The C-suite recognizes social media’s impact on business initiatives like branding, recruitment and knowing your customers
JUNE 27, 2012 – According to a Queen’s University School of Business study conducted in April by Environics Research Group, 35% of business executives in Canada reported already heavily using social media because it provided a good opportunity for their company. Another 39% felt that social media was something that their business needed to use, whether they wanted to or not. Only 24% doubted its impact on business altogether.
The largest benefit to using social media, according to 39% of the executives, was increasing brand awareness among target consumers. This was followed by recruiting top talent (21%), developing a better understanding of customers (17%), and increasing new business and/or growth (14%).
eMarketer estimates that the number of social media users in Canada will reach 16.9 million this year, or just under half of the total population. By 2014, social media users will total 18.5 million, accounting for 68% of internet users and 53% of the total population.
“[Social media] is opening a world of opportunity in the way that brands communicate with the market,” comScore vice president Bryan Segal told eMarketer for the March 2012 report “Canada’s Social Scene: More Sophisticated Marketing Meets a Growing Audience.” “[It is] providing a first-of-its-kind platform for a more engaging and candid conversation with consumers.”
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