Social media is a big business now- without a presence on sites like Facebook, Twitter and several others depending on industry, companies stand to lose a lot of customer engagement opportunity as well as the ability to provide comprehensive customer support.
Given the pervasive nature of social media in business, one might think that it would be a strong focus even at upper tiers of management. One might be wrong, however. According to RWW, while social media is a big part of how customers perceive and interact with companies of all sizes, working knowledge is thin on the ground at the executive level.
RWW cites Capgemini’s Executive Outsourcing Survey, which polled 302 senior executives at one of many Fortune 1000 companies. Social media is part of the customer service strategy at more than half of the companies, according to the executives polled- but of those survey, 64% said marketing departments alone manage social media marketing.
Nearly 75% said that they could not say how many of the firm’s staff were “dedicated to customer care via the social web,” and a shocking 13% indicated that social media was a passing fad, irrelevant to whether their company was successful. However, 57% acknowledged firm activity on social networks was a decent avenue to market to and service their customer base.
It seems that while social media at least has a foothold, many of the decision makers at large companies may not be taking the medium as seriously as they might for optimal impact. Does your company- large or small- have a strong social media presence? Is there anything you feel might improve it?
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