Shel Israel, a consultant under contract with SAP, used some very social media-like techniques (and Web 2.0-type technologies like blogs and wikis) to solicit responses -- global responses, that is -- to an SAP-commissioned survey on, well, social media. What's interesting, as Israel points out in his blog, is how a survey that started out with the concept of using traditional research methods took on a life of its own through the use of social networking.

Here's how Israel explained it:

In June, SAP asked me to do some traditional research on social media to help them be a thought leader on the subject. I suggested that because social media involves adhering to cult of generosity, I should conduct interviews, like I did for Naked conversations--transparently on my blog. Less than a week later, SAP VP Mike Prosceno sent me the following email: "It's a go."

Israel said that in two months he interviewed over 40 people in more than 15 countries and posted more than 40,000 words on the subject of social media. He spoke with world-famous bloggers, high school kids, Cambodian NGO workers and Ukranian Citizen Journalists.

Again, in Israel's words:

The Survey took on a life of its own illustrating the community powers of social media. In the beginning I was structured. I sent email questions that people were supposed to send back. Instead, they posted the answers on their own blogs. People I did not interview, rolled their own questions and posted or sent them back. Joe Thornley sent a video clip. Others started asking my questions on my behalf on Facebook and sending me answers. Some folk thought I asked stupid questions and changed them, then answered. It has become an open source survey in every way.

Israel, who is presenting his early findings during a panel discussion at today's Office 2.0 conference in San Francisco, said it's too early to draw conclusions from his study, but he has a few nascent learnings to share:

- Social media is active and growing on all continents and most major islands of the world.
- As innovators start looking past blogs, blogs are taking off in the enterprise.
- All social media tools get adopted first by noncorporate users, then seem to catch on in the enterprise two years later. Video is hot now among consumers. Watch for massive corporate adoption in 2009-10.
- Social media tends to start with kids. Think of what that means to your enterprise moving forward.

It will be interesting to see how Israel's study plays out at SAP, a company that is clearly looking to incorporate social media technologies somewhere in its labyrinthine offerings. Or maybe it's an effort to find out how to best utilize blogging and other social media technologies internally.

Seems just about every (aware) company out there is stumbling its way toward incorporating social media techniques and Web 2.0 technologies -- whether it likes it or not.