SOCIAL MEDIA

MARKETING
Solution Study

Insights, Landscape, & Vendor Analysis

 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Solution Study

Table of Contents
1 Executive Summary 03

2 What is Social Media Marketing? 05

3 Social Media Marketing Maturity Model 09

4 Benefits of Social Media Marketing 12

5 Social Media Marketing Deployment Lifecycle 15

6 Vendor Selection Criteria 17

7 Social Media Marketing Solutions Landscape 23

8 Analyst Bottom Line 30

Action Plan 31

Our Solution Study Methodology 42

About 43
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Solution Study

Executive Summary
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 4

Executive Summary
It has been said that “All Marketing is Digital Marketing,” and with good
reason! In the last decade, marketing has been transformed.
This Solution Study covers:
Marketing has moved from an environment in which traditional
marketing, brick and mortar storefronts, and Digital Marketing options What is Social Media Marketing?
all competed for the time, attention, and resources of the marketing
department to one in which Digital Marketing reigns supreme (with an
occasional nod in the direction of the storefront or traditional marketing
channels, such as direct mail and print advertising).
Benefits of Social Media Marketing

In our Digital Marketing Solution Study Series, we examine five

components of Digital Marketing. Social Media Marketing
In this report, we will focus on the growing practice area of Social Media Deployment Lifecycle
Marketing.

Vendor Selection Criteria

Social Media Marketing

Solutions Landscape

Action Plan
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 5

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Solution Study

What is
Social Media Marketing?

What is Social Media Marketing?
Demand Metric defines Social Media Marketing as:
Strategies, processes, tools, and technologies
that enable an Enterprise to do business in the
marketplace with customers and partners via Social
Networks and Channels.
The Social Media environment is vast, complex, and constantly changing.
Hundreds of vendors and solutions compete for the marketer’s time, and
attention.
It takes dedication, time and effort just to stay current with the changes,
let alone evaluate and implement the best products/services for your
organization.
The insights and analysis presented in this report provide marketers
with a solid understanding of the Social Media platforms, tools, and
Social Networks that enable Modern Marketing organizations to
implement Social Media Marketing and Management as part of their
broader Digital Marketing Strategy.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 6
Our look at Social Media Marketing strategies, processes, and implemen-
tations focuses on four key platforms – Social Listening, Social Engage-
ment, Social Experience, and Social Analytics. Our analysis also includes
descriptions of the major Social Networks in play right now.
In brief, Social Media Marketing is doing marketing in a social context.
This means using the resources of Social Media and the Internet/web
to offer products/services to prospective buyers, build brand presence
in the market, and use social connections to develop business relation-
ships that enhance commerce.
Role in Digital Marketing
Demand Metric considers Social Media Marketing to be an integral part
of Digital Marketing, as illustrated by our Digital Marketing Roles Matrix
(next page). Driven by the Community and Social Media Manager, Social
Media processes and technologies are used by Strategic Comm, Content
Marketing, Community, Social Media, and Customer Experience.
The common metrics for Social Media include user engagement, senti-
ment analysis, and campaign ROI.
 DIGITAL MARKETING
ROLES RESPONSIBILITIES
Revenue Accountability
Senior
Staffing & Channel Management
Management
Reporting to CEO/Board
Brand Strategy Digital
Strategic
Marketing Strategy Social
Communications
Mobile Marketing Strategy
Lead Generation & Events
Demand
Inbound/Outbound Marketing
Generation
Sales Opportunity Management
Web Content Management
Content
Content Marketing
Marketing Content Distribution
Online Community Management
Community &
Social Listening
Social Media
Social Engagement
External Communications
Public Relations Media Relations
Analyst Relations
New Product Development Product Launch
Product
Mobile App Development Product Positioning
Marketing Video Production/Development Competitive Analysis
Interactive Experience
Customer
Customer Satisfaction
Experience Customer Advocacy
Roles Matrix
PROCESSES TECHNOLOGY CONTENT METRICS
Budgeting & Planning WCM Thought Leadership Blog Revenue by Channel
Reviews & Coaching Marketing Automation Webinar Presentations Customer Lifetime Value, NPS
Conference Keynotes Return on Customer (ROC)
Recruitment & Retention CRM
Marketing Budget WCM Data Sheets, Whitepapers Market Share, Profitability
Agency Management Content Marketing Platforms Case Studies/Testimonials Brand Equity
Communications Management Social Media Platforms Competitive Analysis Content Usage
Advertising/Sponsorship Marketing Automation/Email Advertising/SEO Campaign ROI, Email Metrics
Lead Generation Digital Asset Management Email Campaigns Marketing Qualified Leads
Event/Survey Management Contribution to Pipeline
Tradeshows Webinars
Content Creation WCM, Blogging Platforms, MA Website and Blogs Content Views, Links Earned
Campaign Analysis Content Mktg & Distribution eBooks, Articles Content Conversion
Video Marketing Platforms Content Published
Content Scoring Videos
Community Development WCM Posts, Tweets, Photos User Engagement
Social Channel Management Social Media Platforms Forums, Chats, Comments Sentiment Analysis
Social Reputation Management Social Channels & Networks
Articles, Community News Campaign ROI
Influencer Identification Media Contact Database News Content/Press Releases Mentions/Impressions
Relationship Cultivation News Distribution & Monitoring Thought Leadership Content Audience Growth & Engagement
Content Creation/Distribution Analytics & Reporting Rich Social Media Content Sentiment Analysis
WCM New Features/Ideas for R&D Avg. Revenue Per User
Mobile Development Platforms Gamification Avg. Order Value
Video Production Platforms Competitive Analysis Conversion Rate, Renewal Rate
Customer Experience Customer Profile Management Buyer Personas Customer Satisfaction Index
Customer Journey Mapping Customer Support, Twitter Customer Journey Map Customer Lifetime Value
Customer Persona Creation Survey & Social Channels Proposals, Presentations Net Promoter Score (NPS)
WHAT IS SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING? SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 8

