Strategy and communications agency Cone LLC recently conducted a study, according to which almost 60 percent of Americans interact with companies on a social media website, and one in four interacts more than once per week. Recent years have witnessed an increasing penetration of social networking in the STM publishing sector. Science media company Seed Media Group recently launched a new technology that will help scientists make use of the explosion of discussions in the blogosphere surrounding published peer-reviewed science.
Earlier last month, the American Chemical Society (ACS) launched a free social networking site for ACS members and student affiliates at www.acs.org/membernetwork. Also, Indiana University School of Medicine informatics researchers introduced a web-based solution to address the complex problems of scientific collaboration. Called Laboratree (http://laboratree.org/), the solution seeks to streamline research and enhance collaborative social networking for the science community. In a similar move, the Canadian Medical Association (CMA) launched a new online social networking community called Asklepios that makes it easier for physicians from coast-to-coast to connect, share best practices, and learn from each other.
The 2008 Cone Business in Social Media Study presented the findings of an online survey conducted September 11-12, 2008 by Opinion Research Corporation among 1,092 adults comprising 525 men and 567 women 18 years of age and older. According to the survey, 93 percent of Americans believe a company should have a presence in social media, while an overwhelming 85 percent believe a company should not only be present but also interact with its consumers via social media. In fact, 56 percent of American consumers feel both a stronger connection with and better served by companies when they can interact with them in a social media environment.
