Do CEO's Take Social Media Seriously? Personally, yes. Professionally, not so much

A recent survey of 200 chief executives by public relations firm Burson-Marsteller and PRWeek suggests that CEO's are not yet convinced that social media can be used as an effective marketing tool.

The survey suggests that while many CEOs use social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, YouTube and Twitter personally, they're skeptical of its effectiveness when communicating with customers, and other stakeholders in the company.

Here are some of the findings, reported recently in Businessweek:

• 43% of the CEOs say they personally use social media sites oftern
• 19% visit these sites daily, but not for business
• 18% say they use them to communicate with customers and other stakeholders.

Why not?

• 48% say they lack relevance to the target stakeholder groups
• 37% voice concern about loosing control of their message
• 28% worry about return on the investment
• 23% blame a lack of knowledge and capability within the company

Effective?

• 62% see social media as having an impact on a company’s reputation
• 71% of CEOs said their company web site is the best way to communicate with consumers during a crisis.
• 48% say it can change sales.

All this hesitance around social media may just take time to change executive perception. Think how long digital media took to shift perception of its effectiveness?

The survey suggests that executives ae already convinced of the effectiveness of Word of Mouth and viral campaigns, with 60% saying those have more influence today than they did three years ago.

And, what is social media marketing, if not WOM and viral?

From Brandweek: Burson-Marsteller thinks CEOs should be more social. In the press release on the findings, Mark J. Penn President & CEO says “CEOs should understand that many of their stakeholders are active users of social media and that it can be an extremely effective means for communicating a message. I would argue that companies that are not engaging in social media are taking a bigger risk than the companies that are.”

He’s on Facebook.