profession's leading provider of training, information and consulting services to professional communicators globally.
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