The 2009 Tribalization of Business Survey conducted by Deloitte, Beeline Labs in conjunction with the Society for New Communications Research came out recently that said that 94% of companies want to keep up with their social networking efforts or even invest more into them. There are only 6% that were surveyed that weren’t getting the results they wanted from the sites.

Just over 400 companies were surveyed for the report.

“Despite risks associated with participating in online communities, the internal costs of community formation and management and the fact that we are in the midst of a profound recession, organizations’ continued and enhanced investment in online communities underscores the perceived potential for the value that they may provide to the enterprise,” said Ed Moran, director of product innovation, Deloitte Services LP. “Social media and communities are expected to continue to play a significant role in the way in which companies are interacting with employees, customers, partners and the larger business ecosystem, thereby redefining the very edge of the corporation.”

As far as online communities and social media is concerned, the majority of those surveyed found that word of mouth, customer loyalty, and brand awareness were the main reasons for continuing the investment into social networking. A smaller percentage believed that idea generation and customer support were also important aspects of divulging into the new media.

A lot of companies are finding themselves needing to have a social networking site just to keep up with competition. Many customers and patrons feel like they are more connected with the company if they can interact with a social networking site. Also, businesses are able to get the word out about new products and promotions quickly and with minimal effort with sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter.

I personally like when a company has some kind of promotion through their Facebook site, since I’m on the site all the time anyway, it is nice to be able to see when there is some kind of new thing or product coming out that the company (which I like anyway) wants to promote.

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