Are executives really paying attention to social media?

I'm always wary of 'studies' like the one announced last week by Hill & Knowlton and The CMO Club - "CMOs Need Greater Engagement Internally and Through Social Networks for Their Brands to Thrive".

In general, these 'studies' are usually PR exercises designed to push forth a new thought strategy by one of the proponents involved. It's pretty common PR practice, and in this case, Hill & Knowlton are flexing their muscles with client The CMO Club. The study was conducted online with 124 chief marketing officers in the Club responding between September 15, 2009, and October 15, 2009.

Who are these CMOs in the club? You can see the sampling of the Club's represented companies at this link. The range is from multimillion corps like Oracle, Kaiser Permanente and Novell to smaller groups like LA Weight Loss, The Johnny Rockets Group and Trend Micro.

It seems across the board, these CMOs are not doing enough to further company/brand social media either through budget allocation, company collaboration or brand alignment. For instance, according to the study, about 84% of the 124 CMOs who responded to the survey allocate less than 10% of their budgets to experimenting through social media and non-traditional communications channels, with more than 55% allocating 5% or less. Clearly, that ante needs to upped significantly in 2010.

And then there's this: "CMOs report a lack of managing or interacting closely with departments within their businesses and, more importantly, with those responsible for communicating with key audiences. Nearly half of all CMOs questioned (48 percent) said they have no formal interaction with the department responsible for NGOs. More than a third (39 percent) do not formally liaise with their investor relations departments, and only around a fifth (22 percent) do collaborate with those responsible for liaising with financial analysts."

That could be read as 'business as usual' at some companies where departments do not effectively communicate with each other, to foster consistent brand messaging across the board. Social media practices can spotlight those deficiencies pretty easily, if the marketing messages and operational execution is at odds.

To me, the study seems to be little more than a heads up for marketing teams to dig a little deeper, collaborate a bit more effectively and find ways to use social media within companies on a greater consistent level. Which is what they should be paid to be doing all along, rather than worrying how much the company is going to put out for the holiday party. :-)

PR Week offers another look at the study.