Two fascinating statistic forced their way into the news agenda this week relating to Social Media. Firstly, IT Services business Morse announced that Social Media use in business is costing the economy £1.38 billion. The report suggests more than half of office workers are using sites such as Twitter and Facebook for their own personal use during working hours wasting an average of 40 minutes a week. Whilst no-one advocates wasting their employer’s time on personal business you’ve got ask how much business benefit is also being generated by this time? I certainly believe that in my own business it is positively productive for my team to be actively participating in new social media.
The second stat that appeared was that it is now estimated that social networking sites account for 25% of online display ad impressions . Media research consultancy comscore.com estimate that social media sites accounted for 13.8billion impressions in August 2009 in the UK. This amounts to some 25% of all UK online display ad impressions! Telecoms providers were the heaviest users but retailers similarly have woken up to the value of social media sites for targeting customers. As Mike Read, comScores’ MD says “….these data suggest that every demographic segment is reached via social networking sites and that no particular age segment accounts for an overwhelming percentage of ads delivered. Given the overall reach and volume of ads delivered on social networking sites, brand advertisers who ignore this channel may be missing a significant opportunity and enabling their competitors to gain a dominant share of voice in the channel.”
Posted by Geraint
27th October 2009
Morse’s study sounds like it’s a negative view, quite backward in terms of management impression, “cost to the nation,” etc. So your comment is appropriate, despite the threatening idea that if an employee pocketed a few paper clips yesterday and spends a half-hour idling on Facebook today, he/she will embezzle eight million pounds tomorrow.
There a line in Deuteronomy, “Do not muzzle an ox while it is treading out the corn.” Social media (to stretch a metaphor) has become our field and our vineyard, and there to be used. Sincerely – the ox in Texas.
Comment by Richard Laurence Baron — October 27, 2009 @ 1:27 pm |