CEOs Embrace Social Media as New Path for Direct Engagement

It appears that Chief Executive Officers are beginning to appreciate the tremendous potential of social media to improve the customer experience –at last!

This shift in attitude, from skepticism and mistrust to a willingness to explore and even embrace social media, is bound to have enormous impact on how companies interact with both customers and employees in the not too distant future.

A recent study included face-to-face interviews with more than 1,700 corporate leaders from around the globe, and the results show that CEOs are starting to recognize that real-time connectivity now impacts how consumers engage with businesses and what their expectations are in terms of products and service.

What’s more, in our fast-paced, global economy where innovation, excellence and precise timing are critical to business success, more and more companies have begun to integrate elements such as openness, collaboration and transparency into their corporate culture vision statements.

Among the key findings of this new research :

Healthcare Companies Missing Valuable Opportunities to Engage via Social Media Sites

In the past, I’ve been somewhat puzzled by the reluctance of certain industries and occupations to embrace social media as a way to connect with and engage their customers.

But, I’ll admit, I’m even more baffled when companies remain resistant, even after consumers demonstrate they are eager to learn more about them online.

Case in point: People are flocking to social media sites and health forums for healthcare information, and yet providers of healthcare services are maintaining relatively low social media profiles.

According to a recently released PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) report, consumers were 24 times more likely to seek or share health information on community sites than on the corporate sites of healthcare organizations, largely because they found that community sites were more accessible.

Kelly Barnes, US Health Industries leader at PwC, says social media has created a new customer service access point where consumers expect an immediate response.

“Health organizations have an opportunity to use social media as a way to better listen, participate in discussions and engage with consumers in ways that extend their interaction beyond a clinical encounter,” Barnes explained. “Savvy adopters are viewing social media as a business strategy, not just a marketing tool.”

Here’s what researchers found after surveying 1,000 US consumers for this study: 

Blogging for Lead Gen: Five Best Practices

Savvy business owners have been using blogging to generate new leads for their products and services for years now, and they’re reporting impressive results.

If your marketing goals include increasing qualified traffic to your website and gaining greater visibility with your target market, the benefits of blogging are clear—but maximizing this strategy takes more than typing up a few posts and hoping for the best!

Smart business blogging requires smart business blogging habits… and here are five tested-and-true tips to get you on the right track:

Mobile Social Media Audience Growing, Most Interact with Brands

The US mobile social media audience grew 37 percent in the past year, according to study results released last month by comScore, Inc.

The research found that 72.2 million Americans accessed social networking sites or blogs on their mobile device in August 2011, an increase of 37 percent in the past year. The study also provided new insights into how mobile users interact with social media, finding that:

Social Media Use Doubles Among Top Asian Companies

Social media use among Asian multinationals has more than doubled over the past year.

Results from Burson-Marsteller’s 2011 Asia-Pacific Corporate Social Media Study show that the vast majority (81 percent) of companies listed on The Wall Street Journal’s Asia 200 Index now have a corporate social media presence –and that’s up from less than half (40 percent) last year.

Thanks to this dramatic growth, the top companies in Asia closed the gap with the Fortune Global 100, where 84 percent of companies use social media channels for marketing and communications.

Unfortunately, though, companies in Asia may not be realizing the full potential of social media networks. According to Burson-Marsteller,most Asian multinationals continue to use social media to ‘push’ news and information at users, rather than engage in discussions. Among the companies studied, one-third of social media activity focuses on basic media and influencer outreach, rather than engagement on substantive corporate topics such as corporate social responsibility or thought leadership. Only 9 percent of the firms surveyed use corporate blogs for corporate marketing and communications, despite their value in helping explain complex topics.

In other findings: