How Social Marketing Management Technology Factors Into Social Media Maturity Having a social media strategy is table stakes. However, few brands approach social marketing strategically as an integrated part of the marketing portfolio, instead opting to silo social in a small team staffed with junior marketers. And although these staffers are talented marketers, they lack the power or visibility in the organization to procure the tools needed to improve their social maturity. In fact, social technology and maturity go hand in hand. The most socially mature organizations recognize the crucial role social technology plays, which makes them better able to achieve the ultimate goal of winning, serving, and retaining customers. In March 2017, Lithium commissioned Forrester Consulting to understand where business-to-business (B2B) and business-to-consumer (B2C) organizations are in their social media marketing maturity: examining what they wish to achieve, how they have structured their social media strategy, and what role technology specifically fully featured social media management platforms plays in that strategy. Respondent Profile 106 social media marketing professionals
Region Company size Industry Seniority
United States $100 million or more in Cross industry 8% C-level annual revenue 13% Vice president 49% selling equally to consumers and businesses 34% Director 40% primarily or only selling 37% Manager to consumers 8% Project leader or 11% primarily or only selling practitioner level to businesses
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Platforms Dovetails With Social Media Marketing Maturity Enterprises that use fully featured social media management platforms represent only 13% of the marketplace. Interestingly, the vast majority exhibit all the best practices that are hallmarks of a mature social marketing strategy: 80% have dedicated social media teams/departments, 77% mine social media sources for customer data that helps inform overall marketing and business plans, 77% use customer acquisition and retention KPIs in their social media strategy, and 75% have integrated social media across their organization.
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Channels With Their Social Media Management Platforms Given their more advanced social media expertise, organizations using social media management platforms make full use of the technology. These organizations leverage an average of about seven channels as part of their overall social media marketing efforts.
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
High-Level Business Priorities Those using fully featured social media management platforms have high expectations for their overall social media marketing efforts. They ultimately expect social to help them win (86% prioritize acquiring new customers); serve (82% prioritize increasing customer engagement and 80% prioritize maximizing customer relationships); and retain (84% prioritize retention) customers. And notably, they expect social to help increase conversion rates (73%).
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Technology Is As Critical As Insights, Culture, And Staff For Driving Social Media Marketing Efforts When identifying the important elements in their social marketing strategy, decision makers acknowledge that their social media management platforms (41%) play as integral a role as data (59%), culture (44%), and people (41%). Interestingly, they rank technology higher than documenting social media processes (37%) and executive leadership support (34%).
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Social Media Management Platforms Make It Easier To Manage And Create
Relevant Content Across Multiple Social Channels . . . When digging deeper into the benefits that social media professionals receive from their social media management platforms, it becomes clear why the technology is so crucial to the success of their strategy. Marketers credit the platforms with their ability to better manage content (50%) thats more relevant for their customers (47%) across multiple channels (44%) and campaigns (37%).
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Professionals Achieve Their High-Level Business Goals When social media marketing professionals can produce and better manage content across channels and campaigns, they start to see real business results, rather than just relying on the number of likes they get to prove their strategies are working. Respondents indicated that their technology platforms have been helpful in their customer acquisition (60%), engagement (60%), and retention (57%) efforts.
FORRESTER.COM A Custom Technology Adoption Profile Commissioned By Lithium | May 2017
Social Media Management Platforms Help Marketers Win, Serve, And
Retain Customers As marketers have learned with many other digital channels, the more successful they are with social, the more complicated and fast-paced their strategies become. Thats why social marketing maturity and enterprise social media management platforms go hand in hand: These platforms help mature social marketers stay on top of the myriad channels in which they engage and the deepening customer relationships theyre forging, so they can focus their efforts on delivering relevant and eye-catching content. Recognizing the vital role of technology in their overall social media marketing efforts is crucial for marketing professionals if they wish to win, serve, and retain customers.
METHODOLOGY This technology adoption profile was commissioned by Lithium. To create this profile, Forrester developed custom survey questions for 106 social media marketing professionals with responsibility for social media strategy and social media technology purchasing at US companies. The custom survey was completed in March 2017. For more information on Forresters data panel and Tech Industry Consulting services, visit forrester.com.
ABOUT FORRESTER CONSULTING Project Director:
Forrester Consulting provides independent and objective research-based consulting to help leaders succeed in their Rudy Hernandez organizations. Ranging in scope from a short strategy session to custom projects, Forresters Consulting services connect you Market Impact Consultant directly with research analysts who apply expert insight to your specific business challenges. For more information, visit forrester.com/consulting. 2017, Forrester Research, Inc. All rights reserved. Unauthorized reproduction is strictly prohibited. Information is based on Contributing Research: best available resources. Opinions reflect judgment at the time and are subject to change. Forrester , Technographics, Forresters B2C Marketing Forrester Wave, RoleView, TechRadar, and Total Economic Impact are trademarks of Forrester Research, Inc. All other research group trademarks are the property of their respective companies. For additional information, go to forrester.com. 1-13NRYFV
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