Researchers Eric Mattson and Nora Ganim Barnes at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth’s Center for Marketing Research recently conducted a survey of US companies in Inc. Magazine’s 500 list for 2006 with 121 of the 500 participating. I heard about it from Scott Clark. Companies make this list based on growth rather than size like the Fortune 500. A previous study indicated that only 40 (8%) of the Fortune 500 had public blogs as of 10/05/06. The Fortune 500 Business Blogging Wiki has a list of these firms and sample blogs for each firm. This new study looked inside the organization and was not limited to public uses of social media. All interviews took place by phone in November and December of 2006.

They used six forms of social media, social networking, message boards, blogs, online video, podcasting, and wikis. I am not sure I would count message boards and online video might mean several things but the data on the other four seems interesting. Here are some findings.

social networking – very familiar with it 42%, company uses it 27%
message boards – very familiar 38%, company uses 33%
blogs – very familiar 36%, company uses 19%
online video – very familiar 31%, company uses 24%
podcasting – very familiar 36%, company uses 11%
wikis - .very familiar 16%, company uses 17%

Next, “How important is social media to your business/marketing strategy?
Very Important – 26%
Important – 40%
Somewhat unimportant – 19%
Very Unimportant – 13%
No response – 2%

The published summary does not say who within the companies responded and that could certainly effect results. It also does not say if they asked about use inside and/or outside the organization or simply asked about use in general. They are publishing the detailed reports in several academic journals later this year so those details may be available then.

I get roughly the same findings whenever I speak on web 2.0 and I ask similar questions about blogs, wikis, tagging, podcasting. But then these are people who came to a talk on the subject. I have heard from a number of audiences that wiki use within the organization is the fastest growing social media because wikis can be applied to so many practical tasks such as event planning. The title of the Um Mass study is “The Hype is Real, Social Media Invades the Inc. 500.” CNN could not have titled it better but this statement seems a stretch to me based on their results. However, there is clearly a growing awareness within large and mid-size firms. The Watson Wyatt study I quoted earlier showed an even larger appetite for social media within the enterprise than this current one. I am sure the academics and big consulting firms will be all over this with more studies soon.