Only Ten Percent of Fortune 250/Global 250 CIOs Are Social

You might think IT execs would be trailblazers when it comes to social media platforms and the business potential of online social networks.  But, that’s just not the case, according to a new study of Chief Information Officers conducted by harmon.ie, a company that specializes in cross-platform solutions for businesses.

Overall, the Fortune 250 and Global 250 CIOs in this survey scored surprisingly low when asked about their own social media use.  Although in positions charged with shaping and driving the technological goals of their corporations –including decisions on social media use for employee and customer communication, education and collaboration –nine out of 10 failed to demonstrate personal familiarity with existing social media platforms and their potential.

For example, two-thirds of the CIOs in this study either don’t have a LinkedIn account, or have one with fewer than a hundred connections.  If their IT leaders aren’t familiar with the territory, it is any wonder so many companies lag behind in developing social media strategies  for their marketing and business communications, or social media policies for their customers, vendors and employees?

Not every CIOs fared poorly, however.

The study also acknowledged the 25 most social CIOs –those who demonstrated the greatest hands-on experience with various social media tools and their strategic business use.  Ranking them with a formula that combined data from Alexa, LinkedIn, Google+, Twitter and SocialMention.com, CIOs from the following companies (some of which will come as no surprise) topped the list of social media stand outs:

Compliance, Governance Not Keeping Pace with Social Media Growth

The legal system always has struggled to keep pace with technology.  Traffic laws followed the invention of the automobile, child labor laws proliferated in the wake of the industrial revolution, and environmental laws emerged as a result of factory-produced soil, water and air pollution.

In the same vein, the ever-changing internet landscape continues to present new challenges and issues that existing legislation does not adequately address. For example, the net neutrality debate has been raging in Congress for months. And, even on a much smaller scale, many companies now are questioning how prevailing fraud and privacy laws will stand up in the face of today’s explosive and free-wheeling world of social media.

As I have discussed before, when it comes to social media marketing and customer interaction, many companies may be diving in head first before considering how deep the pool actually is. Grant Thornton LLP’s recent survey of 141 executives proves my point, uncovering some potentially risky gaps in corporate social media strategy.

Participants in this study appear to believe in the “staying power” of social media. Nearly half (48 percent) predicted that social media would play increasingly important roles in how they marketed to and communicated with clients and customers, and more than half (53 percent) foresee a significant increase in social media usage by their companies.

However, the majority also made two particularly unsettling admissions:

Does Your Boss Read Your Facebook Page?

Earlier this year, I wrote about a study that ranked marketers among the most social of all employees.

But now, new research out of Australia warns all of us to remain vigilant about just how much of our personal lives we choose to reveal on social media networks.

According to data collected by Telstra, more than one-quarter of Australian bosses now use social networking sites to screen job candidates, and almost half of these employers admitted to turning away prospects based on something they saw on Facebook or Twitter.

Some of the biggest faux pas included posting:

• negative comments about a workplace – 44 percent of bosses said this counts against job candidates
• discriminatory comments –more than one-third (37 percent) of employers said this could limit employment opportunities
• confidential information (32 percent)and inappropriate pictures (31 percent)

Interestingly, bosses aren’t only checking on the social media activity of job applicants. More than one in ten employers (15 percent) who participated in the study said they also use Facebook and other social networking sites as a means of keeping an eye on productivity. 18 percent  use social networking connections to make sure employees aren’t posting derogatory comments about themselves or the company.

Here are a few more key findings from the Telstra research:

Study: One-third of Young Job Seekers Value Access to Social Media More Than Salary

Traditionally, job seekers favor employment opportunities with optimal economic underpinnings. They look for positions that offer the best salaries and benefits.

But, new research from Cisco suggests that today’s new talent may have another set of priorities in mind.

These days, young professionals want to use social media, mobile devices and the internet more freely in the workplace –and their desire to do so is strong enough to influence their future job choice, sometimes even more than salary does.

The second annual Cisco Connected World Technology Report, which surveyed more than 2,800 college students and young professionals in 14 countries, found 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: