Survey: Only 27% of companies have social media-focused employee

By Leigh Goessl (Guest contributor/Digital Journalist)

A new survey has found that less than one-third of companies have a designated employee to manage social media accounts. Instead, it appears most businesses assign social media as a task on top of other employee job responsibilities.

The survey, conducted by Ragan Communications and NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions, found that employers “are cautious” about assigning social media as a primary duty to specific employees, reported Mashable.

In determining these results, the two firms polled over 2,700 social-media professionals and it was discovered 27 percent of companies assign social media as a position, but 65 percent opt to include social media as an additional job responsibility on top of other designated tasks

.”They’re doing events, they’re putting out newsletters, they’re writing press releases, and now they’re handed this task of overseeing Twitter accounts, Facebook and Pinterest pages,” says Mark Ragan, CEO of Ragan Communications, in a press release.

The survey results led to the creation of an 18-page white paper that outlines all the findings.

“It is becoming more important than ever for communicators to pause to evaluate the role of social media within their organizations,” said Demetrios Skalkotos, senior vice president, NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions in the press release. “The Ragan/NASDAQ OMX Corporate Solutions survey provides insight to help communicators fully understand the current impact and potential of social media as a marketing and communications tool that can drive their business, deliver a positive client experience, create and sustain a positive brand and reputation.”

Other findings showed businesses have not been increasing their social media budgets and are unlikely to do so in 2013. Additionally, 70 percent of survey participants were “dissatisfied” or only “somewhat satisfied” with how they measure social media efforts.

Many experts today recommend including social media strategy as part of a company’s marketing plan as without a plan, it’s unlikely objectives will be reached.

The companies plan to create a six-part article series to be posted on Ragan.com that explores the survey data in greater detail.

This article originally appeared on Digital Journal [Link]