It appears so. Every few days another set of stunning statistics is released testifying to the expanding presence and influence of online social activity in every facet of our lives. For example, more than 1M companies have LinkedIn Company Pages (and their mega-IPO buzz speaks for itself).

On Tuesday, Google released a “field trial” of a new social network called Google+ (said “Google Plus”). The product has been designed to address the most common complaint against Facebook, namely that by default information shared on Facebook is exposed to a very large and often disparate audience. Of course, the obvious motivation for Google is that Facebook has become its chief rival for online ad dollars. 

Still, beyond ad dollars and the occasional high-profile branding success leveraging social media, how warmly has the business community embraced the use of social tools?

Fortunately, the smart guys (and they are mostly “guys”) at Useful Social Media have released a solid report on The State of Corporate Social Media in 2011 in order to bring hard facts and cold analysis to how large businesses really are using social media. They surveyed more than 100 corporate social media practitioners worldwide in industries ranging from software to retail, finance to defense, in December 2010.

A few salient highlights:

  1. Without a doubt, large companies have embraced social media, with 86% of companies reporting that they have more than two employees working on social media (versus merely “testing the waters” as was heard in previous years.)
  2. While the titles of these social experts tend to be mostly mid-level, 12% of CEO’s worldwide and 21% of C-suite titles in the US are personally involved in social media activities.
  3. Despite the increasing talk around social CRM etc., social media is still primarily being used for marketing and communications objectives, though 2011 is shaping up to be the year more US companies expect to increase their use of SoMe for customer service and employee engagement.
  4. No surprise here: 77% of respondents said their company will increase spending on social media in 2011, with 29% of American companies planning a 100-fold budget increase.

But is it working? Anyone who’s used social media — whether for marketing, customer support, or employee engagement — has no doubt had their challenges establishing benchmarks and assessing ROI. As we continue to invest in the medium, though, expectations for quantifiable results will only increase. Fortunately, strides are being made in technologies to track such things.

Currently:

  1. Less than half of those surveyed (40%) felt confident that they are accurately measuring the impact of their SoMe efforts.
  2. In kind, 55% are not even trying to measure their ROI.

The study continues if you’d like more detail, but perhaps the most interesting conclusion relative to the focus on ROI, is that social media is increasingly being held to the same standards as other business investments.

Recommendations:

This study dovetails exactly with our point-of-view on social media — it’s a hugely powerful medium when approached strategically. Thus, our guidelines for social media programs are as follows:

  1. Develop explicit, measurable, and business-relevant objectives. (e.g. Amassing followers on Twitter is a start, but to what end? Are you sharing news that enhances their understanding and desire for your product? Are you feeding them information that — when re-tweeted — promulgates your services over a competitor?)
  2. Based on an understanding of your target audience’s social media consumption habits and, most importantly, mind-sets: where and what type of content are you putting out there? For many users, Facebook is a “treat” — they give themselves “permission” to take a Facebook break (not unlike stepping out for a quick cup of coffee.) So is your content as fun as it is informative? Same goes for YouTube. Visitors are not waiting around to shoot a video to help you promote yourself. In other words, be careful not to create programs that are really just work for your audience.
  3. Don’t just talk, discuss. This is perhaps the most important point: both in terms of the expectations your followers have and as an opportunity for your company. You will be far more likely to build an active and engaged community if the visitors genuinely experience a two-way dialogue with relevant experts, service staff, or thought-leaders from your company. They want and expect a specific answer to their question — all the better if it’s clearly addressed to them. And, that requires an investment in terms of staffing, but also in prioritization by your senior executives.
  4. Finally, once you have built an energized community, don’t miss out on the feedback you can glean from monitoring the discussion around your products or the category. As parents and solid citizens, we worry about how much people today are over-sharing online. Well, we say, as long as they’re sharing, we’re listening.