Amidst troubling economic news such as the continuing saga of "Too Big to Fail" and a second straight month of job losses, I found the results of this study by Opinion Research Corporation a much welcome breath of fresh air.
The 2009 Cone Consumer New Media Study, which polled over 1,000 U.S. adults, found that business' reputation is not so tarnished as to preclude consumers from wanting to engage them in a conversation, particularly online.
The study found that six out of 10 adults believe they can use new media tools – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube as well as blogs – to influence business decisions. And eight out of 10 want companies to tell them what's in their products and explain the development process.
To me this, combined with small business' typically stripped-down bureaucracy and ability (due to their small size) to be closer to what their employees are thinking, presents a tremendous opportunity for them to use employee engagement to meet this consumer need and, as I wrote about last year, turn customers into customer evangelists.
The lesson here, which more and more firms seem to be heeding – the economy is most certainly a contributing factor – is that in this age transparency you can never involve customers too much in your ideation and development.
What thoughts do you have on this study's impact on workplace team building and employee engagement best practices?
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