Social critical for biz but translating to value is a challenge: Survey
Digital interactions can be translated into valuable action. McKinsey Global Institute caught the business world’s attention when a report from the institute pointed out organisations could unlock up to USD 1.3 trillion in annual business value using social technologies. The challenge however is finding way to make social data work.
Hootsuite released a survey on social adoption in the enterprise to better understand this challenge. The Hootsuite Social Business Benchmark showed that the majority of organisations surveyed believe social media is critical to staying competitive and engaging audiences, yet they face challenges in deriving value from the data they mine from social and aligning departments.
“While social media is a part of everyday life for consumers, effectively integrating social in the workplace hasn’t been as easy. Nearly all survey respondents agreed that social data can improve the bottom line, yet turning that data into something actionable can be a challenge. Our focus on building an intuitive platform and education solutions is to address this problem and help organizations unlock the rewards of social media across the enterprise,” said Ryan Holmes, CEO of Hootsuite.
Around 84 per cent of respondents recognise the importance of using social media to enhance relationships with existing customers and 79 per cent value the ability to monitor external conversations about their company. However, 67 per cent of those surveyed find it difficult to assess the effectiveness of social media activities and another 60 per cent cite that taking data gathered from social media and turning it into something actionable is a challenge for their company.
This highlights a missed opportunity by many organisations.
Some key findings from the survey are:
Organisations realise the importance of social media, however, many struggle to capitalise on the data mined from users.
– Organisations cite social as important: The majority of respondents (88 per cent) agree that social media is important to maintain a competitive edge.
– Data insights are rarely used: Less than half (40 per cent) of these organisations said they were using data gained from social media to improve their bottom line. Sixty per cent stated they were challenged to find actionable use for data collected.
Use of social media is becoming more widespread across all departments, yet departments are not always working together.
– Social is increasing across departments: Nearly three in four respondents (72 per cent) agree the number of departments using social media is growing.
– Aligning campaigns is a challenge: A majority (64 per cent) of respondents whose social media strategy is at least somewhat aligned stated that aligning strategy across departments was difficult
– Strategy does not come easy: 62 per cent of respondents said that creating a social media strategy was difficult in the first place.
Social media is the new way to interact with customers and influencers.
– Building relationships and reputation: A majority of respondents (84 per cent) view enhancing relationships with existing customers as an areas social media can contribute value to, as well as the ability to learn about the company’s reputation
– (81 percent), and to monitor external communication (79 percent)
– Social viewed as best vehicle to engage with audiences: 73 percent of respondents value social media’s capability to resolve customer complaints and questions.
This survey was conducted online by Harris Poll on behalf of Hootsuite. More than 750 interviews were collected among current or prospective clients of Hootsuite in the Australia, Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia, US, Canada, UK and Germany office. Interviews were conducted in English and took place between January 7, 2014 and October 1, 2014. Invitations were sent by Harris Poll and no mention of Hootsuite was made.
