世論 What Japan Thinks

This recent survey from goo Research, in conjuction with social media consultants Looops Communications, took a look at corporate social media use, a follow-up to a July survey into the same topic.

Demographics

Between the 11th and 15th of November 2010 480 members of the goo Research online monitor group who used a corporate Twitter account as part of their job completed a private internet-based questionnaire. Sex and age demographics were not reported as they were not particularly significant; instead company size was reported. 34.2% worked in companies of under 10 employees, 20.8% between 10 and 99 employees, 26.9% between 100 and 999 employees, and 18.1% with 1,000 or more employees. Furthermore, 64.0% were consumer-oriented companies (B2C), 23.5% public or private-sector oriented (B2B), and 12.5% were both B2C and B2B.

My employer just recently got ranked in the top ten social media-using corporations in Japan according to Agile Media Networks. The results first Coca-Cola, second Suntory, third Sega, fourth Panasonic, fifth Lawson’s, sixth Ajinomoto, seventh Nike, eighth Sony, ninth Universal Studios Japan, and tenth Unilever. Surprisingly, Uniqlo were not in the top fifty. Perhaps I should translate that result soon?

Research results

Q1: Which of the following social media services does your company use? (Sample size=315 and 480, multiple answer)

	Previous (July) N=315	This (November) N=480
Twitter	100.0%	100.0%
Blog	69.2%	76.5%
YouTube	3.1%	57.7%
mixi	42.9%	51.7%
Facebook	21.0%	30.6%
Ustream	19.0%	27.3%

Q2: For what purposes do you use each of the social media services? (Sample size=315 and 480, multiple answer)

	Twitter N=473	Facebook N=147	mixi N=248	YouTube N=277	Blog N=367	Ustream N=131
Overall company branding	44.6%	40.8%	30.6%	31.0%	39.8%	31.3%
Individual employee branding	23.0%	30.6%	27.0%	19.1%	20.7%	19.1%
Particular product, service branding	20.9%	19.0%	16.1%	20.2%	21.6%	17.6%
Promotional campaign use	30.4%	20.4%	21.8%	19.5%	25.6%	23.7%
To increase site visitors	21.1%	17.7%	14.5%	16.2%	26.1%	9.2%
Electronic commerce	8.2%	10.2%	6.9%	9.0%	12.3%	8.4%
Advertising	38.3%	23.1%	31.0%	29.6%	39.2%	29.0%
Recruitment	5.3%	7.6%	4.8%	4.0%	5.4%	3.1%
Product, service improvement	14.2%	11.6%	12.1%	11.2%	11.4%	11.5%
Other	1.3%	1.4%	1.2%	2.2%	1.9%	2.3%

Q3A: What guidelines do you have on social media activities? (Sample size=315 and 480, multiple answer)

	Previous (July) N=315	This (November) N=480
What is allowed and forbidden is documented	27.9%	32.1%
There is a manual including communication methods	16.8%	14.9%
There is an educational system	8.3%	8.8%
No systems in place	61.0%	58.3%

Q3B: What guidelines do you have on social media activities? (Sample size=60 and 87, companies of 1,000 employees or more, multiple answer)

	Previous (July) N=60	This (November) N=87
What is allowed and forbidden is documented	41.7%	58.6%
There is a manual including communication methods	36.7%	36.8%
There is an educational system	16.7%	20.7%
No systems in place	31.7%	25.3%

Q4: How many people are in your company’s social media team? (Sample size=315 and 480)

	Previous (July) N=315	This (November) N=480
One person	38.4%	30.7%
Two or three people	24.1%	31.9%
Four or five people	18.1%	19.9%
Six to nine people	12.1%	10.4%
Ten to fourteen people	6.3%	5.7%
Fifteen or more people	1.0%	1.5%

Q5: What is your company’s total annual budget for social media activities? (Sample size=60 and 87, companies of 1,000 employees or more)

	Previous (July) N=60	This (November) N=87
Nothing	10.0%	11.5%
Up to 1 million yen	16.7%	13.8%
Up to 3 million yen	13.3%	13.8%
Up to 5 million yen	8.3%	20.7%
Up to 10 million yen	13.3%	12.6%
Over 10 million yen	13.3%	17.2%
Don’t know	25.0%	10.3%

Q6: What issues do you have regarding using corporate social media accounts? (multiple answer)

	Twitter N=473	Facebook N=147	mixi N=248	YouTube N=277	Blog N=367	Ustream N=131
Not enough people to deal with it	29.0%	21.1%	22.6%	21.7%	22.6%	24.4%
Cannot see an effect on sales	24.1%	30.6%	18.1%	22.4%	18.0%	14.5%
Difficult to measure effectiveness	31.5%	21.1%	28.2%	23.5%	24.0%	13.0%
Don’t know what sort of information should be broadcast	15.4%	18.4%	17.3%	18.4%	11.2%	14.5%
Not enough of an operating budget	8.9%	19.7%	13.3%	13.7%	14.2%	20.6%
Cannot get cooperation from within the company	8.0%	7.5%	8.1%	9.4%	7.9%	8.4%
Cannot get understanding from boss, top-level management	7.4%	6.8%	12.9%	8.3%	5.2%	8.4%
Worried about flame wars	12.7%	10.9%	12.9%	11.6%	16.1%	8.4%
Number of followers, fans doesn’t increase	10.8%	8.2%	8.5%	8.3%	11.2%	7.6%
Don’t have anything to post	13.5%	7.5%	9.7%	10.5%	15.0%	9.9%
Difficult to communicate with users	13.3%	10.9%	11.3%	13.7%	13.9%	7.6%
Don’t know what the issues are	6.9%	6.1%	4.4%	6.5%	6.5%	9.2%
Other	1.5%	0.0%	1.2%	0.7%	1.9%	0.8%

Q7: What social media do you want to use in the future? (Sample size=315 and 480, multiple answer)

	Previous (July) N=315	This (November) N=480
Twitter	74.6%	78.3%
Blog	59.7%	58.1%
YouTube	30.8%	28.3%
Facebook	15.2%	20.4%
mixi	20.6%	17.7%
Ustream	15.9%	13.5%