The 2013 Social Business Benchmark Preliminary Findings

L E A D E R NETWORKS
Copyright © 2013 Leader Networks, LLC 1
The Social Business Benchmark ™
Preliminary Study Findings
By
Vanessa DiMauro - CEO Leader Networks, SNCR Research Co-Chair
Peter Ward - Managing Partner, Leader Networks

Copyright © 2013 Leader Networks, LLC
The purpose of the Social Business Benchmark Project
2
Study what companies are (really) doing with their
social business activities and to benchmark
organizations readiness for social business & provide
future guideposts
Key research questions:
• Do companies differentiate social media marketing from
social business?
• What is the social strategic intention, operational
alignment, staffing, policy, and governance structures
norms for social?

Research Methods
3
To explore these questions we did a mixed method research study with
support from Society of New Communications Research (SNCR)
Study composition:
75 companies participated in this preliminary findings report
25 participated in pilot qualitative interviews between Nov. 2012 – Feb.
2013
The responses came from a range of industries and company sizes but
the majority were mainly larger organizations (between 1K to <50K
employees) and 62% focused on Business to Business (B2B)
The study is longitudinal – meaning it keeps going on (so please participate if
you haven’t already – we need your help!)

For many
companies,
social media
means using a
digital
megaphone

But, the real opportunity can be found in
listening to and interacting with customers
5

The lines between social media marketing &
social business often blur
Only half (52%)
differentiate between Social Media
Marketing
and
Social Business
within their organization.
6

Less than half (41%) believe that their
organizations’ social activities are well defined.
Only 11% believe that their company’s social
strategy is being well executed within their
organization.
7

47% of organizations are using social data to
impact operations
8
Companies who reported being high social business
achievers typically found the ROI when core
operations were guided by talking with their
stakeholders (customers, partners etc).
- e.g. fewer defects, faster products and services to
market, high innovation outcomes

The Community Management Team works with Marketing and R&D to understand
requirements and then works with members to:
- Test new products or services.
- Participate in focus groups, concept testing, etc.
- Help further define the exact product or service they need.
Marketing / R&D Most Valued MembersProduct / Service
Prototype
Online Community
Management Team
Trial & Feedback
Here is an example social business operations

On to the highlights of what we learned…
And be sure to read the study report at
http://tinyurl.com/socialbusinesbenchmarkreport
10

Through the data, we were able to develop 4 profiles
of the organizational social business journey
1) Socially Present
2) Socially Familiar
3) Socially Enabled
4) Socially Integrated
11

“Socially Present”
“Socially Familiar”
“Socially Integrated”
“Socially Enabled”
Design for marketing presence
on the social channel to
communicate information and
ideas online and drive
awareness.
Design for leveraging
information and relationships
gathered through social efforts
in support of key business
functions.
Design for learning about cause
and effect online. “If I do this,
then that will happen….”
Design for operational scale and
efficiencies using social the
centerpiece of most customer-
facing efforts.
InternallyfocusedExternallyfocused
- Organizational Complexity +
Social Business Behavioral Framework

The 6 pillars of social business success
1. Strategic intention
2. Operational alignment
3. Staffing
4. Tool use
5. Governance
6. Organizational readiness
13

On to the data drill down of the study findings…
16

Strategic Intention: The vision is strong but
implementation sometimes falters
17
0
0.2
0.4
0.6
0.8
1
Differentiate
Social Media
from Social
Business
Has a
strategic
framework
for Social
Integrated
Social Media
Strategy
development
Integrated
Social
Business
Strategy
development
Social Media
Strategy
Leadership
Social
Business
Strategy
Leadership
Benchmark
Yes, 48%
No, 52%See right
Differentiate
52% of Benchmark
participants
differentiate Social
Media marketing and
Social Business.

Copyright © 2013 Leader Networks, LLC 19%
9%
9%
13%
17%
19%
22%
22%
24%
28%
30%
44%
72%
35%
4%
15%
15%
8%
12%
19%
19%
27%
15%
12%
54%
38%
Other
Product Development
Product Marketing
External mgmt consultancy
Our social media tool vendors
Sales
Customer Service
Legal
IT
Our PR or digital agency
Staff
Key cross-functional stakeholders
Marketing
Social Business Strategy
Social Media Marketing Strategy
Strategic Intention: New trend – cross-functional
stakeholders are participating
Who participated in the development of your social programs (check all that apply)?
18

Operations: Many organizations understand social
business drivers
19
Social
Strategy
Execution
Identification
of Social
Strategy
Drivers
Clearly
Defined KPIs
Measure and
Report KPIs
Evolve Social
Business
Strategy To
Business
Needs
KPIs Not
Aligned
Rarely Use
Social
Outcomes
Data
Do Not
Measure
Performance
Benchmark 59% 65% 53% 47% 47% 48% 52% 57%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%

Operations: Few believe their organization’s social
strategy is well executed
Excellent
11%
Somewhat Well
66%
Not Well
7%
We Do Not Have a
Well-Articulated
Strategy
16%
How well is the social strategy being executed within the
organization?

2%
13%
16%
20%
22%
27%
29%
40%
69%
69%
Beta test new products or services
Competitive intelligence
If other, please specify
Collaboration with suppliers and / or business partners
Generation of new products / services / ideas
Collaboration within the organization
Better account management / coverage / customer service
Lead generation
Reach / Awareness
Collaboration with customers / clients
What are the primary drivers for your social strategy? (Select the top 3)
Social business
Operations: Focus on social media marketing success drivers
21
Social
media
marketing

Staff Proficiency
Social Media
Platforms for
Recruiting
Useful Intranet
Competitive
Differentiator
Benchmark 57% 59% 35% 53%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Staffing: Useful intranets and staff competencies can
offer gateways to external social performance
22

Many organizations staff are still experimenting with
social skills
23
Many staff using
29%
Select experiments
44%
Trained key
personnel
18%
Not using social tools
or strategies
9%
What is the level of staff proficiency with social skills?

