Study Shows Growth In Corporate Use Of Social Media Platforms Across Latin America

Perhaps the  corporate leaders in North America who continue to struggle with how to integrate social media into their marketing and service strategies should be looking at what our neighbors south of the border have been up to.  According to a recent report, social media use by Latin American companies is growing by leaps and bounds –and with increasing sophistication.

During its latest “Latin America Social Media Check Up,” Burson-Marsteller looked at the online activities of the top 225 companies in that part of the globe.  Comparing currently gleaned data against the Latin America social media “check up” performed in 2010, the numbers compiled in the newest report are quite impressive. For example:

Most Companies Still Not Measuring Social Media ROI

I find the continued unwillingness of some business executives to embrace social media to be, in the words of young Alice in Wonderland, “curiouser and curiouser.” Could it be a reluctance to go down what they perceive to be a “rabbit hole?”

Although a new study conducted seems to indicate that more and more corporate leaders do believe in the importance of social media platforms  from a business perspective, with more than half stating they expect to increase their social media budget in the future, the percentages take a nosedive once survey questions focused on strategy and implementation.  That’s surprising, especially considering rising customer expectations of corporate social media responsiveness and other research demonstrating how businesses can use social media platforms to improve their bottom lines.

With more than 400 responses from management personnel at the director or above level, each of whom stated they were social media decision-makers or influencers in their companies, the findings from this study were indeed a mixed bag.  On the plus side: 

Social Networking At Work Can Improve Morale And Reduce Employee Turnover

As any employer or human resource professional will tell you, employee turnover can have a dramatic impact on corporate costs in terms of recruitment, training and overall productivity. Retaining and motivating qualified, experienced staff goes a long way towards stabilizing a company’s performance and, ultimately, customer satisfaction . . . and now, there’s evidence that workplace social media networks can help.

Researchers at Baylor University took a deep-dive into the endeavors made by a specific large financial institution to incorporate online social networking into the new employee orientation process. They found multiple benefits –the work-sponsored internal social networking site helped new employees feel more welcome from day one, new employees used the network to forge work relationships and adjust more quickly to their job responsibilities, etc. –all of which can lead to greater job satisfaction, dedication and productivity.

More specifically, the study showed that an internal social network helped the financial institution:

Is Going Blue The New Going Green?

It’s nearly impossible to walk down the aisle of a supermarket these days without seeing a product boasting “green” in its name or a brand promising to be “environmentally friendly” or “earth-conscious.” From “eco-friendly” cleaners and “green” paper towels to “responsible” soda bottles and “green” shampoo for your (green?) hair, more and more companies are offering versions of products designed to appeal to consumers intent on reducing their footprint on our planet.

What “green” actually means varies from item to item, mind you, given that the standards behind the term are often a bit wobbly. That’s how the term “greenwash” came to be part of our lexicon. After all, when everyone is claiming to be “green,” how can it possibly pack the same kind of ethical or marketing punch?
This confusion/excess has motivated some brands to move on to a new push altogether:

They’re going “blue.”

To differentiate itself from the green movement’s “save the environment” focus, the blue movement is centered on having a positive impact on society in general —whether through a company’s overall mission or through special social good initiatives. These campaigns are also billed as “cause marketing,” a term that better describes how companies engender goodwill through charitable acts and efforts.

Now, as you undoubtedly would expect, goodwill isn’t all that’s generated. Companies are finding that cause marketing does good (and maybe even great) things for their bottom lines, too.

Here are three broad categories of how cause marketing can work:

Study Identifies Serious Gap Between Executives’ Knowledge About Social Media And Its Use At Their Companies

The C-suite still can’t seem to get its arms around social media marketing.

When it comes to incorporating key social network platforms into marketing, branding, customer service or outreach efforts, senior leaders say they realize consequences of lagging behind, and yet research conducted by Stanford University’s Rock Center for Corporate Governance and its Center for Leadership Development and Research clearly indicates otherwise.

Sure, 90 percent of the nearly 200 CEOs and other senior executives surveyed acknowledged the relevance of integrating social media into their overall business plans of action. But, a look at their actual business practices in this arena were far from convincing.  Most notably: