What other companies are up to in social media
By Molly FlattMindshare have released an interesting report examining the social media activity of six major brands (Dow Chemical, John Deere, NetApp, New York Life, Toyota, and Vodafone) and how their failure to engage with certain communities, or address issues emerging from consumer conversation, is leaving them vulnerable.
The full report costs big dollar but you can download a decent Exec Summary here. There is an emphasis on spread rather than strategy, and information rather than insight (the comparison of number of Twitter followers is particularly spurious), and little distinction is made between the value of brand to peer conversation vs. peer to peer conversation. But it provides a good overview of how a few big boys are engaging – or not – with online word of mouth, and Mindshare’s key conclusions are telling:
“it was shocking to realize how vulnerable businesses are that stay away from social media [...] the “MindShare Report” demonstrates not only that social media is heavily used by businesses across all industries but also that it poses a significant threat to companies who do not understand how publicly available information can be used by their competitors to create devastating effects”
