CHICAGO – There is an overwhelming infiltration of social media into daily life. Based on results from Midan Marketing’s recent survey of retail meat industry executives to determine how social media is affecting the way they conduct their business, social media is growing in the retail meat industry and should continue to gain momentum.

“Social media has changed the way people send and receive information and news globally,” said Danette Amstein, principal of Midan Marketing. “We are just starting to see retailers and packer/processers use social media as a way to connect directly to their customers and to each other. We certainly see this trend growing in the industry.”

Conducted in November 2009, the 11-question online survey had 75 respondents made up of retailers, wholesalers, packers and processors. The survey questioned respondents about their use of social media networks, including LinkedIn, facebook, Twitter and yelp.

Key findings include:

* LinkedIn is the most-widely used social media site among retail meat industry executives. Fifty-three percent of those surveyed have a profile on LinkedIn, and 19% of those say they use it to interact with others and promote their business. Twenty-seven percent of respondents are using facebook to receive industry news and 24% of respondents are using Twitter to promote their businesses.

"As executives in the retail meat industry are starting to adapt to social media, we believe there is a great opportunity for growth, as this form of communication is mainstream for most of their consumers,” Ms. Amstein concluded.