To better define Social Media Marketing, we need to look at its core

components – Social Media, Internet/web, and the Social Enterprise.

Demand Metric defines these components as follows:

Social Media is defined as the online exchange of content within a

community, focusing on activity, marketplaces, collaboration, and
sharing.

The Internet/web is the electronic infrastructure, environment, and

connections that create the functionality for digital commerce.

A Social Enterprise is a company or organization that has aligned

its organizational strategies, processes, roles, and responsibilities to
maximize its investment in Social Media tools and technologies.

Download our Social Media Maturity Assessment to evaluate your

VIEW RESOURCE
organization’s social media initiatives and technologies.

Social Media Maturity Model
A modern marketing organization that desires to align itself for social
business must focus on seven core areas. These are:
Senior Management Commitment
Social Media Knowledge
Customer Engagement
Competitive Insight
Budget & Staff Resources
Plan & Channel Selection
Measurement
Demand Metric’s Social Media Maturity Model (next page) can be used
in combination with the vendor landscape analysis and charts detailed in
the Social Media Marketing Solutions Landscape section of this report.
For each of the four deployment stages, our maturity model and vendor
landscape can enable a modern marketing organization to move forward in
process efficiencies, programs and technologies for Social Media Marketing.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 9
Our Maturity Model shows the progression of an organization from Stage
1 (Basic) to Stage 4 (Cutting-Edge) that is characterized by the following best
practices:
Level of Commitment
The strength of the commitment and the focus on excellence in
Social Media initiatives and campaigns drives other best practices.
Planning
Social Media Marketers create strategies, goals, and KPIs
for every point of their Content Marketing effort.
Processes
Social Media Marketers develop measurable processes
for each phase to ensure progress and success.
Resources
Cutting-Edge Organizations ensure that sufficient resources (time,
talent, tools, money) exist for each initiative, campaign, and phase.
Management
Cutting-Edge companies effectively manage the change,
progress, and results of Sales Communication efforts.
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Maturity Model

STAGE 4 - World-Class
STAGE 3 - Mature
STAGE 2 - Progressive
Social STAGE 1 - Undefined
Business Views Social Media as a strategic func-
tion; Fully funds efforts; Aligns organi-
Long-term commitment; Is a willing partici-
zation for social success
Views Social Media as a new marketing pant; Adds resources for growth
Senior Skeptical of Social Media; Is willing to channel; Allocates budget & staff
Management fund isolated projects and/or test pilot resources
Commitment

