No Suprise Here: Social Network Participation Increasingly Affects Executive Decision Making

The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR), a global nonprofit research and education foundation and think tank, has announced the results of the 2nd annual New Symbiosis of Professional Networks Study led by SNCR Fellows Donald Bulmer, Vice President, Global Communications, Industry and Influencer Relations, SAP, and Vanessa DiMauro, CEO of Leader Networks.

The study — supported by quantitative data gathered from more than 100 senior business professionals and executives — benchmarks the impact of social media on enterprise decision-making.

This study extends the research Bulmer and DiMauro began in 2009 and 2010 focusing on professionals’ use of social media for decision-making. The 2010-2011 study examines the dynamics of trust that professionals have within their social media communities, as well as the value of engagement and collaboration to support decision-making and innovation across company operations for internal and external purposes.

Of the 114 executives who participated in the study, most were key decision makers in their respective companies that ranged in size from under 100 to over 50,000 full time employees.

The complete study findings can be seen on SlideShare here.

Key findings from the study include:

• No longer is collaboration an experience between a limited number of people.
  Social networks have evolved to become knowledge and communication networks, and access to thought leadership content is now the primary reason professionals visit networks and communities. Professionals are collaborating with each other through the thought leadership content they generate, curate or share.
• Combination of mainstream and micro or niche networks best for networking.
  While nearly all professionals surveyed (97%) use LinkedIn, the use of smaller (niche) professional networks are actively being used to find peers and content specifically related to the work that they do (by role, industry, geography, etc.). Professionals are finding the right mix of large open networks and private communities to support their learning, networking and decision-making activities.
• Decision making process accelerated via social networking.
  Professional communities are being used more frequently to inform business strategy and supporting new products and services (much more than in 2009). A majority (80%) of respondents are able to accelerate decision process and information/strategy development by participating in online communities.
• Positive reviews and endorsements to have an impact on business decisions.
  Endorsement (e.g. like, read, share, retweet) is at the center of collaboration in social media communities. “The Crescendo Effect” in social media environments has great impact on buying decisions. High quality content yields transparency and credibility.

For more information about the Society for New Communications Research, please visit http://sncr.org.