Altimeter Group Report Reveals Strategies and Vendors for Managing Social Media Proliferation – One to One Global’s Top Three Takeaways
Altimeter Group recently released a report, ‘A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation,’ that has some valuable insights into how companies need to prepare for and manage social media proliferation. They surveyed buyers–144 enterprise-class corporations and over 25 social media management vendors and service providers.
One to One’s MessageMaker solution is featured and received the highest ranking, Strong Capability, in the Tailored Service and Support category and so we thought we would share our top three takeaways from this report:
#1. Technology alone is not enough and social media management tools and solutions will ultimately fail unless—brands set clear goals and social business strategies. Even with a high adoption rate of social media most do not have a clear strategy and “…an average of just 43% said they had a formalized strategy roadmap that addresses how social will meet specific business goals.”
Does your social media management solution come with strategic counsel, expert services and the ability to provide truly customized solutions? One to One has seen the pitfalls when engaging with clients who are not sure where or how to integrate social with their business objectives. We start by utilizing customer intelligence and then map to customer acquisition, CRM and sales goals before helping clients engage the social customer through activation, cultivation and a broad digital presence.
#2. The rapid proliferation of social media accounts will cause chaos if not managed properly—Altimeter found that global corporations have an average of 178 discrete social media accounts. Think about this for a moment. How many locations and separate product lines do you have and what rogue or inactive accounts are out there taking up valuable space where your official brand should be? It is not too hard to reach 100 accounts quickly and that does not include employee social accounts.
Does your solution have the capabilities to manage and monitor hundreds to thousands of accounts and provide meaningful perspectives? Looking at each social account throughout a company can create an array of myopic, unrelated views. To get a true, clear picture of your company’s social presence, you need to be able to take a broad, honest view to understand the ‘chaos’ and be able to shift to narrower, focused views as needed. A social media management solution with this flexibility will reveal general trends and engagement across the company while allowing brands to delve into pockets of success or failure.
One to One has been working on the forefront of social media management and helping clients with the challenge of keeping thousands of social accounts consistent, compliant and relevant.
#3. Global enterprises and regulated companies require customization and intensive support—Altimeter aptly points out that one size rarely fits and customization is required in nearly every deployment. Our experience proves this and it doesn’t matter whether you are a multinational corporation, in a regulated industry or a national franchise, every company has unique needs and requirements in managing their social ecosystem.
Can your solution provide customized reporting and a large support team? This comes with a manual, right? Enterprise-class companies need enterprise-wide support and a social strategy that integrates with their larger digital strategy. Employee (and management) training, customized analytics dashboards, unique apps, tabs and other requirements for the full brand experience on social networks are all part of the tailored services and support brands should consider when developing their social media management strategy.
One to One provides customized solutions, including content strategies that work across the entire digital spectrum and can integrate with business intelligence, CRM systems and social monitoring, among other sales and marketing efforts.
In conclusion: It’s important to remember that to deploy your social business strategy properly it should become a working part of your overall digital presence. Plug-and-play social media management tools do not ensure your social marketing will work side-by-side with your overall brand marketing and other initiatives (website, mobile, search, etc.).
A holistic view of your entire digital ecosystem and a partner who can help activate and acquire the social customer is essential.
A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation
Global executive, digital marketing and biz dev enthusiast, relationship builder whose golf game leaves a bit to be desired. @Britt_Billings