Active thought leaders; Social

Leverages peer groups; Active community influencers
Social Media Solid understanding of Social management
Knowledge Media use
Limited knowledge of Social Media
channels

Proactive social listening; True dialog

Customer
Company profile on Social Media sites;
Engagement
Posting is sporadic and ad hoc; Lack of
audience awareness; One-way dialog
Consistent customer engagement; with ideal audience; Process loop for
Growing subscriber lists; Customer & Reactive social listening; True dialog; customer feedback to impact company
audience awareness; Mostly one-way Recognition of preferred audience
dialog; Sporadic customer participation

Analyzes social activity of competitors

Regularly track competitors; Monitors
Audit top competitors’ online strategy and provides insights to stakeholders
Competitive No or little competitive tracking exists
and know their Social Media strategy
activity daily
Insight
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
Maturity Model
Social
Business STAGE 1 - Undefined STAGE 2 - Progressive STAGE 3 - Mature STAGE 4 - World-Class

Budget connect to social goals; Orga-

Budget with business case to justify nization aligned for maximum social
Budget allocated; Defined roles & spend; Dedicated internal point person for impact
Budget & Staff No budget exists; Spending & staffing responsibilities for Social Media Social Media
is ad hoc

Plan & Defined strategy with some objectives,

Strategy implemented; Integrated
Channel Defined Social Media Channel Map solutions and tools; Getting measurable
targets, initiatives and measures
Selection No coordinated effort and posting strategy results

Dashboard results deliver verifiable

Dashboard results are tracked and return and drive new initiatives &
Social Media dashboard for brand communicated
Metrics & policies
awareness, channel activity, social
Measurement Size of population (i.e. Twitter followers,
reach and reputation management
Facebook likes, # of LinkedIn connec-
tions, etc.)

Want to rate your organization’s Social Media Marketing maturity

with an interactive tool? Download our Social Media Maturity Assessment VIEW RESOURCE
and get started today!
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 12

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Solution Study

Benefits of
Social Media Marketing
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 13

Benefits of Social Media Marketing

The benefits of Social Media Marketing are so numerous and varied that it would be impossible to list them all.

Here we present the top twenty benefits that Demand Metric believes are critical for Social Enterprise initiatives and for use by a world class Modern
Marketing Organization:

1 Increases Customer Interaction – Your customers are on social 5 Creates Better Customer Experiences and Journeys – Social
media. Whether to praise or complain, research, or evaluate, Media offers advanced, online experiences by understanding how
prospects often turn first to social channels. your customers want to interact with your company.

2 Improves Revenue Targets – Social Media drives many purchasing
decisions. The information that prospects receive from their social
networks is often weighed more heavily than information received
by other channels.
3 Offers Up-to-date Customer Knowledge – Know your customers
better by listening, monitoring, and responding. Customers talking
in Social Media are providing the most valuable information
because it is usually the most authentic and current.
4 Provides the Highest Level of Personalized Offers – By creating
individual social profiles based on tracking behavior, activity,
and attitudes, Social Media enables organizations to personalize
advertisements and messaging to customer interests and specialties.
6 Enables Better Customer Service – Social Media allows you to
handle problems/complaints quickly and personally.
7 Facilitates Product/Service Feedback – Gain product knowledge for
future products and services by learning what customers are asking
for the most.
8 Supports Influencer Marketing – Learn who has the clout in various
social communities and develop deeper relationships with them to
influence their tribes.
9 Creates Online Communities – Make your company’s website a
destination, not a browsing ground.
10 Proves ROI with Analytics – Use Social Analytics to connect marketing
campaigns and content to targeted revenue and sales goals.
BENEFITS OF SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING
11 Aligns Organizational Use of Social Channels and Networks – Use
Enterprise Social Experience platforms to provide an integrated view
of your customers’ social activity and your response, and gain new
insights for campaign and product development.
12 Improves Content Marketing Efforts – Create more targeted
and personalized content for prospects and customers to deepen
engagement.
13 Impacts the Sales Cycle – Use Social Media platforms to drive
better, more closable opportunities for sales.
14 Encourages Higher Marketing Productivity – Social Media makes
the marketing department more effective and efficient.
15 Provides an Instantaneous Competitive Analysis – Have a faster,
better read on what your competitors are doing and respond faster
to competitive pressures.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 14
16 Enables Better Distributor Channel Management – Use Social
Media to deepen channel relationships and make your dealers more
profitable.
17 Increases Brand Awareness and Reach – Create more brand
followers and fans who want to connect with your brand.
18 Empowers Customer Advocacy – Learn who your best brand advo-
cates are and how to empower them to expand your brand into their
networks.
19 Accelerates Crisis Management – Quickly discover and address
real or potential product/company problems and challenges.
20 Strengthens Reputation Management – Know who’s talking about
you in Social Networks and what they are saying so you can respond
to protect and enhance your reputation.
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 15

