This week we want to present a brief series catching up with the world of communications and social media, a world that we have often explored though not recently. We begin with a look at a report put out by NetProspex concerning the use of social media among America’s urban centers. The report focuses on the uses of social media among the larger businesses and corporations. Not surprisingly, businesses are well-embedded in the social network. But what patterns lie beneath the surface?
Statistical Map of Industries' Use of Social Media
In the overall spread of industries, one would not likely be surprised that web portal companies (think Yahoo and Google) top the list of users of social networks and media (receiving an index score of 98.74). But it might be surprising that the banking industry proves to be much more active with SM at 63.44 than does the traditional media sector at 55.11. The expressly non-profit sector, alas, is not listed. For a bit of dark comedy: the bottom of the 50-industry list is the funerary services at 12.09.
The report also takes into account the job positioning within industries, which suggests the lumpiness of adoption of social media depending on position within the company hierarchy (which also hints at experience and education). For example, communications, recruitment, and sales officers (indexes in the 60s) are much more engaged with social media than are compliance officers and ‘general entry level employee’ (perhaps a useful ground level of participation marked with an index of 14.10). Yet CEOs and COOs are even below the general staff, which likely points to such officers creating staff positions for others to follow the feeds and updates. Maintenance employees hold up the list at 4.12. The authors of the report also point out the dearth of financial officers on the list, which might suggest reticence of having the folks who handle the money also communicating to a larger public.
Finally, the urban centers get the SM treatment. California, home to Google, The Walt Disney Corporation, and Apple (et al.) has three representatives in the top ten, and no other state but New York has three in the top 50. Baltimore rolls in at 32 (19.95) with the nation’s capital far ahead in twelfth (26.19). Other cities finished surprisingly strong, like Boise, Idaho (38th) and Omaha, Nebraska (31st). Twitter is singled out in the report, and does not merely mimic the overall index of social-media use. New York City posted a Twitter score of 790 to beat out San Francisco, although NYC was 3rd in the overall list, behind the winning City By The Bay. The entire report can be downloaded here.
Over the next few days we shall discuss the movie “The Social Network” and look at how social media is influencing retail and politics. Where ever your town or industry is on the NetProspexes indexes, we hope you will read future installments and comment upon them and especially teach us from your experiences.
