Report: Adoption of Enterprise Social Technologies is Slow

From Fortune 500 companies to local small businesses, most companies realize the value social media can generate. However, creating a cohesive brand image of means making brand advocates out all employees, from the top of the organization all the way down. A new report from the Chief Marketing Officer Council and Executive Networks Inc, examines the importance of employees in establishing the brand persona.

According to the report, brand persona is an essential part of attracting new talent and building long lasting customer relationships. But there’s a challenge:

Only 62 percent of respondents report having a formal brand platform that defines shared values, ethics and collective buy-in to a singular value proposition.

Additionally, only 37 percent of the 230 senior marketing and HR leaders surveyed from around the world believed they had a well defined corporate culture that was universally embraced within their organization. However, 70 percent believed their management teams were committed to the company’s image, identity, culture and collective ethos.

Brands seek to engage their employees, and use them to spread the brand persona through internal communication campaigns, employee meetings and gatherings, and through training and development programs. But the adoption of internal social media and communication tools is slow, according to the report.

Half of survey respondents expressed a desire to utilize more social tools to effectively crowdsource branding and real time brand engagement with their employees. Most wanted to turn employees into active advocates and brand champions; why wouldn’t they when brand advocacy can be so powerful.

Other reasons for the interest in enterprise social technologies included a desire to reinforce brand authenticity, to gain recognition and visibility for employee efforts, and to unify, engage and activate their whole organization.

Download the full report for more information on how successful brands are working to engage sectors of their employees.

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