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Social Media Use AmongDirectors and Senior Managers
Professor David F. Larcker
Center for Leadership Development & Research
Stanford Graduate School of Business
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Social Media Seems Extremely Important
• Edelman survey, 20121 marks the first year that “listening to customers” is considered equally important as providing “high quality products or services” to building trust in a corporation
• According to BRANDFog2, consumers expect to be able to engage with companies and their brands through social media. Similarly, employees prefer to work for a company that is active in social media
• Firms that embrace Web 2.0 (social technologies) and social media are more likely to be market leaders, have their market share increase, and use management practices that lead to higher margins (McKinsey calls these firms “networked enterprises”).3
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FedEx
http://youtu.be/PKUDTPbDhnA
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Apple
A $12 Billion Move In Apple Stock Seems To Have Started With Tweets From A Single Anonymous Source In China5
The organization that got the news in the headlines is a group called Chinese Labor Watch which said it got its information from "workers," but its press release was mostly cribbed from the tweets of just one person.
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Comcast Response
Frank Eliason
“Frank Eliason: Helping Comcast suck a little bit less”
“I can give full kudos to Frank for being so personable, and as much as it pains me to say it, I have to acknowledge Comcast as a whole for bringing customer service to the digital age.”7
BusinessWeek: “I think it's safe to call Comcast's Frank Eliason the most famous customer service manager in the U.S., possibly in the world.”8
@comcastcares
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Some Obvious Questions
• What do senior executives and board members really know about (personal and business uses of) social media?
• Is social media information incorporated into strategic decisions and risk management at the highest levels of organizations?
• Do senior executives and board members monitor and evaluate processes for collecting and analyzing social media data within the firm?
• What is the precise “value proposition” for social media? Are there compelling analyses that expenditures on social media are value increasing for shareholders?
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Our Survey9
• Only CEOs, senior-level executives, and board members
• Typically in their mid-50’s
• Across a broad set of industries — manufacturing, utilities, banking, and services
• Fairly large companies —> $500 million in revenue
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Our Perspective on Social Media
• “…a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions…” (Groundswell)
• It’s really about the relationships and the innate human desire to connect, not just the technologies
• Social media is not just a channel, it’s a conversation that:
– is very big
– highly influential
– will go on regardless of what a firm does
– If ignored can cause real problems (or missed opportunities)
• Social media deserves serious research effort
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Basic Social Media Knowledge
Which of the following logos, representing websites or services, do you recognize? Check off those that you can name.
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn Google+ RSS Pinterest Wikipedia ShareThis Klout0
20
40
60
80
100
50 and Under
51 to 60
61 and Older
Total
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Basic Social Media Knowledge
With which of the following websites or services do you have an account?
Which of the following websites or services do you use most frequently?
YouTube
Google+
None of These
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
YouTube
Google+
None of These
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45
Pretty High for 2012
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Basic Social Media Knowledge
0.652 0.348
Do you use social media for personal (non-business) purposes?
Do you use social media for professional (business) purposes?
0.625 0.375
However, mostly Spectators (read blogs, follow others, etc), as opposed to Creators (create blogs, publish Twitter updates, etc.)
Substantial overlap between personal and professional usage
Yes No Yes No
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Understanding the Impact of Social Media
0.217 0.342 0.342 0.06 0.038
Very Good Understanding
Moderately Good Understanding
Modest Understanding
Moderately Poor Understanding
Very Poor UnderstandingNot Great! • Marketing and Branding
• Customer Outreach• Collaboration and Info Sharing• Organizational Risk
How well do you understand the impact that social media can have on your company? (check one)
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Do They Use the Information?
Does your company use social media to support or promote its business activities?
How does your company use social media? (check all that apply)
Other
To communicate with shareholders
To research new products or services
To communicate with employees
To communicate with other stakeholders
To research competitors
To research customers
To advertise or sell to customers
To communicate and interact with customers
0.764 0.236
Yes No
Maybe! Mostly Marketing and Sales
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0.324 0.5 0.176
Yes No Don’t Know
You Get What You Measure
Does your company use information gathered from social media as part of the key performance measures that track the success of its business activities?
0.142 0.656 0.202
Yes No Don’t Know
Does your company use social media to monitor potential risks to its business activities?
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0.236 0.555 0.209
Yes No Don’t Know
You Get What You Measure
0.077 0.858 0.066
Yes No Don’t Know
Does the board of directors receive reports containing summary information and metrics from social media? (check one)
Does senior management receive reports containing summary information and metrics from social media?
• Not collected • Not valuable • Too low level
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0.481 0.355 0.164
Yes No Don’t Know
0.432 0.415 0.153
Yes No Don’t Know
0.147 0.75 0.103
Yes No Don’t Know
Does your company have formal social media participation guidelines or policies for board members?
Does your company have formal social media participation guidelines or policies for senior management?
Many Firms Do Not Even Have Guidelines!
Does your company have formal social media participation guidelines or policies for employees?
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Some Preliminary Takeaways
• Executives and board members have some understanding about social media for personal and (in some cases) professional applications
• They understand the potential for social media to impact their firms in both positive and negative ways
• However, they have not been convinced about the value proposition of social media
– Social media information gathering and analysis is in its “infancy”
– Social media data is difficult to distill into a useable format
– Possible serious selection bias with social media respondents
• Executives and board members may view social media as “beneath them” and is only for marketing or public relations
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Bibliography
1 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer http://trust.edelman.com/).
2 BRANDfog, 2012 CEO, Social Media and Leadership Survey, 2012 (www.brandfog.com/CEOSocialMediaSurvey/BRANDfog_2012_CEO_Survey.pdf).
3 Jacques Bughin and Michael Chui, “The Rise of the Networked Enterprise: Web 2.0 Finds Its Payday,” McKinsey Quarterly, December 2010. Available at: (www.mckinseyquarterly.com/; Organization/Strategic_Organization/The_rise_of_the_networked_enterprise_Web_20_finds_its_payday_2716?pagenum=2).
4 goobie55, "FedEx Guy Throwing My Computer Monitor,” YouTube, Web, December 19, 2011, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PKUDTPbDhnA.
5 Nicholas Carson, “A $12 Billion Move In Apple Stock Seems To Have Started With Tweets From A Single Anonymous Source In China,” Business Insider, October 11, 2012, http://www.businessinsider.com/a-12-billion-move-in-apple-stock-seems-to-have-started-with-tweets-from-a-single-anonymous-source-in-china-2012-10.
6 http://forums.comcast.com/; http://comcastsucks.org/; Casey Rae, “On Comcast and NBC Universal,” The Contrarian, December 10, 2009, http://www.thecontrarianmedia.com/2009/12/on-comcast-and-nbc-universal/; ; DoorFrame, “A Comcast Technician Sleeping on my Couch,” YouTube, Web, June 20, 2006, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CvVp7b5gzqU.
7 Melanie Seasons, “Eliason: Helping Comcast suck a little bit less,” Fake Plastic Noodle blog, August 5, 2008.
8 Rebecca Reisner, Comcast's Twitter Man, BloombergBusinessWeek, January 13, 2009, http://www.businessweek.com/managing/content/jan2009/ca20090113_373506.htm
9 David Larcker, Sarah Larcker and Brian Tayan, “What Do Corporate Directors and Senior Managers Know about Social Media?”, The Conference Board Director Notes, October 2012, http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/cldr/research/surveys/social.html. Survey conducted jointly by Stanford Rock Center for Corporate Governance and The Conference Board.