Please take our survey!

Three years ago we initiated our first Social Media Usage Survey (you can see the results from the 2010 and 2011 surveys here). Our goal was simple: how to help our clients and others understand trends in social media so they can be smarter, more flexible and more successful.  This year we are partnering with Enquirer Media to reach even more business people in our marketplace.

If you are a business person, please take our survey (just click here and you’re off and running).  It will only take a few minutes.

Why should you?

Well, in 2010, and again in 2011, we said social media was evolving.  Now, in 2012, the story’s the same.  Consider:

• In just the past week, Microsoft introduced Surface, the tablet/laptop/desktop portable device that just may break down the walls between business and social tablet usage.  That seems to be the business objective for Microsoft.  Stay tuned.
• Yesterday we learned that RIM (maker of Blackberry) is initiating layoffs to preserve cash likely in a bid to either retool (yet, again) or sell. What will RIM be later?  To whom might it sell? Stay tuned.
• One year ago, Pinterest was hardly known. Today, according to studies, it is the third most visited social media site and drives more traffic to retail websites than Google+, LinkedIn, Reddit and YouTube combined. Can Pinterest keep going?  What does it mean for businesses? Stay tuned.
• Facebook, still the gorilla in the room, stumbled with its IPO and its growth seems to be slowing. And, by going public, it will change. It must generate revenue more steadily and regularly to remain attractive to investors. How will it change? What will its change mean? Stay tuned.

In business, social media is changing the way consumers, customers, employees, stakeholders, shareholders and more receive and share information. Whether the new Surface, smartphones, Pinterest or Facebook, businesses need to be smarter and more flexible about how they communicate to the audiences that influence their brand, or their company’s product or service offering.

And, businesses need to understand how others can and are influencing the value of their brand, or their company’s product or service offering.

For Vehr Communications, this survey has helped us to stay on top of local trends and ultimately provide better and more strategic counsel to our clients as it pertains to social media. For our clients, and anyone else who is interested, the survey results are offered as a guide to how their competitors and colleagues are utilizing social media.

So, please take the survey and we’ll send you the results. I’m quite certain we won’t be predicting the future of Facebook or Microsoft, but maybe you’ll learn something that will help you be a little smarter and better than the other guy.