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More than 70 percent of Central Iowa businesses are making use of social media, according to a scientific survey conducted by Hanser & Associates and the Business Record. Facebook and similar social networking tools are by far the most popular such media, drawing 85 percent of social media users. The “microblogging” approach represented by Twitter ranked second at 55 percent.

Social media have reshaped communication in recent years, and made major changes in the way we do business. From blogs to Internet message boards to video sharing, social media have dramatically changed the way we receive and disseminate information.

The e-mail survey sought to pin down just how much, and how, Central Iowa businesses are using these new tools.

Of the companies using social media, 43 percent began doing so in the past 12 months. That means we’re in the early, learning stages, and 54 percent admitted to having no “defined strategy” in this field.

Naturally, the first business question might be: What’s the payback?

“The first time we used Facebook, there was a significant increase in the number of people who showed up for our event,” said Stacy Sime. And her organization wasn’t promoting a party. Sime is the president of the Blood Center of Iowa, and the Facebook pitch was designed to pull in blood donors.

“Twenty-five percent of our Facebook fans come from the university and high school settings, where they use social media a lot,” Sime said. “In the university setting, we use it a lot to create events. Say there’s a blood drive at Iowa State University; we’ll have a recruiter go in and create an actual event, we send the notice to our fans, and they forward it.”

At first, Sime suspected Facebook was just a fad. Now the Blood Center has 500 fans. “We didn’t know what to expect from our fan page,” she said. “We didn’t know if it would be an effective way of communicating, but it has been.”

“People will come in and say that they saw what I posted on Facebook,” said Woody Wasson, owner of Woody’s Smoke Shack at 2511 Cottage Grove Ave. The business’s Facebook fan page has more than 400 fans. When Wasson posts, “I’ll tell them to come in and if they mention Facebook, they’ll get a drink or a side dish at a discount, something like that,” he said. “We have bands during the summer on Wednesdays, so I tell them who the band is going to be. In the winter, if there’s a Drake basketball game, I’ll suggest that they come in before the game.”

Clearly, Wasson is his own marketing and sales department, but even in larger companies, those departments have taken the lead in social media usage – two-thirds of social media users said those groups are directly involved. Fifty-five percent said public relations and communications employees work with social media, and 47 percent said the top level of management does so.

The goal, for 92 percent of the users, is “building awareness/exposure.” The logical step after increasing awareness of one’s company is turning it into new business; 62 percent said “generating leads” is a high priority.

Video sharing, exemplified by YouTube postings, is used by 38 percent of the businesses that employ social media. “I think more and more companies are going to be using video to help convey their message,” said Wade Steenhoek, who operates a one-man business, Iowa Leadership Academy.

“If you think about it,” he said, “this generation might be more likely to watch (a video showing) how to fix an appliance, for example, than read a manual.

“I’m thinking of my daughter,” Steenhoek said. “She plays piano, and she goes to YouTube, listens to a song and watches someone play it” to learn how to play it herself. “One guy has a camera above his hands. That is so cool. Could businesses do the same thing, showing how to use a product?”

The time spent on social media is often mentioned as a concern for businesses – with Facebook as the prime example. However, two-thirds of the users in the survey reported spending three hours per week or less on social media.

Of the businesses that reported not using social media, 42 percent chose “not relevant to our market” as one reason. “Lack of knowledgeable staff” and “inability to measure return on investment” also rated high as negative factors.

The survey, conducted by e-mail Jan. 12-19, drew more than 900 responses from the Business Record’s database of readers.

To view a downloadable PDF of the complete results, go to www.businessrecord.com.