The Hype is Real: Social Media invade the Inc. 500

The folks at the UMass Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research have released results of a study involving a telephone survey of companies in the Inc. 500 for 2006. They got 121 participants, including “4 of the top 10, 7 of the top 25, and 22 of the top 100 companies” in the list.

Their conclusion?:

This research proves conclusively that social media is coming to the business world at a
faster rate than many anticipated. It also indicates that corporate familiarity and usage of
social media is racing far ahead of what many have predicted.

Two interesting charts from the report make the point clear. The first shows the respondents’ use of social media:

The second shows the (self-reported) importance accorded social media in relation to business/marketing strategy:

I hope everyone (whether in the Inc. 500 or sole proprietor) looking to use blogs for marketing purposes will also read the first blog-related report from the UMass CMR, “Behind the Scenes in the Blogosphere: Advice From Established Bloggers,” and the four key “Blogosphere Truths” they outline:

1. Blogs Take Time and Commitment
2. Blogs Must Be Part of a Plan
3. A Blog is a Conversation
4. Transparency, Authenticity, and Focus are Good. Bland is Bad.

(It doesn’t say when this report is from, but the PDF says it was created in June of 2006).