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Solution Study

Social Media Marketing

Deployment Lifecycle
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 16

Social Media Marketing Deployment Lifecycle

Stages of Deployment FIGURE 1
Social Media Marketing Deployment Lifecycle
We see four stages in the deployment of a Social Media Marketing solu-
tion, beginning with Social Listening and progressing through Social
Engagement and Social Experience to Social Analytics.

All four of these with be discussed in more detail in the Social Media
Marketing Solutions Landscape section of this report.
4 1
Social
It is important to note that all of the Social Listening platforms include Analytics Social
some form of analytics for targeted monitoring/response. Listening

The difference between the Social Listening platforms reviewed in our Social Media
study and the Social Analytics platforms is the depth and breadth of the Marketing
data collected and measured, and the use of advanced technology, such
Deployment
as attribution, to provide deeper insights into customer behavior.
Lifecycle
3
Figure 1 highlights the stages of deployment for Social Media Marketing
and how they interact with one another.
Social
Experience 2
Social
Engagement
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 17

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Solution Study

Vendor Selection Criteria

 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 18

Vendor Selection Criteria

We recommend evaluating vendors in the Social Media Marketing
solution space based on the four key components detailed the Social
Media Deployment Lifecycle section of this report.

Figure 2 (on the next page) highlights the key functionality of Social
Listening platforms according to the level of complexity from Basic to
Cutting-Edge.

Figures 3, 4 and 5 (on Pages 20, 21 and 22, respectively) follow the
same approach as Figure 2 for Social Engagement, Social Experience,
and Social Analytics. Use these graphics to determine the features that
are right for your company.

Social Listening, Social Engagement, Social Experience, and Social

Analytics platforms should be evaluated on a case-by-case basis for each
organization. For this reason, Demand Metric has created a selection of
evaluation tools for each category, which are our:

Social Listening Vendor Evaluation

Social Engagement Vendor Evaluation
Social Experience Vendor Evaluation
Social Analytics Vendor Evaluation
VENDOR SELECTION CRITERIA SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 19

FIGURE 2
Social Listening Vendor Selection Criteria by Functionality Tier

Unlimited Searches, Enterprise & Departmental Workflow Management, Customizable Dashboards, Social &
CUTTING-EDGE
Traditional Media Coverage, Advanced Data Processing, Collection & Analysis of Complete Posts

Detailed Geographic Data, Conversations Maps & Full Conversation Collection, Social CRM Integration, Team
COMPREHENSIVE
Workflow Management & Collaboration, Visualization Dashboards, Influencer Management & Content Publishing

STANDARD Complete Sentiment Analysis, Behavior Tracking & Opinion Research, Multi-lingual Coverage, Influence
Statistics, Topic Clouds, Sophisticated Dashboard Presentation for Social Media Activity, Filtering Capabilities

Social Network Monitoring, Basic Sentiment Analysis, Dashboard Presentation of Social Media
BASIC
Mentions & Activity, Review & Response Capabilities, Quantitative Data
VENDOR SELECTION CRITERIA SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 20

FIGURE 3
Social Engagement Vendor Selection Criteria by Functionality Tier

Engagement Automation Functionality, Enterprise-level Platform Integration, Customized Apps to Automate

