Social Media Settles In Among the Inc. 500

The adoption of blogs by the Inc. 500 has increased 7% in the past year as more CEO’s begin to contribute. At the same time, there is new evidence that social media results in a financial ROI by way of the recruiting effort, according to the latest benchmarking study conducted by Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes, Ph.D., Senior Fellow and Research Co-chair of the Society for New Communications Research and Director of the Center for Marketing Research at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth.

The new report is the outcome of a statistically sound study of the 2012 Inc. 500 list. The study examined these institutions to quantify their adoption of social media tools and technologies, as well as plans for investment, monitoring and measuring their online strategies. This is the sixth year that Barnes has tracked social media usage by this sector, and it is the only statistically sound longitudinal study of its kind.

Key findings of this study include:

-- 44% of Inc. 500 companies have a corporate blog. This is an increase of 7% after remaining stagnant for years. 63 % of CEO’s report contributing blog content as this mature tool enjoys a bit of resurgence.

-- 81% of Inc. 500 companies use LinkedIn, an increase of 8% since the 2011 study. LinkedIn has replaced Facebook as the tool of choice for these fast growing companies compared to the 2011 report.

-- 67% of Inc. 500 companies use Facebook, a 7% decrease from 2011. While the use of Facebook has dropped this past year, Inc. 500 companies increased their use of LinkedIn and Twitter.

-- One third of the Inc. 500 companies report the ability to financially determine the return on their social media investment. Of those, 19% believe they have cut costs in their recruiting efforts due to their social media investments.

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