CEOs and PR #2: Survey – The Evidence Warns, be Socially Engaged

Prefer Wilkinson Group

This is a turning point – the March, 2012 Economist/PulsePoint survey (The Economics of Socially Engaged Enterprise) is fascinating because it adds to the growing evidence that CEO’s are agreeing, social media impacts on sales. (See slide 8 & 10)

The top two areas where C-level executives thought social engagement had real value were improved marketing and sales effectiveness (84%) and increased sales and market share (81%) – (Slide 6).

This is emerging information, made stronger because The Economist Intelligence Unit is behind this survey. Conventional wisdom, until now, has been that social media’s strength is increasing reputation and brand – not sales.

Peter Wilkinson is the Managing Director of Wilkinson Group, a crisis communications and reputation management consultancy based in Sydney. He is former chair and consults to Wilkinson Butler. His retained advisory service, Wilkinson Confidante, provides ongoing crisis preparedness and reputation counsel to boards and senior executives. You can read his Substack here.

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