• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, January 11, 2012

According to a study by InSites Consulting, 38% of British & American companies are still in their infancy when integrating social media in their company. In the U.S. more than 1 senior marketer in 3 indicates that their company has either not engaged in, or has only just started, the integration of social media in their company. 47% are in an experiment stage and 14% indicate that social media is fully integrated in the company. In spite of the low social media integration, there is a high social network sites adoption.

The top barriers to integration of social media include 48% of marketers saying their company did not believe there were financial benefits, 42% felt that their products and services were not suited for social media, and 39% responding that their company lacked top management support.

14% of all respondents said their companies had completely integrated social media into their business processes. Meanwhile, 23% were working to integrate social media, 24% were in a pilot phase of social media, 26% were taking their first steps and 12% were doing nothing with social media.

Professor Steven Van Belleghem notes that 68% of the companies have a Facebook page, 56% a Twitter account and 47% a LinkedIn page. "... many companies have started social media in a tactical way... on a popular network, without it being part of a total strategy," he says.

Companies, having invested little up till today in the social media integration, see uncertainty concerning the financial return. This is the main inhibition so far, followed by a low fit with the product portfolio and a lack of support by the top management. However, this survey shows a positive correlation between the extent of social media integration and the company’s financial results.

Marketers, often having led the way in social media usage, must work with other teams and senior executives to bring about change within the company in order to integrate social throughout the organization.

69% of US respondents said they agreed that employees were open towards new technologies and social media. Culturally, 57% of US marketers said their companies did not have a social media policy, but used a code of conduct.

Structurally, 69% of US respondents said that their company was trying to incorporate social media into existing marketing plans, and 64% said that the company had a dedicated person or team working on social media and it was very clear who managed social media projects.

Finally, leads are the most prominent performance indicator among the overall respondents, says the report.

For additional information from InSites, and more charts and slides, please visit here.