By Nick Johnson - February 17th, 2010

So, a little explanation. Whilst doing research for the Corporate Social Media Summit, I spoke with over 20 social media execs- in the main from big companies like PepsiCo, IBM, Dell, Toyota, Xe...

So, a little explanation.

Whilst doing research for the Corporate Social Media Summit, I spoke with over 20 social media execs- in the main from big companies like PepsiCo, IBM, Dell, Toyota, Xerox, Warner Brothers, etc etc.

I've basically pasted all my (pretty comprehensive) notes into wordle, and this is what comes out! Obviously 'social' and 'media' figure pretty highly...

I've used these notes in another way, too. They are the basis of the agenda for the Corporate Social Media Summit (15 - 16 June, NYC). I am relieved to see 'marketing' and 'comms' as BIG words in the cloud - considering the conference is targetted towards people in those job roles. I think that the prevalence of these terms seems to suggest what I've long suspected - that most companies are considerably further along with using social media for marketing and comms than for anything else.

HOWEVER, then you notice 'people' - about the biggest word in there (it's in light blue right at the bottom). Now in the main this will be because in responses, interviewees have been talking about 'people' as in 'people that read our blog/see our facebook feed' etc - ie audience. But there is another use of 'people' - and that's in terms of 'internal engagement' - 'using social media to engage our people'.

The way I see it, if companies use social media exclusively for marketing/comms, they're missing out. What about internal comms? What about product development? What about customer service? What about corporate responsibility/sustainability?

They're all areas that the more forward-thinking companies I spoke to are already using social media for. And I think as the year progresses, there will be a further understanding on how social media will fundamentally change the way companies do business - not just how they market products.

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