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社交媒体：企业高管的短板 最近，世界大型企业联合会（The Conference Board）和斯坦福大学洛克公司治理中心通过调查，总结出北美地区企业高管对社交媒体商业用途的认知程度。 和迄今为止的其他社交媒体调查不同，这项研究以CEO、高管和董事会成员作为主要调查对象。他们的平均年龄在50岁以上，来自各行各业，其中一半人所属的企业年收入达到或超过5亿美元。 调查结果显示，他们对社交媒体的认知程度存在明显差异。一方面，大家都普遍了解社交媒体可以作为市场营销及传播的平台。 而社交媒体对品牌及企业声誉蕴含的潜在风险也已被意识到，并引起了普遍的担忧。 但另一方面，高管们通常极少利用社交媒体上的信息，而且也没有将这些信息纳入企业战略和运营规划。 换言之，北美企业高层对社交媒体商用价值的了解非常混乱。 作为调查对象的同龄人，我猛然发觉这也说明“极客”和“老家伙”之间是多么需要更好地沟通。这个问题不仅限于北美，全世界都是如此。 报告的作者也得出了相似的结论，在调查结果开篇的概述中，他指出一个新的重要商机： “结果显示，开发可靠的社交媒体信息搜集系统，并将其提炼成可供企业决策者使用的可操作的、有用的形式，这其中蕴含着重要的商机。” 这其实是用另外一种方式说明，“极客”应更好地向“老家伙”解释社交媒体潜在的商业用途，不要用全球“极客”通用的缩略“火星语”，而要用更主流的日常用语。 这让我想起中国的俗语“鸡同鸭讲”，用它来形容“极客”和“老家伙”之间的惯常对话再合适不过。 也就是说，那些提出这个问题的人很可能会开发出一项非常赚钱的业务。我很赞同这一观点。在受访对象中，有52.5%的人表示所属公司尚未聘请专业顾问或专家来处理社交媒体事务。 毫无疑问，社交媒体从根本上改变了消费者和企业间的关系。中国市场就是最好的例证，目前这也是全球市场的客观现实。 爱德曼公司调查显示，2012年对社交媒体具有里程碑意义，因为这一年在树立企业信任方面，“倾听消费者呼声”首次与“提供优质产品及服务”在重要性排名上并驾齐驱。 消费者期望通过社交媒体与企业及品牌互动。员工，尤其是年轻的员工，更乐于在主动运用社交媒体的企业里任职。 世界大企业联合会的调查还发现，大多数企业高层都不会开会传阅社交媒体的分析图表。最常见的理由是公司没有搜集这方面的资料。 调查报告在结尾处建议管理层引入“倾听机制”，捕捉社交媒体信息，并将其转换成图表。作者推荐了一些现成的软件，它们和搜索博客、微博以及其他社交媒体不同，可以将信息转换成量化、质化的表格。 考虑到中国消费者对社交媒体接受度极高，且增长速度和扩大规模惊人，这项调查如果能将大型中国企业高管对上述问题的回答纳入其中肯定会更有意思。 我猜中国高管和中国消费者一样，对社交媒体的商用认知肯定远远超出北美同行。 欢迎您对此发表意见！ |
Top Managers: Still Not Up to Speed on Social Media A new study by The Conference Board and the Rock Center for Corporate Governance at Stanford University provides insight into how well top management executives of North American companies understand the business uses of social media. Unlike most other studies on social media to date, this one focused on CEOs, senior executives, and board members. The respondents' average age is mid-50s, and they work in a wide spectrum of different industries. More than half work in companies with revenues of US$500 million or more. The survey results show a varied landscape of awareness. On the one hand, there is a fairly high degree of general awareness of the use of social media as a marketing and communications platform. The same is true concerning awareness of the potential risks posed by social media insofar as product branding and corporate reputation. On the other hand, top management executives are generally not tapping into the data which is available from social media and incorporating this information into the business strategy and operational planning process. In other words, top management in North American companies gets a very mixed score on their grasp of the range of what social media can do for their businesses. As a member of the age demographic studied in this survey, it strikes me as yet another illustration of how the geeks and the geezers need to do a better job of talking to each other. This is the case not only in North America, but all over the place. The survey authors come to a similar conclusion, pointing to important new business opportunities in the executive summary which begins the survey results: "The findings suggest considerable opportunity for companies that develop a reliable infrastructure for capturing data from social media and distilling them into an actionable, usable form for corporate decision-makers." That's another way of saying that the geeks need to do a better job of explaining the potential business applications of social media to the geezers, not in the abbreviated gobbledygook which is the universal geek dialect, but in mainstream everyday language. I am reminded of the Chinese saying "Chickens talking with ducks" which aptly describes the usual conversations between geeks and geezers. That's also to say that those who rise to this challenge will tap into a potentially very lucrative business opportunity. I agree with that observation. Among survey respondents, 52.5% said their companies have not hired a consultant or expert to present on the subject of social media. There is no doubt that social media have fundamentally changed the relationship between consumers and companies. Nowhere is this more evident than in China, but it is now a global reality. An Edelman survey highlights 2012 as a milestone for social media in that, for the first time, "listening to customers" ranked equal to "providing high quality products or services" in building trust in a company. Consumers expect to be able to engage with companies and brands through social media. Employees, especially younger ones, prefer to work for a company which is actively utilizing social media. Another finding in the Conference Board survey is that at the senior management level, most companies are not gathering and circulating reports containing summary metrics from social media. The most frequently cited reason why is that the company does not collect this information. Among the recommendations at the end of the survey is for management to incorporate a "listening system" to capture social media data and transform it into metrics. The authors cite several off-the-shelf software services than scan blogs, tweets, and other social media and convert the data into quantitative and qualitative metrics. Given the Chinese consumers' robust embrace of social media on such a massive and fast-growing scale, it would be interesting to explore the attitudes of top management in larger Chinese companies on similar questions to the ones contained in this survey. My guess is that, like the Chinese consumers, top management may well be ahead of the knowledge curve compared with their North American counterparts, on the business applications of social media. Comments and observations welcome! |
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