Corporate America has a bad reputation, but getting into the social networking game could help boost its popularity and trustworthiness. Organizations are seen as a corporation, and corporations in the eyes of most people are evil, say authors of a Business Week article, G. Michael Maddock and Raphael Louis Vitón of Maddock Douglas. Large companies—with a 13% approval rating—rank just above Congress and law firms when people are asked to list the most admired institutions in America, according to Harris Interactive. And Maddock and Viton double-dare corporations to embrace social media as the antidote, implying that the companies are too scared to do so.
“If people were to anthropomorphize your organization, your firm would be seen as highly antisocial at best and psychopathic at worst.”
However a one year follow up on a study of social media adoption at 500 of the fastest growing companies in the US has found that familiarity with and use of blogs, podcasting, wikis, online video and social networking has skyrocketed in 2008 to nearly double what it was in 2007. 77% of respondents now report at least some use of a social media tool in their business.
The University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research performed the study for Inc. Magazine and their findings confirm what previous studies have argued as well: social media use is now a major, mainstream activity.
See the results of this study at Master New Media
