October 10, 2011

Recruiting Beats Out Branding, Marketing and CorpComms In List of Corporate Social Media Initiatives: New Survey Finds 69% Plan to Increase Social Media Budgets in 2012 — But ROI Measurement Remains a Challenge

SelectMinds, a developer of social recruiting and community management solutions, this week announced the findings of its annual ROI of Social Media in the Enterprise survey. The data shows that 86% of firms are currently using social media in their organizations, and 72% are actively engaged in social recruiting initiatives. Developed to establish benchmarks for corporate use of in-house and external social networks, the SelectMinds survey asked executives at U.S. firms with 3,000 or more employees to share the details of their corporate social media initiatives. Topics covered include social media usage, management responsibilities and results measurement. Seventy two percent of respondents reported that their companies were using social media for recruitment/talent acquisition, followed by branding-engagement & awareness (69%), recruitment branding (68%) marketing (63%), corporate communications/PR (57%) and communications with customers (52%). "Corporations are beyond the leap-of-faith stage with their social media programs: they have them up and running and they know they are producing results. They just can't agree on how best to quantify them," said Anne Berkowitch, CEO of SelectMinds, in a news release. "The key now is to build the infrastructure necessary for firms to systematize their social media programs to produce real, measurable ROI. We look forward to being a big part of that evolution."

Following are the key findings:

Recruiting Rules the Social Roost

Corporations are using social networks for many purposes, but the most frequently cited social media initiative among survey respondents was recruiting:

• Among HR professionals, 81% of those surveyed are using social networks to help them recruit candidates. LinkedIn and Facebook are the most frequently used sites: 79% mine LinkedIn for candidates, 65% have a company page on LinkedIn and 63% have a dedicated Facebook page for jobs/careers.
• Though HR has emerged as a leader in social media adoption, management of corporate social media initiatives is fragmented. 33% of respondents said they had a dedicated social media team or person, while 44% of respondents said social media management was part of several peoples' responsibilities.

Corporate Social Networks Gain Momentum with Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter

While the majority of corporate users surveyed are maintaining Facebook pages (86%), LinkedIn groups (82%) and Twitter accounts (71%) on behalf of their companies, in-house corporate social networks have also gained traction in most firms:

• 63% of respondents reported their companies are using corporate social networks for current employees, 40% have developed them exclusively for recruiting and 33% have created alumni networks.
• Corporate social networks are being used primarily for job listing/recruiting (62%), training and learning (53%), HR benefits/incentives (52%), event information (52%) and accessing news (52%).
• 69% of organizations plan to increase their social media budgets and 85% say they are seeking actively or planning to invest in social media technology.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Social Media

When asked to rate the effectiveness of social media programs and weigh in on best approaches for measuring success, results were mixed:

• 60% of respondents said corporate social media programs are most effective when used for communications, followed by brand awareness (57%), increasing the effectiveness of marketing (55%), brand monitoring (52%) and positive press (50%).
• Among the most common metrics for evaluating the success of social media programs, 66% count hires from social networks, 65% count website visitors and 63% count Facebook fans. Very few measure in terms of reduced expenses or increased revenue (27% and 10% respectively).
• Just 5% of respondents rated themselves as "very confident" that they are accurately measuring the ROI of their social media activities.

Surveying was conducted in June 2011 and administered by Illuminas, a global research and consultancy practice that delivers strategic marketing intelligence across B2B and consumer markets worldwide.

Download the full report here.