Inc. 500 Social Media Study

The Journal of New Communications Research - published by the Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) - has a study looking at social media knowledge and usage among the Inc. 500. 

The authors are Eric Mattson, a marketing consultant who works in social media, and Dr. Nora Barnes, a UMass professor who has done extensive academic research and publishing on social media.  The study was released earlier this year, but since the printing of academic journals takes time the hardcopy has only recently been released.  A study PDF can be found here.

The key finding of the study is that knowlege and use of social media in the Inc. 500 is quite high:

• 42% of the respondents were aware of online social networking tools and 27% reported using them in their business
• 36% were aware of blogging and 19% reported using blogs in their business
• 31% were aware of online video and 24% reported using online video in their business

26% reported that social media was very important to their business/marketing strategy and 40% said it was somewhat important - and 51% reported monitoring social media.  Key quote from the study conclusions:

"Social media has arrived in the Inc. 500.  They've invested the time to learn about them and are using them in far larger numbers than one might expect from previous studies."

Given the make-up of the Inc. 500 it is not surprising that they are small business leaders in terms of social media knowledge and use, and we expect the use of social media usage to rapidly expand in the small business sector. Inc. has an article summarizing the study. 

Disclosure:  I am a senior fellow and board member at the Society for New Communications Research.  I did not participate in the study or the selection of the study for journal inclusion.