CUTTING-EDGE
Engagement, Third-party Analytics Integration

Brand Reach & Engagement for Advertising, Social eCommerce, Content Marketing & Online Community
COMPREHENSIVE
Development; Deep Analytics for Behavior Tracking & Sentiment Analysis

STANDARD Frictionless Sharing, Social Log-in, Account Mapping, Customer Profile Management, Registration as a
Service, Single Sign-on

BASIC Social Plug-ins, Easy, Instant Social Sharing from Source to Network, Social Toolbars
VENDOR SELECTION CRITERIA SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 21

FIGURE 4
Social Experience Vendor Selection Criteria by Functionality Tier

Data Analysis & Interpretation of Social Conversations, Storytelling of Social Experiences, Social Visualization
CUTTING-EDGE
via Live Content Streaming

Enterprise Collaboration, Social Interactions & Actionable Insights to Optimize Marketing,

COMPREHENSIVE
Social Insights for Product Innovation

STANDARD Content Marketing & Social Activity Merging, Social Content Curation, Social Content Display Across
Multi-Channel Environments, Social Insights for Personalized Distribution, Social Content Tailoring

BASIC Integrated Content Creation, Integrated Social Message Amplification, Integrated Social Analytics
VENDOR SELECTION CRITERIA SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 22

FIGURE 5
Social Analytics Vendor Selection Criteria by Functionality Tier

CUTTING-EDGE Attribution Technology, Behavioral Indexing, Segmented Analysis of Emotional Signals, Emotional Indexing

COMPREHENSIVE Advanced Analytics for Understanding Purchase Intent & Customer Emotions/Behaviors, Social ROI tools

STANDARD Granular Data Collection, Dashboard Visualization, Content & Campaign Performance Tracking,
Cross-channel Analysis, Competitive Analysis & Benchmarking

BASIC Earned & Paid Social Media Collection, Measurement & Analysis
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 23

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

Solution Study

Social Media Marketing

Solutions Landscape
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 24

Social Media Marketing Solutions Landscape

Overview
We have divided the Social Media Marketing vendor landscape into five
categories. They are:

Social Listening Platforms Social Engagement Platforms

These are platforms and apps that focus on social These platforms focus on apps that deepen the engage-
monitoring/response. ment between the company and the customer.

These platforms monitor conversations across Social While most of these platforms offer a monitoring compo-
Networks for mentions of a company/brand to collect nent, they provide a deeper level of engagement via apps
opinions of and experiences with that company, brand, for increasing ease and speed of social sharing, devel-
or product. oping online communities, content creation & publishing,
and/or gamification.
They also provide data to the company for social
response, sales action, or customer service. Most of
these platforms offer analytics to provide customer
profile information rather than just data streams.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 25

Social Experience Platforms Social Networks

These platforms focus on changing the experience the These are the social environments in which social
customer has with the company or brand. interaction and commerce take place. In this study, we look
at the major social networks for B2B and B2C business
Social Experience platforms usually include components
activity such as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+ and
of both monitoring and engagement platforms; however,
YouTube.
they go a step further with functionality that changes the
way the customer interacts with a company. Demand Metric provides a full listing of Social Networks in
our Top Social Media Sites Database and Social Media
These solutions serve to extend the reach of a brand
Channel Map.
deeper into the customer’s environment. Common apps
and features of Social Experience platforms are customer
journey mapping, personalized content publishing, story
creation, personalized gamification apps, and apps for
facilitating innovation and new product development.

Social Analytics Platforms

These are platforms that focus on the collection,

measurement, and benchmarking of social activity,
behavior, opinion, and emotion across Social Networks
and media types (owned, earned, & paid social media).

