The survey found that while companies are beginning to invest in social tools and processes, there is still a long way to go before social media becomes fully integrated into business operations. Employees believe social could improve customer acquisition and service as well as internal collaboration, but the perceived benefits vary depending on location and company size. Respondents felt that shifting company culture and designating social media owners were more important than budget when improving social media use.

1. The State of Social at Work
September 2012

2. Why focus on the user’s
perspective?
Social media has already greatly
impacted the way we interact in our
personal lives, and promises to do the
same for us professionally.
WORLDWIDE REGIONAL POPULARITY
ASIAAPACIFIC REGIONAL USERS CONSTITUTE ONEETHIRD OF THE WORLD’S SOCIAL NETWORKING
POPULATION. HOWEVER, LATIN AMERICA ACCOUNTS FOR THE LARGEST AMOUNT OF TIME SPENT ON
SOCIAL NETWORKS.
© 2012

3. Getting a pulse on social
enterprise adoption
The hype is high, but it’s still not clear where people and companies are on the
spectrum of social adoption.
Early Adopter Early Mainstream Mainstream Adpotion
© 2012

4. Benefits of social loom large, but
open questions remain
Companies are investing in social tools ...but how much, why and where to
and processes... invest remain open questions.
tools sh
hich ou
W l
should h I in
d
uc
Iu
? How do I
rol
m
ve ROI?
nt
m
e
se? Who s
o
y? How
st? Where s
as
c
ure
ra ld I relinquish
teg
u
ho
ho S
uld
I start?
h
ou
ld t
own the s
© 2012

5. Methodology
Appirio commissioned a third-party Our survey was in the field from August
online survey to gauge perceptions of 9-10, 2012.
social media in business.
There were 303 respondents,
The online survey was hosted by representing various industries.
Itracks, a leading expert in online
market research and the patent holder
for online qualitative applications.
This survey focused on the personal
perspective of executives, managers
and individual contributors at
companies with more than 100
employees – not necessarily decision
makers of social investments.
© 2012

6. Demographics
50% 50% 31%
30%
Executive 14%
20%
18%
Manager 69%
100- 501- 1001-
USA UK 500 1000 4000 4000+ Individual 18%
Country Company Size Level
Role Industry
Technology: 12%
Sales: 13%
IT: 14% Government: 9%
Financial: 16%
Services
Support: 13% Retail: 8%
Healthcare: 7%
Marketing: 5%
HR: 5% Media: 5%
Communications 2% Other: 37% Non-Profit: 4%
Other: 42%
Business Owner: 6% Packaged Goods: 3%
© 2012

7. Key Findings
1 Users say their companies are investing in social, but there’s still a long road
ahead before social becomes pervasive on the job.
2 Employees and managers want more investment in social compared to other
business priorities.
3 Customer-facing benefits top the list of perceived benefits, but beyond that
vary based on demographic.
4 Company culture and ownership are more important than budget when it
comes to improving the use of social in business.
© 2012

8. Companies making progress
with social
Companies making investments.. ..in social policies, advertising,
Does your company have budgets or and apps
resources set aside to make business How is your company investing today
processes social? to make its business more social?
Establishing
policies and
guidelines
47%
Building out a
presence on social
sites
37%
35% Adding social
37% 27% Don’t
features to existing
internal apps
31%
Yes No Know
New platforms to
collaborate interally 30%
Resources to
monitor and
engage externally
29%
Making own
products social
19%
Not investing at all
16%
© 2012

9. Long road ahead before social
becomes pervasive on the job
Majority of companies are social media beginners or worse
How far along would you say your company is in using social media?
Antisocial: Not investing in social at all
13%
Investigating: Researching social tools and strategies 15%
Beginner: Testing social tools and strategies
29%
Intermediate: Using 1-3 socials tools
36%
Advanced: Actively using 4 or more social tools
8%
© 2012

10. Long road ahead before social
becomes pervasive on the job
People typically use social tools twice as often for personal use
What social tools do you use?
In your personal life To do your job
66% 39%
Social Networking e.g. Facebook Social Recruiting e.g. LinkedIn
62% 29%
Professional Networking e.g. LinkedIn None
37% 24%
Video/Photo Sharing e.g. Flickr or Youtube Engage Customers e.g. Twitter, Google+
22% 10%
Microblogging e.g. Twitter Social Networking e.g. Jive, Chatter
14% 10%
Other Other
11%
None
© 2012

11. High demand and perceived need
for social investment
84% of employees think companies should maintain or increase
investments
How much time/resources SHOULD your company invest in becoming a social
enterprise compared to other business priorities?
41% 6% 43% 10%
More Less Same None
© 2012

12. High demand and perceived need
for social investment
Employees believe social could improve customer acquisition, service
and collaboration
Where in your company would social tools and processes have the biggest impact?
Attract new customers
26%
Engage and service existing customers 25%
Improve collaboration and information sharing
15%
Engage employees and increase job satisfaction
12%
Attract new employees
9%
Improve business operations
7%
Other
5%
© 2012

13. Beyond acquiring new customers and
servicing existing customers, perceived
benefits vary by geo and size
Where in your company would social tools and processes have the biggest impact?
US UK 100-500 500-1000 1001-4000 4000+
Attract new customers 32% 20% 35% 38% 23% 16%
Engaging and service
exsisting customers
25% 25% 24% 20% 25% 30%
Improve collaboration
and information sharing
15% 14% 16% 18% 11% 16%
Engage employees and
increase job satisfaction
8% 16% 2% 10% 17% 15%
Attract new employees 8% 10% 9% 8% 8% 10%
Improve business operations 8% 7% 5% 3% 12% 7%
Other 3% 7% 9% 3% 4% 5%
U.K. respondents were twice as likely to select employee engagement vs U.S
U.S. respondents were 1.5x more likely to select attract new customers
Compared to small companies, large companies put half as much importance on attracting new customers and were at least 1.5x more likely to
value employee engagement
© 2012

14. Company culture and ownership are
more important than budget
What is the biggest change that needs to happen for your company to improve its
use of social tools or processes?
Shift the culture of the company
29%
Designate a person or group responsible for making it happen 20%
Set aside budget for social enterprise technologies
15%
Decentralize ownership across groups or functional areas
8%
Nothing, being a social enterprise isn’t important
9%
I don’t know
18%
© 2012

15. Implications of the data
• If you’re developing or re-evaluating a broader social strategy, don’t forget to ask
the people inside your company what they think. You won’t be successful if you base
decisions on a small group of executives or decision makers.
• Create owners across groups to drive the strategy, and to nurture and grow usage.
• Make social part of your company culture, not just a task for one group or something
you “roll-out”.
• If you’re wondering where to invest, focus on what’s most important. For many
companies, that’s attracting and servicing customers.
• If you’re not doing anything with social, you should be. Your employees are asking for it.
© 2012

16. Appirio combines new ideas with cloud technology to help companies
become more efficient and agile - freeing them from the inflexible
technlogies of the past so they can take advantage of advancements in
social and mobile to better engage customers and employees. We provide
technology enabled services, supported by 500 cloud experts around
the world and a global crowdsourcing developer community, that help
companies adopt, connect and extend cloud platforms like Salesforce.com,
Google, Workday and Amazon Web Services.
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