Do Executives Really Understand Social Media?
Saw an interesting article from eMarketer today on Executives and Social Media. This led me to some interesting thoughts. Now I am by no means a social media czar as you can tell by the fact that I only have 250 Twitter followers as of today (if you want a couple of social-gurus, check out Nate Riggs or Cheryl Harrison).
The True Value?
However, contrary to some of the statistics below, I don’t feel that Execs and Biz owners in general really fully understand the true value of social media. Here are some stats & quotes from the article:
Well, the stats don’t lie, social media IS valuable. But do they tell the whole story. While many execs and biz owners know Twitter, Facebook, and the like is important, they still don’t have the slightest clue how to utilize it. I’ve had so many conversations over the past 6 months were something like this:
Avg Responses from Biz Owners or Execs:
“I’m on Twitter, but I don’t use it much…”
“I’ve got a guy who does that for me…”
“I’ve been thinking about it, but I don’t know what kind of ROI I’ll get…”
“I have a Facebook page, but it hasn’t driven me any additional business…”
In fact, I just had a conversation yesterday trying to pitch the importance of social media where the person more or less said it wasn’t for them and that it was too hard.
Reasons To Go Social
The problem IMO is that they’re mostly missing the point. I thought eMarketer’s article WAS dead on with what social media can and should be used for:
The Skepticism Remains
Speaking from personal experience, I still think that the execs who DO get it are more the exception than the rule. In fact, I think eMarketer’s final graph is more representative of the general skepticism I’ve found regarding social media as a business tool.
I’ve seen first-hand how these types of fears completely stifle innovative thinking, causing those innovative minds to seek refuge elsewhere. Personally, I am totally on-board and committed to social media and all that it is (and can be), but I just wonder if these stats are totally representative of all execs and biz owners?
Don’t get me wrong, I know that there are some higher ups out there that truly get it, but I just don’t think as a whole the majority really do “get it”.
What do you think?
[polldaddy poll=1980827]
Comments
2 Responses to “Do Executives Really Understand Social Media?”
Cheryl said:
1) Thanks for the compliment
2) I thought this eMarketer article was interesting too (I almost blogged it – damn you!) and I agree – while many execs seem to think it’s important, on some level, few are really DOING something with social media
3) Via your spam protection thing – math problems? Ugh. It’s before 10am and I’ve only had one cup of coffee, the odds of me getting this wrong are pretty high
September 11th, 2009 at 10:01 am
Jacob Stoops said:
Haha. Maybe that’s why I haven’t been getting as many comments recently
I thought it was just shitty writing!
September 11th, 2009 at 10:03 am
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