IBM released its CEO Study.    I love this study as it is the largest CEO study done in the world.  The IBM Institute of Business Value.   

This years was particularly interesting to those in the Social World.      I’d love to hear your thoughts on the outcomes.  What surprised you?  For me, it was the increase planned by CEOs for their personal use!

2012 CEO Study Interesting SOCIAL Stats!

  • Today, 16 percent of CEOs are using social business platforms to connect with customers, but that number is poised to spike to 57 percent within the next three to five years.
  • More than 70 percent of CEOs are seeking a better understanding of individual customer needs and improved responsiveness.
  • Currently, social media is the least utilized of all customer interaction methods. Over half of the CEOs expect social channels to be a primary way of engaging customers within five years.
  • CEOs discussed the whirlwind of “social” change they’re witnessing. Facebook, Renren, Twitter, Weibo, Foursquare and other technology upstarts have stormed across markets and industries. Smart, mobile devices are pervasive. And new technologies are emerging to help organizations store and make sense of the “big data” this digital storm is creating.
  • With more employees participating in highly social, media-rich environments outside of work, traditional corporate collaboration tools look outdated and limiting. To connect with the new generation of employees,” a banking CEO from Argentina acknowledged, “we will need to change communication methods. We are the e-mail generation; they are the social network generation.”
  • Currently, social media is the least utilized of all customer interaction methods. However, CEOs predict it will push past websites, call centers and channel partners, and become the number-two way to engage customers within the next five years.
  • Despite social media’s frequent use as a way of communicating to customers, CEOs recognize its real value as a source of insight and a means of collaboration.
  • According to IBM’s 2011 CEO Study, CEOs are building analytical muscle to respond with relevance and immediacy to better engage customers as individuals. As a group, CEOs are investing in customer insights more than any other functional area — far above operations, competitive intelligence, financial analysis and even risk management. More than 70 percent of CEOs are seeking a better understanding of individual customer needs and improved responsiveness.