Most analytics platforms create detailed, individual

customer profiles. These profiles include visualization
dashboards for understanding and applying data for
customer engagement, sales, customer service, compet-
itive analysis, and social marketing ROI.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE
Vendor Playing Fields
In this study, we focus on vendors that offer platforms with a technology
infrastructure that supports multiple applications rather than one-off appli-
cations. Vendors in each category needed to have several, announced,
major customers to be included in our analysis. Vendors were placed
in their category based on what we believe is their primary application
focus, although many provide applications and feature sets that blend
from one platform category to the other.
Social Listening Playing Field
Vendors in the Social Listening Platform market fall into four levels based
on the depth and breadth of their monitoring capabilities and analysis,
as well as additional functions they offer to extend their products and
services deeper across the enterprise. We ranked vendors in this cate-
gory on the following criteria:
1 Depth and Breadth of Monitoring Capabilities – Number of chan-
nels supported, languages, countries, and level of search function
(from keywords to complete threads).
2 Response Capability – Alerts and integrated, social profiles.
3 Depth and Breadth of Analysis – Quantitative, sentiment, behavior,
and influencer marketing capabilities.
4 Quality of Dashboard Functionality
5 Enterprise Support – Team workflow management, team collabo-
ration, and Social CRM integration
6 Customization Capability and/or Custom App Offerings
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 26
Vendors were ranked on four tiers of functionality, which are:
Basic – At the basic level, platforms monitor, collect, and present the data
from social media posts, threads, comments, etc. on a dashboard for
review and response. Analysis at this level typically provides quantitative
data for likes, tweets, etc. by time, location, etc. with some sentiment
analysis. All vendors in this category include basic features, as do free
tools like Google Analytics, Social Mention, and Facebook Insights.
Standard – At the Standard level, solutions monitor and analyze
social conversations at a deeper level. Features include sentiment
analysis, behavior tracking, and opinion research. They may offer more
extensive multi-lingual coverage, influence statistics, topic clouds,
filtering capabilities, and more sophisticated dashboards.
Comprehensive – At the Comprehensive level, Social Listening platforms
offer deep and detailed monitoring and analysis, such as detailed
geographic/location data (down to street level) and conversation maps.
They may collect full conversations, not just keyword or product mentions
for contextual analysis. They offer additional functions such as team
workflow management, team collaboration, and Social CRM integration.
Cutting-Edge – At the Cutting-Edge fourth tier, platforms provide the
monitoring functions of the Comprehensive vendors and additional
features, such as sophisticated data process across multiple geographies
and languages, coverage of both social and traditional media sources,
collection and analysis of complete posts, and highly customizable
monitoring capabilities with unlimited searches and customizable
dashboards. They offer workflow integration across the Enterprise and
departments for a unified view of social for the entire organization.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE
Social Engagement Playing Field
Vendors in the Social Engagement platform market fall into four levels
based on the depth and breadth of their engagement applications. We
ranked vendors in this category as follows:
Ability to Facilitate Ease of Social Sharing
Features/Functions that Deepen Engagement – Content creation,
curating, or marketing (not pure posting).
Integrated Engagement Applications (i.e. gamification)
Integrated Reach Applications (i.e. targeted advertising, eCommerce,
or online communities)
Engagement Automation Functionality
Enterprise Platform/Application Integration
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 27
Vendors were ranked on four tiers of functionality, which are:
Basic – At the basic level, Social Engagement platforms facilitate social
sharing with social plug-ins and toolbars. The basic level lets users
instantly share content from their source with most social networks.
Standard – At the Standard level, Social Engagement platforms
facilitate engagement with frictionless sharing, Social Log-in, Single
Sign-on, Account Mapping and Registration as a Service, and
Customer Profile Management.
Comprehensive – At the Comprehensive level, Social Engagement
platforms offer brand reach and engagement features for adverting,
social eCommerce, Content Marketing, and online community
development. This level includes deep analytics for behavior tracking
and sentiment analysis.
Cutting-Edge – At this level, platforms offer engagement automation
functionality or customized apps, such as SocialFlow’s Cadence
that automates publishing posts at optimum times, and Influitive’s
AdvocateHub that enables users to create VIP networks to empower
affinity relationships.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 28

Social Experience Playing Field

Vendors in the Social Experience market fall into four levels based on the Vendors in this category fall into the following, four categories:
depth and breadth of the following criteria:
Basic – At the Basic level, platforms integrate content creation, social
Personalization of the Social Experience message amplification, and social analytics.

