powering Australia's discovery of the third place

Community Engine has been watching and listening. Over the past two years, we have been on a mission to provide Australian organisations with proprietary social networks and online communities. Not just any platform, their OWN platform. In the past year especially, we’ve seen an explosion of interest in the products and services we’ve built and now provide.

Social media is fundamentally transforming the way business is done. Which is why we commissioned Nielsen to undertake the first Social Media Business Benchmarking Study to benchmark the broader Australian business community’s investment and experience in this space.

The study conducted shows clear understanding that corporate Australia no longer asks “if” social media should be part of the plan.  They’re asking how. It’s time to understand what this all means for our future and the future of every business out there. We plan to conduct this research annually so that we can track adoption year on year.  Over the next few weeks, we’re going to embark on a series of posts to share more of the results and provide a deeper insight into the findings.

THE REALITY

We’ve watched 3^rd party social media sites become all the rage over the past year. With an explosion of Facebook users and Twitter dabblers, companies have wondered how to make sense of it all if they should even be trying to in the first place.  Community Engine has spent the last couple of years working with organisations to create their own proprietary social sites. Why?  Because by having your own social networking platform, it provides better insights into all facets of the business as well as establishes the environment for stronger connections with customers and other stakeholders, thus making the social platform a LONG-TERM strategic business asset.

With numbers rising from 40 per cent of Australian businesses engaging in an online social platform in 2009 to an expected 71 per cent by the end of 2010, there is no denying where your customers are. Here are some things we now know about Australia’s online behaviour:

• 86% read online consumer reviews about products, services or brands
• 75% belong to a social media site
• 63% interact with others via social networking sites
• 59% have a profile on Facebook
• Twitter saw 979% growth in audience levels in 2009
• 38% engaged with brands and companies via social networking sites
• Australians are global leaders in the time spent on social media sites

This is only the beginning. 50 per cent of the surveyed organisations agreed that they risk losing touch with their customers if they don’t employ social media activities.  The bottom line: Thriving organisations will be the ones who embrace social media because social media is where your customers are.

More insights to follow in the forthcoming days and weeks…

posted by Venessa in the category Reserach & Statistics
Tags: nielsen-community engine social media business benchmarking study, research