Social Media a “Must-have” for Companies (FB, LNKD, GOOG)

New research from consulting firm InSites Consulting reveals a high level of social media usage in the US, much higher than in Europe. Some 80% of US companies use Facebook Inc. (NASDAQ: FB), 45% use Twitter, 48% use LinkedInc Corp. (NYSE: LNKD), and 31% use YouTube, a division of Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG).

By way of comparison, in Europe the highest level of Facebook usage is 61% in the UK, while 45% of Dutch companies use Twitter, 42% of Dutch companies use LinkedIn, and 25% of German companies use YouTube.

However, the level of integration with a company’s business processes is considerably lower. Only 12% of companies surveyed have fully integrated their social media presence with the company’s business. More than double that number — 29% — do nothing with social media and another 27% have only taken their first steps with social media. The highest level of “done nothing” is posted in France, where 46% of respondents say their companies are doing nothing with social media.

InSites concludes that companies that have gotten off to a good start with social media will continue to invest there, while those that have not invested anything yet have no intention of doing so. As one of InSites’ founders notes, “The risk for these companies is that, in a rather short term, they will miss out on an important target group in their market.”

A copy of the InSites research presentation is available here.

Paul Ausick