TNS Media Intelligence/Cymphony released a very interesting report at the end of February on “how brands are unleashing the power of social media”. Based on phone interviews with 71 senior marketing execs in large enterprises in the US and Europe its gives a qualitative gauge on how big business is looking at social media and networking as a marketing medium and channel.

The full report and presentation is worth a close read and a handful of key messages jumped out at me.

1. Big business understands that social media is only going to grow in importance with 56% of respondents (rising to 80% in the US) seeing it as very significant for their companies within the next 5 years.

2. But, today the marketing organisations of major corporates are not at ease with social media. They see it as a source of customer insight (68% said they read and analysed social media to understand customer perception), and as a new channel for marketing/advertising campaigns, esp. viral (62% of respondents agreed). In short, big business is passively consuming social media or trying to map a fairly traditional campaign model to the medium. What it’s not doing is actually taking part in the community on the same terms as its customers.

3. There is a strong feeling that marketing agencies don’t get it. A typical quote from a respondent (this one from Johnson & Johnson): “They are not doing a very good job at all. At the moment most agencies still view social media tools as just another vehicle for driving their messages.”

Whilst TNS sees this as a reflection of the immaturity of the market and the need for agencies to acquire the skills to assist their clients exploit social media, I see a more fundamental problem. If social media is about having an authentic and unmediated connection with the community with direct lines of communication between the company and its customers, then this ‘conversation’ simply cannot be outsourced to an external agency. Rather marketing, sales and service departments have got to undertake this role themselves.

So all in all, a pretty clear picture that the big brands have got a long way to go to make ‘social marketing’ part of their business as usual.