2009 Tribalization of Business Study

A post on the Read Write Web site caught my eye this morning. The post alerted me to Deloitte LLP’s 2009 Tribalization of Business Study, which evaluates the perceived potential of online communities and identifies how enterprises believe they may better leverage them.

Although there is a “maturation” of business use of social media, the summary document perceives that organizations are not yet reaping full potential of social media activities.

Survey results indicate that while enterprises are effectively using online tools to engage with customers, partners, and employees for brand discussion and idea generation, organizations are continuing to struggle with harnessing social media’s full potential.

I wonder if business perceptions of value are the stumbling block to wider enterprise adoption?

Of the companies surveyed, a majority agreed that the following continue to be top business objectives of online communities:

• Increase word-of-mouth (38 percent)
• Increase customer loyalty (34 percent)
• Increase brand awareness (30 percent)
• Improve idea generation (29 percent)
• Improve the quality of customer support (23 percent)

However, in the majority of companies surveyed, marketing continues to be the primary driver of online communities, resulting in a significant gap between community goals and the organizations’ capability to fully leverage these communities on an enterprise wide basis.

Regardless of personal use of social media, this is an interesting trend to watch.