47% of firms surveyed globally use social media to find new business, an increase of 7% from last year. (Source Regus survey via The Street)
China and India lead the pack: 65% of Chinese firms (vs. 44% last year) and 61% of Indian companies (vs. 52%) successfully use social media to acquire customers.
Next are the Netherlands and Mexico.
43% of U.S. firms (vs. 35% a year earlier) use social media to gain customers, the report says, implying there is much room for growth.
There is also much room for improvement in how these US firms use social media. Another recent survey showed that only 40% measure the ROI of their social media efforts quarterly or annually and 31% are measuring on an adhoc basis, or not at all.
Studies from Forrester, Pews and the Altimeter Group have shown how important the trend for sharing content is, yet when PRESSfeed, the social media newsroom, studied the websites of companies both large and small in the US, they discovered that there is a big gap in their implementation of these strategies and tools.
- 34% of Fortune 100 companies have share buttons on their website
- 13% have share buttons on their newsroom content
- 22% of INC 500 companies have share options on their website
- 6% of INC 500 have share buttons on their newsroom content
While adoption of social media gallops on, companies around the globe would do well to pay attention to the implementation of their social media strategy.
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