Voice of the Customer Applications Standard – At the Standard level, solutions merge Content Marketing
and social activity. Platforms enable social content to be curated
Enterprise Social Collaboration
and displayed across multi-channel environments, provide content
Social Integration into Customer Lifecycle Management tailored to audience activity and preference, and offer social insights
for personalized content distribution.
Enterprise Integration Capabilities
Comprehensive – At the Comprehensive level, platforms support
enterprise collaboration to improve the customer’s social experience,
provide social insights for new product innovation, and utilize
social interactions and actionable insights to optimize marketing for
customer lifecycle management.

Cutting-Edge – At the Cutting-Edge level, Social Experience platforms

drive customer experience in new directions through unique data
interpretation, storytelling, or social visualization.
SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTIONS LANDSCAPE SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 29

Social Analytics Playing Field

Vendors in the Social Analytics platform market fall into four levels based Vendors in this category fall into the following, four categories:
on the depth and breadth of their engagement applications. We ranked
Basic – At the Basic level, Social Analytics platforms collect, measure,
vendors in this study on the following criteria:
and analyze owned, earned, and paid Social Media of the major Social
Collection, Measurement, and Analysis of Owned, Earned, and Networks and channels.
Paid Social Media
Standard – At the Standard level, Social Analytics platforms collect
Competitive Averages for Benchmarking basic data and provide additional analysis functions, such as granular
data collection to tweet level, dashboard visualization, cross-channel
Depth and Breadth of Channel Analytics
analysis, content and campaign performance, and competitive
Granularity of Analysis Detail analysis and benchmarking.

Application of Social ROI Tools Comprehensive – At the Comprehensive level, Social Analytics
platforms offer advanced analytics functionality for all social channels.
Analysis is used for understanding purchase intent and analyzing
customer emotions and behaviors. Social ROI tools are used for
measuring the impact of Social Media on driving incremental revenue.

Cutting-Edge – At the Cutting-Edge level, Social Analytics platforms

offer advanced analytics applications, such as attribution technology
and behavioral/emotional indexing with segmented analysis of
emotional signals.

Download and review Demand Metric’s Social Media Vendors Matrix

to learn more about the key vendors in each of the four categories
VIEW RESOURCE
based on target industries, offerings, key features, unique strengths,
and current customers.
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 30

Analyst Bottom Line

Social Media Marketing is a critical component of Digital Marketing.
Along with a strong web presence and Email Marketing, Social
Media Marketing forms the foundation of an effective Digital
Marketing initiative.

We recommend that all marketing organizations take three steps in the

developing of their Social Media Marketing strategy:

1 Assess your organization’s maturity using Demand Metric’s

Social Business Maturity Model.

2 Audit the Social Media Marketing tools currently being used

against the vendor platforms in all four key areas (listening,
engagement, experience, and analytics) to ensure the right
vendors and products are in place.

3 Download the tools in the Action Plan section of this report in

order to develop a strategy and implementation plan that works
for your organization.
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 31

SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING

ACTION PLAN

Follow this simple, step-by-step methodology to develop a Social Media Marketing plan that increases
sales, builds customer insights, and grows brand awareness.
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 32

1 Evaluate

2 Review Evaluate Your Social Media Maturity

3 Develop Utilize our Social Media Maturity Assessment to evaluate your

current systems and initiatives for Social Media Marketing.

4 Understand

VIEW RESOURCE
5 Request

6 Identify

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 33

1 Evaluate

Understand The Roles Required For World

2 Review
Class Social Media Marketing
3 Develop
Evaluate the organizational impact of making the change from
your current systems and processes to a Social Media solution.
4 Understand
Use our Digital Marketing Roles Matrix to review impacted
company roles, responsibilities, processes, and technologies.
5 Request

6 Identify

VIEW RESOURCE
7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 34

1 Evaluate

2 Review Build a Social Media Plan You Can

Share With Stakeholders

3 Develop
Develop a solid 12-18 month plan for your Social Media
program with our Social Media Strategy Scorecard.
4 Understand

5 Request
VIEW RESOURCE

6 Identify

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 35

1 Evaluate

2 Review Discover and Research Key Social Media

Vendors
3 Develop
Review our Social Media Vendors Matrix to learn about the key

4 Understand vendors/platforms in the Social Media space, and to understand

which vendors may work best for your organization.

