Social Media in Companies – Playground or Business Strategy?

For 59 percent of the companies using social media such as wikis, blogs, online social networks and cooperation platforms, these tools are part of their business strategy. However, their use is frequently limited to individual employees or departments. These are the findings of a current representative survey, conducted by the Centre for European Economic Research (ZEW). A total of 4,400 firms in the manufacturing industry and selected service sectors with more than five staff members were surveyed.

Social Media is known as a promising instrument for networking of individuals and their knowledge. In addition, social media is designed to promote efficient communication within companies as well as beyond company borders. Having taken a pioneering role in the field of social media anyway, it is primarily the service sectors, which incorporate social media into their business strategy. Within the service sectors, mainly IT and telecommunications service providers as well as management consulting and advertising companies have incorporated social media into their business strategy. "These businesses are known for being particularly knowledge and IT-intensive. Therefore, the inclusion of social media into their business strategy offers great potential for their competitiveness," says Dr. Irene Bertschek, head of the ZEW research group Information and Communication Technologies. In contrast, manufacturing companies are considerably more hesitant about employing social media as part of their business strategy.

Data on usage intensity shows that 55 percent of the companies employing social media do so across the company but only 14 percent of the employees participate actively in social networking by editing texts and designing or annotating contents. In this category, the management consulting and advertising sector (31 percent) and IT services and telecommunication services (26 percent) are also at the forefront.

It remains to be seen whether this development will continue and whether social media will lead to sustainable changes in company cultures towards more openness, individual networking and constructive, decentralised cooperation. This would ultimately contribute to corporate success.

For further information please contact

Dr. Irene Bertschek, Phone: +49 (0)621/1235-178, E-mail: bertschek@zew.de