ReadWriteWeb reported on a study that documents a correlation between faster revenue growth and increasing use of social media by the top 100 international brands. "Those brands that were the most engaged saw their revenue grow over the past year by 18% while the least engaged brands saw losses of negative 6%."
The companies in the study are both consumer and business oriented and include Starbucks, Dell and SAP. "The study grouped the brands into one of four engagement profiles that related to the number of channels they're involved in and how deep that involvement is", as shown below.
The study includes detailed case studies on some of the companies with the greatest use of social media, such as Dell and Toyota. There is a link where you can rate your company's use of social media. You also have the option to enter your company information in the database and become part of future studies.
If the big companies are using social media effectively, then they will be training customers to expect customer service responses from Twitter complaints, forums to discuss new product feature wishes and many informal channels of communications between employees and customers. Startups will need to come out of beta stage with these customer services in place or they may not get the traction they are expecting.
The full report is here. Download ENGAGEMENTdb_Report_2009