America’s fastest-growing private companies are taking the social media bull by the horns—adopting social media marketing initiatives at high rates, according to a study conducted by the Center for Marketing Research at University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. Polling members of Inc. Magazine’s 500 fastest-growing companies for a third straight year, the study found that 45% of the companies are blogging compared to 19% in 2007. Other 2009 findings include:
• 91% of companies report that they use at least one social media tool, compared with 77% of companies surveyed in 2008.
• Of six types of social media tools, including blogging, podcasting, online video, social networking, message boards, and wikis, 75% of companies say they’re most familiar with social networking.
• Twitter is the most widely deployed social networking tool, with 52% of the respondents using it.
• 68% of respondents say they are monitoring mentions of their company name or brands on social media sites, compared to 50% in 2007.
Source: Center for Marketing Research, University of Massachusetts Dartmouth