This document summarizes key findings from a study on the adoption of digital and social media across organizations. Some of the main findings include: 1) Non-profits lead corporations and government agencies in adoption of digital and social media. 2) Integration of communication functions within and across organizations is a significant predictor of greater digital and social media use. 3) Positive practitioner attitudes towards social media, like seeing it as pervasive in business functions and valuing research, predict greater adoption and use of metrics.

1. Exploring the Current Status of Digital and
Social Media Adoption Across Organizations
annenberg.usc.edu/gapstudy Burghardt Tenderich, Ph. D.

2. About GAP
● Provide organizations with actionable guidance
● Staff size, organization, functions, budgeting, evaluation, use of
agencies, etc.
● Provide agencies with actionable guidance
● Client needs, perceptions , relationship models, compensation
trends, etc.
● Provide academy/researchers with data and analysis,
● Track perceptions, issues, etc.
● Identify Indicators of Excellence, Best Practices, etc.
● Inform curricula
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3. About GAP VII: Research Team
University of Southern California
USC Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism
Strategic Communication and Public Relations Center (SCPRC)
Jerry Swerling, M.A. Kjerstin Thorson, Ph.D. Burghardt Tenderich, Ph.D.
Director, PR Studies Assistant Professor Associate Professor
Director SCPRC Research Director, SCPRC Associate Director SCPRC
Niku Ward
In consultation with:
Brenna Clairr O’Tierney
Mia Becker David Michaelson, Ph.D.,
Jessica Wang Managing Director, Teneo Strategy
Yueheng Li
M.A. Candidates 2013 Forrest Anderson, MBA, Independent Communications
Strategic Public Research and Strategy Consultant
Relations, USC
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4. About GAP VII: Professional Partnerships
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5. About GAP VII: Methodology/Sample
● Online survey of top PR/communication
practitioners
● Collected Qs 3 & 4, 2011
● Received more than 1,000 responses
● Participants selected for inclusion had to pass a
rigorous screening process. Final sample=620
● Largest and most comprehensive study to date of
senior-level communication practitioners
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6. Key Narratives
1. Budgets
2. Functions/Responsibilities
3. Use and management of social media
4. Measurement and evaluation
5. Working with agencies
6. Organization/Reporting
7. C-Suite perceptions
8. Culture, character and integration
9. Excellence/Best practices
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7. Adoption of Digital/Social Media
● Provide a new empirical look at the adoption of
digital and social practices across a diverse set of
US-based organizations
● Understanding factors about organizations and
practitioners that predict the number and type of
new media practices implemented by the
organization as a whole
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8. Digital/Social Tools, Companies:
Budgetary Control
Department 70% Budgetary Control or Higher
PR/Communication 50%
Marketing 41%
Customer Service 6%
Information Systems 8%
Other 9%
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9. Digital/Social Tools, Companies:
Strategic Control
Department 70% Strategic Control or Better
PR/Communication 54%
Marketing 37%
Customer Service 7%
Information Systems 7%
Other 11%
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10. Budgetary Responsibilities, Corporate
Corp. communication/reputation 88% Issues management 58%
Internal communications 80% Community relations 57%
Executive communications 80% Corporate image (logo, etc) 56%
Crisis management 72% Corporate intranet 54%
Social media monitoring 70% Marketing/Product PR 50%
Participation in social media 66% CSR 44%
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11. Budgetary Responsibilities, Corporate
GAP 2009 GAP 2011
Corporate communication 87% 88%
Executive communications 74% 80%
Internal communications 67% 80% More than 50%
Crisis management 73% 72% reporting
responsibility
Social media monitoring 53% 70% in 2011.
Social media participation 53% 66%
Issues management 47% 58%
Community relations 56% 57%
Corporate external website 54% 55%
Corporate intranet 49% 54%
Marketing/Product PR 61% 50%
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12. Top 10 Digital/Social Tools Corporate
Social Networking Sites 4.7 Blogs 3.52
Sharing Online Videos 4.4 RSS 3.25
SEO 4.4 Tagging 3.00
Twitter 4.3 Co-creation of Content 2.83
Producing Online Videos 4.19 Online Audio 2.64
*1=Didn’t use; 7=Used significantly
None higher than 4.7; still much variation in use of
digital/social media.
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13. Core Digital/Social Tools, Corporate
Digital/Social Practice GAP 2009 GAP 2011
Social Networking Sites 3.44 4.75
Sharing Online Videos 4.32 4.48 Defined as
SEO NA 4.48 above 4.0
average use
Twitter 3.34 4.33
Producing Online Videos NA 4.19
Blogs 2.72 3.52
1=Didn’t use; 7=Used significantly
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14. On the Decline, Corporate
Digital/Social Practice 2009 2011 Decrease
Wikis 1.96 1.80 -.16
Virtual Worlds (e.g., Second Life) 1.40 1.26 -.14
1=Didn’t use; 7=Used significantly
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15. Non-Profits Lead Adoption
● Non-profits lead corporations and government
agencies in adoption of digital and social media
Frequent users by organization type
66% of non-profits
47% of private companies
40% of government agencies
36% of public companies
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16. Organizational Factors for Adoption
● Inclusion of the PR function in the dominant
coalition is not positively related to social media
adoption
● Multivariate linear regression yielded that none of
the variables that indicate membership in the
dominant coalition are significant predictors of
social media adoption
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17. Integration and Adoption
● Integrated communication is positively related to
new media adoption
 Integration of the communication function within the
organization
 Horizontal integration of the PR/Communication
function with other departments (legal, HR, etc.)
● Multivariate linear regression demonstrated that
communication integration is a significant and
positive predictor of all types of digital media use,
as well as the use of social media metrics
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18. Adoption and Practitioner Attitudes
● Positive practitioner attitudes toward social media
is positively related to the adoption of social and
digital media tools and measurement
 Agreeing that social media increasingly pervade all
business functions is an important predictor
 Valuing research is an important predictor
 Those worried about losing control are less likely to
engage in research practices that could provide
valuable strategic insights
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