Posted by Kevin Doell

This morning I was listening to the August 18^th “For Immediate Release” podcast and heard about an interesting UMASS Dartmouth study on the uptake of social media. I thought it was pretty timely considering Sherry’s recent post on “Building a Brand Using the Power of Social Media.”

The study compared corporate adoption of social media between 2007 and 2008 by the Inc. 500, a list of the fastest-growing private U.S. companies compiled annually by Inc. magazine. The study included over 200 of the top 500. (Check out the Inc. 500 Real Estate Industry slice)

The study was conducted by the Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research that claims that “familiarity with and usage of social media within the Inc. 500 has nearly doubled in the past 12 months.”

Noteworthy Stats:

· 39{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of the Inc. 500 are blogging compared to only 11.6{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of the Fortune 500

· 77{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of survey respondents rated social media technologies either “somewhat” or “very” important to their business/marketing strategy

· In 2007, just over 25{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of the Inc. 500 reported that social media was “very important” to their business/marketing strategy. That number increased to 44{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} in 2008

· 77{0a8e414e4f0423ce9f97e7209435b0fa449e6cffaf599cce0c556757c159a30c} of the Inc. 500 reported use of at least some social media tool

The types of social media referenced in the study included:

· Message/Bulletin Boards

· Social Networking

· Online Video

· Blogging

· Wikis

· Podcasting

Use of social networking, online video and blogging all jumped more than 20 percent year over year with social networking reportedly employed by nearly half the survey respondents.

The study concluded with a statement to the effect that with adoption rates so high among the fastest-growing companies, outright adoption by the rest of business world is not far behind. Naturally, that goes for consumers as well.

Time to get smart on social media!