Awareness, Inc. Announces Research Report on Trends in Enterprise Web 2.0 Adoption

Findings Reveal That While Enterprises Are Beginning to Use Social Media, Security Concerns Are a Major Barrier to Adoption

Waltham, MA — January 23, 2022 — Awareness, Inc., the leader in enterprise social media, today announced the findings of a research report on enterprise social media, "Trends in Enterprise Web 2.0 Adoption in 2007." Sponsored by Awareness, the survey was conducted by an independent third party, Equation Research, and is currently available for download from Awareness' website.

To explore the current adoption levels of Web 2.0 technologies and the future of social media initiatives in enterprise-size organizations, Equation Research surveyed marketing and advertising, as well as technology and IT professionals, and found that more than half of companies with over 1,000 employees, and three quarters with under 500, utilize Web 2.0 technologies. Key findings in the report identify how companies are leveraging social media tools for enterprise use, in addition to the most common barriers to adoption.

The report found that the greatest inhibitor to adoption — identified by nearly 90 percent of the participants — is concern about security, moderation and control, especially among those from organizations with more than 5,000 employees and those in the marketing/advertising, creative design and public relations departments. The second greatest barrier identified by the report is a lack of internal resources to devote to social media initiatives.

The report also found that:

• More than half of enterprise-size organizations utilize Web 2.0 technologies (54 percent), as do 74 percent of companies with less than 500 employees;
• The majority of respondents using Web 2.0 technologies employ a combination of internal- and external-facing tools (64 percent);
• Blogs are the most used Web 2.0 technology (selected by 87 percent of respondents), followed by communities, wikis, RSS feeds and social networking;
• The most successful uses of Web 2.0 technologies in their organizations are blogs (44 percent), communities (42 percent) and wikis (39 percent); and,
• Limited internal resources to deploy the technology is the second-biggest obstacle in adopting Web 2.0 technologies.

Survey respondents also outlined the positive impact and benefits of social media tools in the enterprise including:

• Improved communication and collaboration;
• Aiding in locating experts inside the company;
• Improved knowledge management;
• Increased customer engagement; and
• Increased brand awareness and loyalty.

"This report mirrors a lot of what we have been hearing from our customers ever since we started deploying Web 2.0 communities for the enterprise," said John Bruce, CEO of Awareness. "Security has always been the key issue, especially for larger companies. They want to deploy social media initiatives because they believe in the same benefits outlined by the respondents in this report, but are concerned about factors like privacy, codes of conduct and compliance. This validates our strategy of building a social media platform that has the kind of security, moderation and control that is required for enterprise deployment."

According to the report: "As respondents' plans for 2008 and 2009 indicate, Web 2.0 technologies will become the standard in the near future. As more businesses realize the benefits these types of solutions have to offer and the success other companies have seen through such applications, adoption of Web 2.0 technologies will increase exponentially. Security, however, will continue to be a great concern for the majority of users and non-users alike. To combat these safety risks, organizations must adopt sophisticated security solutions that will protect them while still allowing them to benefit from the collaborative nature of Web 2.0 technologies."

The survey was sent via email to approximately 60,000 professionals during the fourth quarter of 2007 and 112 participants responded and answered the questionnaire via an online survey tool anonymously. Sixty-five percent of respondents worked at companies of more than 1,000 employees; 65% of respondents were either senior executive or management level.

To learn more about the trends of social media in the enterprise, the report is available for download here.