5 Request

VIEW RESOURCE
6 Identify

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 36

1 Evaluate

2 Review Obtain Proposals From Your Short List of

Social Media Vendors
3 Develop
Request proposals from potential vendors to gather informa-
tion on products/services by creating templates for each cate-
4 Understand
gory you require:

5
Social Listening
Request Social Engagement
Social Experience
6 Identify Social Analytics

7 Select

VIEW RESOURCE
8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 37

1 Evaluate

2 Review Learn More About Your Potential Vendors’

Product and/or Service
3 Develop
After receiving RFPs from potential vendors, schedule and attend
product/service demos with 3-4 vendors to get an up-close-and-
4 Understand
personal view of their solutions.

Follow these best practices:

5 Request
Prioritize your requirements and use cases.

6
Send your use cases to vendor in advance of demo.
Identify
Define meeting length (max 1 hour) up front.
Don’t let vendor control the demo.
7 Select
Rate each vendor using a scorecard.
Have vendor demo their solution to your top use cases .
8 Strategize
Make list of key items that vendor doesn’t have clear answers for.
Set clear expectations around follow-up and timeframes.
9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 38

1 Evaluate

2 Review Find the Best Fit by Evaluating Vendors Using

Selection Criteria
3 Develop
Evaluate your top 3-4 vendors in each category for vendor
evaluations in order to help you make your selection for each
4 Understand
type of technology:

Social Listening
5 Request
Social Engagement
Social Experience
6 Identify Social Analytics

7 Select
VIEW RESOURCE

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 39

1 Evaluate

2 Review Follow Proven Best Practices to Social Media

Success
3 Develop
Develop an implementation strategy and communication plan
to roll-out the initiative across the organization and through your
4 Understand
channels.

Use our Social Media Marketing Playbook to create your plan.

5 Request

6 Identify
VIEW RESOURCE

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 40

1 Evaluate

2 Review Train Your Team About Social Media

3 Develop Develop an education and training plan for all affected personnel:
sales, marketing, operations, and channels.

4 Understand

S TA R T L E A R N I N G
5 Request

6 Identify

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
ACTION PLAN SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 41

1 Evaluate

2 Review Track Key Social Media Metrics

3 Develop Measure and track the progress of your Social Media initiative
with our Social Media Metrics Dashboard.

4 Understand

VIEW RESOURCE
5 Request

6 Identify

7 Select

8 Strategize

9 Train

10  Measure
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 42

Our Solution Study Methodology

The Modern Marketing landscape is an ever changing, ever evolving Our Digital Marketing report series includes Solution Studies on:
environment in which new strategies, technologies, vendors, and
Content Marketing
products appear continually.
Configure, Price, Quote (CPQ)
Demand Metric Solution Studies provide marketers with a focus
on a specific technology solution set or focus area so that they are Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
armed with the knowledge, information, and tools they need to Email Marketing
develop effective strategies and action plans for their organizations.
Enablement Knowledge Management
Each Solution Study involves hours of analyst research, draws infor- Marketing Automation
mation from interviews with vendor executives and established
Mobile Marketing
vendor clients for a specific technology solution, and is usually
accompanied by a mini Tool-kit of practical resources. Public Relations

Solution Study Tool-kits are designed to provide marketers with the Sales Communication
tools & templates they need to plan for an initiative in a given focus Sales Intelligence
area, analyze the vendor landscape, and select the best vendor for
Social Media Marketing
their organization.
Video Marketing
 SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 43

About Demand Metric

Demand Metric provides Agile Marketing software powered

by 1,000+ practical tools and resources to help our members
complete their work faster and with more confidence.

Our community of 125,000+ global members is composed of

CEOs and business owners, marketing consultants and agen-
cies, marketing executives and managers, and professionals
who specialize in: product management, marketing operations,
sales enablement, customer engagement, demand genera-
tion, content marketing, project management, account-based
marketing, and other disciplines.
VIEW WEBSITE
To learn more about Demand Metric, sign up for a free member-
ship at www.demandmetric.com
STIAM, ETIUS C. MOVISSA SERBESEVITURAE, TU ETRAEQU OSULOCCHINEM HABES SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING SOLUTION STUDY 44

© Demand Metric Research Corporation.

All Rights Reserved.

www.demandmetric.com

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