Social Business in Europe: Attitudes and Activities in 2012 by Country

This document includes figures comparing attitudes to the social Web by country for France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, the Nordics, Spain, and the United Kingdom. It also looks at levels of adoption of social platforms for monitoring customer sentiment, and which organizations are responding to customer inquiries from social networks.

In 2012, European organizations have a mature, balanced attitude to the social Web, with a good understanding of its benefits matched with a clear comprehension of its risks. Activities are also increasingly widespread, with around a quarter of organizations having implemented a social platform for sentiment analysis, and around 15% responding to customer service inquiries from social media.

"European organizations are undertaking a range of projects, from building a presence on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, through setting up two-way interaction with customers through customer feedback communities, to integrating social information as an additional qualitative insight source into a multichannel retail environment," said Alys Woodward, program director, European Business Analytics, Enterprise Collaboration and Social Solutions. "These survey results indicate a healthy market going forward for vendors of enterprise social software. However, concerns around data privacy and the ROI of social initiatives mean customers will pick and choose where to focus their activities carefully."