Social media applications are taking the world by storm. LinkedIn and similar business-oriented apps have been a staple of this arena, and others with a more strictly social appearance are making news as being a new way to connect with others in one’s line of work, and with the consumers themselves. You can find Comcast, CNN, and others on twitter (@comcastdotnet, @cnn and @ cnnbrk) and twitter itself has been profiled on the Today Show.
The biggest obstacle that is listed as preventing people in business from blogging, tweeting or in other ways becoming involved with social media boils down to three little letters: ROI. In a world where time is money, and there is precious little left over after the ordinary demands of business, business people are loathe to fritter away. “Why me?” a busy executive might ask? “What exactly is my return on my investment? Could my time be better spent elsewhere?”
The answer, released recently in a preliminary study by the Harvard Business School, is a resounding NO. Results are only preliminary: the study is intended to compare 300 businesses across America that have implemented social media with 300 that use traditional forms of advertising, and was supposed to have run for a full year. However, after two months, according to Reese Farthington, a doctorate student who is overseeing the study: “We felt that the numbers were too compelling to keep ‘under our hat,’ so to speak. We will continue the study and publish the results at the end of the year, but if we can help even a small number of businesses prosper in these difficult economic times, then we will have achieved our objective.”
“We were completely surprised by these initial numbers,” Farthington continued. “As a group, we are probably more involved with social networking than the average person, and expected to see some quantifiable difference, but what we found blew us away.” As it should any entrepreneur: in comparison with the control group, the group involved in actively utilizing social media apps experienced a business growth of an astounding 92.7%.
Farthington’s assistant, Jeannette Lamoreau, further elaborated. “We stipulated that the businesses that were to be immersed in the social media aspect become involved with LinkedIn, Facebook, and twitter, and not just sign up but develop an online presence. This included a given minimum amount of time each day with each application, and this was carefully controlled. After the initial phase, we found that most business entities had no difficulty maintaining the minimum required level of interaction. Indeed, we considered limiting time allowed for socmed interaction, but decided against it.”
“Although more studies may be needed to further deduce causality- which applications give the best return for investment of time- at this stage, we feel confident that social media will play a significant role in the development and expansion of business.”
Social media in Business- 2 months
“As you can see, social media use indicates only the tip of the iceberg. We expect this study to have far-reaching implications, changing the way business is conducted.”
A written report of the study is expected to be available in February 2010. Statisticsgirl will be interviewing the Harvard group again in June- watch this space!
Read Part two HERE
