Study: When social media becomes a management issue

The "Bernet ZHAW Study Social Media Switzerland" is published for the fourth time after 2012, 2013 and 2016. Guido Keel, scientific director of the study at the IAM Institute for Applied Media Science at the ZHAW: "The new study shows a professionalization. More strategic groundwork, budgets for implementation and a more positive perception of the cost-benefit ratio are aspects of this."

Compared to previous studies, there is an increase in resources for social media channels: Some 80% of all respondents have budgets or will soon be speaking funds. There is also more investment in paid outreach: A majority of organizations regularly extend the reach of their content via social ads. 40% of respondents use this option weekly or even daily, a clear majority of them on Facebook.

The most important findings at a glance:

Engagement stagnates - only a few newbies left

The proportion of organisations involved in social media has stagnated at a high 89%. There has been a significant increase in those already highly experienced users who have been using the channels for more than six years. Around half are in the process of acquiring a certain amount of experience (one to a maximum of six years of use). Only a small minority are new users. The few who are absent gave loss of control, difficulties with the organization or the lack of convincing concepts as reasons.

More and more strategic

Previous research showed a lack of strategic approach. There has been significant catching up here. 90% already have written guidelines, but about half of them only for areas or projects. NPOs and unlisted companies in particular still operate without a strategy. There is also room for improvement in the cross-company integration of various departments - social media activities are usually assigned to marketing (76%) or communications (75%). HR, service and sales are also involved.

Visibility, range, proximity

The most important goal in the use of social media is still to increase the visibility of one's own company. Virtually equal in the assessment of the respondents are the goals of creating trust via social media and improving one's own image.

It is striking that political organisations and administrations primarily seek direct contact with customers or citizens via social media and also use social media as a contact medium for communicating with journalists.

Strongest growth: chat services, live streaming

Facebook and YouTube jointly topped the list of most-used platforms in 2016 - now YouTube is just ahead. The trend towards pictorial content and directly experienceable and fast-paced content via live streaming and chat networks is clearly visible. Engagement on Instagram and the business network Linkedin has continued to grow significantly - respondents also indicated that they want to learn more via both platforms.

Paid presence: More and more ads

The biggest change from previous research is in the use of paid social media space. Previously, it was only experimented with - today, a majority of companies and organizations already pay for their reach. The use is broad: Not only commercial companies, but also NPOs, government agencies and political organizations or associations are talking budgets for securing a presence. The frequency of the use of funds underlines its importance: four out of ten organisations place advertisements on the social web on a weekly basis.

Engagement: Content, Strategy, Dialogue

The respondents rated the creation and management of content as the most important activity related to the use of social media. Conceptual design and strategic development as well as dialogue management have gained somewhat in importance. Evaluation, monitoring and technical issues receive significantly less attention. According to the survey, the least investment is made in internal training and further education. New need for action is likely to arise here with further development.

Resources: More budgets and external support

Until now, organisations have often expected social media activities to take place within existing budgets. Today, 70% of all companies have specific budgets, compared to 30% in 2013. Resources are also outsourced to external partners, primarily PR and communications agencies. Specialized social media agencies have lost importance; they were named most often just two years ago. Surprisingly, content editing is outsourced the most, ahead of ad placement and technology.

Influencers everywhere: internal and external opinion leaders

Personalities who comment on a company or its offers and services - whether as internal employees or external opinion leaders - are called influencers. More than half of the organizations surveyed already work with influencers - administrations and political organizations rather with internal ones, companies with internal and external ones.

More monitoring and evaluation

Four out of five companies systematically follow social media and carry out monitoring of social media platforms. Four years ago, it was still around half. So the awareness of the importance of listening has increased. Mostly, organizations track social media activity with free monitoring apps. Organizations still measure success on social media mainly by fans, likes, followers and user numbers. Future plans include more consideration of influence on public discourse and more sentiment analysis.

Future: strategy and recruitment

Respondents see the use of social media for recruitment marketing and the expansion of social media strategy across all departments and divisions as the two activities whose importance will increase the most over the next two years.

More details from the "Bernet ZHAW Study Social Media Switzerland" can be found at here