The INC. 500 and social media: Marketing research

As a great challenge in communications, social media are widely accepted among the general population. Being very flexible and adaptable, they offer an opportunity of active participation to users, thus representing a public forum. This study presents the resultsof social media acceptance in the business world on a sample of the Inc. 500 companies in the US. The research found that familiarity, the value placed on social media and the use of different forms of social media are all related. These companies know that engaging social media requires education and a change of the management effort. They use them to gather critical strategic information by listening to what is being said about themselves and their competitors in the social media world. The Inc. 500 companies accept social media as a medium. They recognize that the marketplace is movingtheir conversations online and the business world needs to join in. These fast-growing, innovative companies offer us a glimpse of the business future because where they lead, others will certainly follow.