Enterprises are investing heavily in online communities in the face of the recession, a new survey says. According to the “2009 Tribalization of Business Survey,” 94 percent of respondents stated that they plan to continue their online community investments, despite other signifiers that these companies are still struggling with social media. This study was conducted by Deloitte, Beeline Labs and the Society for New Communications Research, and surveyed more than 400 companies, including Fortune 100 organizations. The survey also found the following: A majority of surveyed companies agreed that increasing word-of-mouth (38 percent), customer loyalty (34 percent) and brand awareness (30 percent) continue to be the top business objectives of online communitiesIdea generation (29 percent) and...
