Your neighbor uses it. Your doctor uses it. Even the Pope uses it. What am I talking about?

Social media, of course.

Despite the fact the world and his dog are likely to have a social network account, a blog, or use instant messaging, some businesses are still trailing behind on a format that is now ingrained within our everyday lives and is definitely here to stay.

Initial findings from Melcrum's Social Media research, which surveyed 2,065 senior communicators from hundreds of organizations worldwide, reveals that the top three difficulties communicators are facing when it comes to implementing social media tools into their strategy are:

• Inadequate metrics (41.4%)
• Management fear loss of control/could damage reputation (38.6%)
• Legal concerns (36.8%)

Use these killer stats taken from our survey on the most effective uses of social media, in order to help you build an effective business case:

1. Getting employees to talk, share information and collaborate (54.4%)
2. Connecting to and learning from Gen Y employees (51.8%)
3. Delivering live communications (46.1%)
4. Monitoring what employees say about the business (40.6%)
5. Narrowing the employee-executive divide (44.3%)

Once you've made the decision to leap into the world of Web 2.0, logon to the Internal Comms Hub to learn how to take your first tentative steps into social media.

Also, don't forget to take our social media quiz, compiled by Sam Marshall, director at ClearBox Consulting, and find out how Web 2.0 savvy you really are.

Until next time,

Nishwa

P.S. Full programme information for our European Social Media Conference is now available! Visit the website and download your brochure. But be quick, our February social media conference sold out in record time and places are filling up fast!

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