Governance: millennial and executives more satisfied
with social policies than management, when policy exists
24
Social Media
Policy Guidelines
Millenial
Satisfaction with
Policy
Management
Satisfaction with
Policy
Executive
Satisfaction with
Policy
Communication
with External
Constituents
Benchmark 34% 45% 38% 44% 53%
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%

Governance: Social media policy guidelines
Formal
Written Policy
and Trained
Staff
21%
Formal
Written Policy
17%
Unwritten
Policy
33%
No Policy
29%
What is the state of your social media policy
guidelines?
Policy trends
• Focus on do’s and don’t over
enabling opportunity
• Typically not revised frequently to
account for emerging technologies
• Rarely enforced
• Select orgs train and focus on
developing social competencies
• Crisis communications planning on
the rise
• Social media policies need to
extend to social business
behaviors (e.g. with suppliers)

Tools: Current focus is on broadcast over engagement
26
18%
22%
16%
29%
22%
16%
33%
40%
56%
42%
73%
76%
69%
11%
18%
18%
22%
22%
22%
27%
29%
38%
40%
49%
53%
58%
Social games
Internal collaboration tools (Yammer)
Social CR platform
Public social content sharing (Pintrest, Flickr)
Participation or sponsorship of online community that company
does not run
Private label online community platforms (Jive, Telligent)
Company sponsored video channel
Company sponsored online community
Blog platform
Mobile applications
Public selective platforms (Facebook, G+)
Public social networks (Twitter, YouTube)
Public professional social networking platforms (LinkedIn)
Which social platforms do your company use?
To engage with customers or
prospects
To extend the brand

36%
46%
18%
Consistently
Sometimes
Never
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
Use Social Media Platforms to Recruit Useful Intranet
Question: Does the organization use social media platforms like LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter to recruit qualified staff?
Question: Does your organization have a useful Intranet for inter-company collaboration?
Tools: Social is a strong recruiting tool, but not as
frequently used for knowledge management activities
7%
25%
30%
39%
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50%
No - Difficult to Use
No - Not well used
No - Do Not Have
Yes

Organizational Readiness Maturity
28
• Almost half of respondents leverage social data to impact core operations, but strategy and funding lag
0%
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Strategy Embraced by
Management
Budget Dedicated to Social
Projects
Future Budget for Social
Projects
Leverage Social Data to
Impact Core Operations
Benchmark

Organizational Readiness: About half report management
embrace their organizations social strategy
Strategies to support management
• Align social strategy with strategic
objectives
• Identify business process accelerators
that social business could support (e.g.
customer support, new product
development)
• Follow the pain – look for solutions to
evergreen business problems
• Develop strong business driven KPI and
performance metrics
• Invest in social education for
management (e.g. reverse mentoring
programs)
Yes, 52%
In Part,
48%
No, 0%
Is your social strategy embraced by
management?
While almost half report management support for social strategy, additional behavioral indicators
suggest that management buy-in is not as strong as perceived.

Organizational Readiness: Almost half report using or
leveraging social data to impact core operations
Yes
47%
No
39%
I Don't
Know
14%
Does your organization use or leverage social
data to impact core operations (customer care,
R&D etc.)?
Current Concentration:
• Marketing
• Technical Support
• Customer Satisfaction
Future Plans:
• Research and Development
• New Product / Solutions
• Sales
• Supplier/Distributor
• Competitive Intelligence

For more information on this study
Vanessa DiMauro
CEO, Leader Networks
617-484-0778
vdimauro@leadernetworks.com
 The survey remains open for participation – please add your (confidential) voice:
http://www.surveymethods.com/EndUser.aspx?86A2CED484CCD6D480
 Read the study report at http://www.slideshare.net/vdimauro/social-business-
benchmark-report
 We offer individualized social business benchmarks for organizations who want to
examine their strengths and opportunities for improvement.

About Us
Leader Networks
Leader Networks is a research and
strategy consulting group focused on
helping organizations build deeper B2B
relationships with key stakeholders, thus
creating significant competitive
advantage and outstanding business
results. We guide firms in the strategic
use and deployment of online social
platforms and techniques, including
developing innovative ways to listen to,
learn about, interact with and build trust
across a wide range of constituencies
including prospective and current
customers, suppliers, partners, and
employees.
http://www.leadernetworks.com
About SNCR
The Society for New Communications
Research is a global nonprofit 501(c)(3)
research and education foundation and
think tank founded in 2005 to focus on
the advanced study of the latest
developments in new media and
communications, and their effect on
traditional media and business models,
communications, culture and society.
http://www.sncr.org
33

Join the leading global network of thought leaders, scholars, business leaders, professional communicators,
members of the media and technologists exploring the advanced study of the latest developments in new and
emerging communications tools and technologies such as digital, social media, and mobile, and their effect on
business, culture, and society.
Your participation and support is vital to our success. Gain access to up-to-the-minute research and expertise on
the evolving world of new media and communications. Join us to support the work of SNCR’s Fellows.
Visit
SNCR.org/Membership-Benefits
today!

The 2013 Social Business Benchmark Preliminary Findings

Recommended

Recommended

More Related Content

What's hot

What's hot (20)

Similar to The 2013 Social Business Benchmark Preliminary Findings

Similar to The 2013 Social Business Benchmark Preliminary Findings (20)

More from Leader Networks

More from Leader Networks (20)

Recently uploaded

Recently uploaded (20)

The 2013 Social Business Benchmark Preliminary Findings