Infographic: State of Social Business 2013 and Outlook for 2014
- Report on the six stages of social business evolution
- Report on the true state of social business in 2013
- An ebook on seven success factors of social business strategy
- An image-rich slide deck complete with all the graphs and charts you need to benchmark where you are compared to other social businesses
Brian and I recently introduced an infographic that summarizes high level findings across all of our work in 2013 (scroll down to see it below). And the key finding is that while organizers are making significant headway in terms of building out their social efforts, they are far from realizing real business value.
My outook for 2014 is that many more organizations will overcome the stigma of “social” and seek ways to articulate connections with customers and employees into their business. In just the last half of the year, we’ve worked with several organizations that are doing the hard work of connecting their social efforts to business value — it sounds easy to connect the dots but actually building the organization, governance, and processes to do this will be most of the focus in 2014.
It isn’t glamorous. It doesn’t have the appeal of bright new shiny consumer objects or the excitement of a tech IPO. But this is where the real value will be created and real benefits built. It’s going to take a lot of hard work, a bit of gut-wrenching leaps of faith as employees and customers are empowered, but hopefully in a year we’ll have seen key numbers like the percent of companies associating social with business value increase from today.
Highlights from the State of Social Business Infographic
Companies are organizing and formalizing social media strategies into social business strategies…
- 78% of companies have a dedicated social media team. This is up from 67% two years ago.
- Social media teams have grown from 11 people in 2010 to almost 16 in 2013.
Social business strategies are spreading across the enterprise…
- Social media headcount across the enterprise has more than doubled at the largest companies from 20 in 2010 to 49 in 2012.
- According to our research, there are 13 different departments across the enterprise with at least one person dedicated to social media.
- The majority of resources are allocated to marketing at 73%, but as you can see, social media covers almost every major function. Now, whether or not social media is organized and integrated, well, we know that it’s not really.
Marketing = 73%
Corporate communications = 66%
Customer support = 40%
Digital = 37%
Social media = 35%
HR = 29%
Product/R&D = 16%
Advertising = 16%
Customer/User experience = 15%
IT = 14%
Legal = 9%
Companies are trying social business to positive business outcomes…
- About 50% of companies say social business has improved marketing optimization, customer experience and brand health.
- Nearly one in four have actually seen an increase in revenue.
Companies though have a long way to go…
- Many social business programs lack a strong foundation.
- Only 17% of companies identify their social strategy as mature.
- 52% of companies say that executives are aligned with the overall social strategy.
- Just 26% of companies approach social media holistically (operating against a cross-enterprise level strategy.)
To succeed, build a foundation for social business…
- Benchmark your program with Altimeter’s Social Business reports (see below…underneath the infographic).
- Document existing challenges and opportunities to address in 2014 and 2015 (we don’t move as fast as we’d like).
- Align all social business efforts with business objectives and priorities.