I found this rather an interesting read this morning.  As per Newswire, Chicago:

• 1/4 of companies leverage social media to recruit and research potential employees
• 25% of companies connect with their clients and find new business
  
• 35% of employers use social media to promote their company
  
• 29% of companies with less than 500 employees utilize social media
• more than 1/2 of leisure and hospitality organizations use social media

As companies emerge from one of the steepest economic downturns in history, they understand the significant reach and importance of using social media to promote and rebuild their organizations. It is so great to here because when I ran my brick and mortar business facebook had a terrible rap.  It was known as the college student’s toy.  It was never thought as a business builder for clients and revenue.

But times are changing and changing fast!  Social media for business hasn’t been around all that long at least the marketing strategy concept of increasing client base and revenue builder.  At our local college near my hometown, their marketing course barely touch on Internet Marketing in last year’s (2008-2009) curriculum.  Social media allows organizations to communicate in ways that didn’t exist ten or even five years ago, promoting their services and brands while also supplementing their recruitment strategy.  There are a lot of businesses out there that still think old school and I really hate to think that in these tough economic times that if they don’t embrass this new way of marketing for their business…they are going to be left behind.  Because MOBILE MARKETING is here and it is here to stay!

Newswire, Chicago reported that when it came to businesses managing social media strategy, 43 percent of employers report that their marketing department handles social media outreach, followed by public relations (26 percent) and human resources (19 percent). One-quarter (25 percent) of employers have 1-3 people communicating on behalf of their organization, while 7 percent report that 4-5 people handle the work. Eleven percent said that more than six people communicate for their company via social media. Fifty-seven percent said they didn’t know. Read More→