Confused by the cryptic comment. What do you mean?

Are the largest companies the ones who will be setting the pace in the new business environment or are they tied to an old way of doing business that is on it’s way out? Also, as in turning the Titanic, will some be unable/unwilling to make the long turn and decide rather to ride out this “new” way of doing business with the hope that it’s just a fad that will pass?

An interesting possibilitiy Emiel. Thank you very much for sharing your persepective!

I think you’re right.  It would be interesting to get more of an insider’s perspective! Thanks Alice!

It would nice to understand the why of this data, and hear from the F500 why they are not using or expanding social media use. It wouldn’t surprise me, though, if they don’t feel like it has proved its worth and aren’t investing more because they don’t have a sure way, yet, to implement it effectively as part of a larger marketing strategy. We still mostly see isolated cases of success, not steady, constant success like you see with online advertising. The mantra that it’s different only works for so long. At some point, businesses have to have a clear idea of how to use this tool effectively and predictably, or they’ll choose to invest elsewhere.

Mark, thank you for sharing this “very interesting data.”  I tend to make use of research data in some way, rather than “second-guess” research data, sorry…
 
Your earlier report/post on “social influence and social media activism” may shed some light on what is causing this phenomena.  I know your report/post has caused me to reconsider my involvement.   

Hmmm, lack of perceived value? Again, like we’ve discussed before, any study focused on Blogging, Twitter and Facebook is missing the bigger picture. Big companies are in fact pulling away from Facebook and Twitter because they are learing that Social Media is not like TV and all about broadcast promotion. Any study like this that doesn’t include analytics, listening, planning and developing predictible results is missing the point in my opinion.  Is this is just another “gang of gurus” trying to get notariety from hype mongering?  I’m hearing about lot’s of big brands leveraging social media and its technologies, just not for promotion or advertising………….

One clue about the “why” may be that the number has stalled but not really retracted. As I dug into some of the specifics, there has not been a lot of change in the companies who are using it. So I owuld surmise that companies are no abandoing becasue they see no value. The fact, most have never even started to begin with!

I accept that point to a degree. Yes, they can be very inflexible. But they’re not stupid. And social has been around awhile now. So I a bit mystified as to why there has been a levelling off.  Why wouldn’t a big compnay have a blog, if for no other reason that to tell their side of the story in a crisis?  There are many good business reasons to blog. Strange the pick-up in this segment has been so slow for so long!  Thanks for the good point Eugene. Look forward to meeting you soon.

Thank you Mark!

Very kind of you to say!

Having spent 15 years in corporate for Fortune 500 I know how difficult it is to measure these things in real life.

Chances are there is much more still happening on social than what the top corporate office knows about and more than what is being rolled up to a corporate line item or bucket for social.

There is social media integrated into campaigns, events, roadshows training sales reps & partners, email campaigns and the list goes on.  It could be that the social is being embedded into the DNA of biz where it should be. Instead of having a budget line item to “get on Facebook” or “do social” they are instead embedding social within the DNA of marketing, sales and business objectives! 

Just a thought… 

The data point that really stuck out to me was that the blogs were down. I’d be itnerested to do the double click on this. Interested to know if it was the folks who never really did more than push their corporate collateral to the blog.

Was it the folks who didn’t see result w/social media because they didn’t integrate it properly? Or was it truly biz’s who gave it a try and didn’t see a return so gave up? 

Also, what happened recently with Klout does not do the ecosystem good. When a measurement is presented as a standard and then starts to lose credibility it hurts the entire ecosystem. It makes biz’s start to double question what they are measuring (which they should be)>

 Anyway, going to end this comment before I turn it into a Klout discussion which we don’t want to do!

You have to look at type and nature of the coproate entity. Many corporates are effectively financial structures, and their ‘social’ activity is downline at brands or business specific area. Plus there are sectors where social media is not that useful – don’t shoot. Large corporates sometimes have very little to say on a regular basis which is essential for social engagement: they are very boring. For charities/not-for-profits, social media is a cheap and accessible solution to engagement where costs were once an impediment to web engagement; no longer.

I think that is a well-reasoned observation David. Thanks!

A very valid point. Here’s another thing I wonder … How many companies would just want this to go away so they can return to their TV ads? Thanks for the insight Barry.