April 25, 2013
By Rebecca Lieb with Chris Silva and Christine Tran
Despite an overwhelming trend toward content marketing and the need to continually feed an ever-increasing portfolio of content channels and formats, most organizations have not yet addressed content on either a strategic or tactical level. This report explores scalable organizational models for addressing content needs across the enterprise and makes recommendations for a holistic program.
The Evolution of Social Business: Six Stages of Social Business Transformation
March 6, 2013
By Charlene Li and Brian Solis, with Alan Webber and Jaimy Szymanski
Companies are not created equal when it comes to social media maturity. In its latest research, Altimeter Group’s Charlene Li and Brian Solis uncovered a distinct gap between organizations that execute social media strategies and those that are truly a “social business.” On one side, there are businesses (specifically departments) that are actively investing in social media without being tied to business goals. On the other side are organizations that are deeply integrating social media and social methodologies throughout the company to drive real business impact.
As companies mature in social, Altimeter Group found a natural progression through six distinct stages: Planning, Presence, Engagement, Formalized, Strategic, and Converged. In “The Evolution of Social Business,” readers will find common guiding success factors for organizations achieving success in each social business maturity stage, as well as prescriptive recommendations and checklists to grow to the next level of maturity.
Scaling Social Business: How Brands Manage Complex, Distributed Programs
February 7, 2013
By Jeremiah Owyang and Andrew Jones
For brands today, the complexity of social business is steadily compounding. For every additional variable — each account, customer conversation, business unit, location, language, distributor, etc. — social media becomes a greater challenge. Meanwhile, brands struggle to prepare appropriately and adopt the right technology. This report includes four case studies that demonstrate how brands are addressing social media proliferation.
Building a Solid Platform for Enterprise Mobility
September 19, 2012
By Chris Silva
Managing mobile devices proactively depends on more than the tools — such as mobile device management — that offer a “silver bullet” for the onslaught of mobile support requests. IT has two choices: 1) work to patch and fix by continually amending policies and myopic infrastructure or 2) establish a stance rooted in control over the devices in place today and those likely to be requested tomorrow and well into a multi-device, connected future.
Solving this problem and establishing control is an issue not only of the proper technology but key relationships across the organization, informed and enforceable policy, and a multi-part technology stack to operationalize said policy. We call this the mobile control plane, a complex but critical layer of support that serves as the foundation for enterprise mobile rollouts that’s lacking in most companies today.
Guarding the Social Gates: The Imperative for Social Media Risk Management
August 9, 2012
By Alan Webber with Charlene Li and Jaimy Szymanski
Social media is the modern Pandora’s box: it has had a meteoric rise as a tool to interact and engage with customers, but also a dark underside exposing companies to new types of risk. Almost two-thirds of companies surveyed say that social media is a significant or critical risk to their brand reputation, yet 60% of companies either never train their employees about their corporate social media policies or do so only upon hiring. This report outlines how to be more proactive about managing social media risk through following a detailed four-step process: Identify, Assess, Mitigate, and Evaluate.
July 24, 2012
By Susan Etlinger
Today, customers move constantly between the online and offline worlds, using a range of devices — such as smartphones and tablets — that didn’t exist a few short years ago. Thousands of applications and dozens of social media platforms collect and transmit an unprecedented amount of structured and unstructured data, and API changes are a fact of life. The volatility of social data and the pace of change mean that tried-and-true measurement methods are no longer enough. Social data is different. This report identifies six primary approaches and includes case studies for how organizations measure the impact of social media on revenue.
The Converged Media Imperative: How Brands Will Combine Paid, Owned and Earned Media
July 19, 2012
By Rebecca Lieb and Jeremiah Owyang
Advertising and media are converging. The results will disrupt how companies must deploy their marketing efforts. Marketers, and their agency partners must converge their media efforts by combining social, corporate content, and advertising reach –or risk connecting with the fleeting customer. Owned and earned media are vital to campaigns, helping to amplify and spread brand messages through the complex paths consumers follow across devices, screens and media. Advertising, or ‘paid’ media, has traditionally led marketing initiatives both online and off-. But advertising no longer works as effectively as it once did unless bolstered by additional marketing channels. While consumers distinguish less and less between these channels, marketers remain specialized in one medium at the expense of the others. Rather than allow campaigns to be driven by paid media, marketers must now develop scale and expertise in owned and earned media to drive effectiveness, cultivate creative ideas, assess customer needs, cultivate influencers, develop reach, achieve authenticity and cut through clutter. ”The Converged Media Imperative,” a new research report co-authored by Altimeter Group Analysts Rebecca Lieb and Jeremiah Owyang, explores today’s media landscape, and provides a success checklist and actionable recommendations for converged media deployment.
Power to the People: Identify and Empower Your Mobile Workforce
June 7, 2012
By Chris Silva
One-in-two mobile owners in the US owns a smartphone, and many more own tablets. As most of these same consumers adapt their personal lifestyle to be “mobile first,” they expect their employers to be there to meet them. With the growing number of personal mobile devices in the hands of users, as well as increasingly remote organizations , there’s a great opportunity for organizations to increase productivity of their employees by allowing the use of these personal devices. Taking this on seems daunting, as IT has less ability to enforce a single standard than ever before. Not taking action, however, and ignoring this trend risks exposing corporate data to public clouds with no visibility on the part of IT. Enforcing a single standard will do a lot to serve all users partially, but none particularly well. ”Power to the People: Identify and Empower Your Workforce,” the new report by Altimeter Group analyst Chris Silva explores how companies are deploying mobile strategies to meet the the specific needs of their employees and the organization at large.
The Rise of Digital Influence: A “How-To” Guide for Businesses
March 21, 2012
By Brian Solis
Digital Influence is one of the hottest trends in social media, yet is largely misunderstood. The Rise of Digital Influence, the new report by Altimeter Group Principal Analyst Brian Solis is a ‘how-to’ guide for businesses to spark desirable effects and outcomes through social media influence. The report helps companies understand how influence spreads, and it includes case studies in which brands partnered with vendors to recruit connected consumers for digital influence campaigns. Brian evaluates the offerings of 14 Influence vendors, organizing them by Reach, Resonance, and Relevance: the Three Pillars that make up the foundation for Digital Influence as defined in the report. Also included are an Influence Framework and an Influence Action Plan to help brands identify connected consumers and define and measure strategic digital influence initiatives.
Making the Business Case for Enterprise Social Networks
February 22, 2012
By Charlene Li
In 2011, the US hit a milestone — more than half of all adults visit social networking sites at least once a month. But when it comes to using social-networking technologies inside organizations, many business leaders are at a loss to understand what value can be created from Facebook-like status updates within the enterprise. Some organizations have deployed social-networking features with an initial enthusiastic reception, only to see these early efforts wither to just a few stalwart participants. The problem: Most companies approach enterprise social networks as a technology deployment and fail to understand that the new relationships created by enterprise social networks are the source for value creation. In this first of two reports, Altimeter looks at four ways enterprise social networks create value for organizations.
Content: The New Marketing Equation
February 16, 2012
By Rebecca Lieb
Content marketing requires a shift in company culture, resources, budgets, partners, and strategy. Rebalancing is critical to achieve these goals. The choice is whether to rebalance now or later — when the battle for attention may become even more difficult than it currently is. This report from Altimeter Group introduces a five-step content maturity model, complete with real-world case examples, to guide organizations from “standing” to “running” with their content strategy. A self-audit tool, content channel review, and actionable recommendations are also included.
Make an App for That: Mobile Strategies for Retailers
February 7, 2012
By Chris Silva
Retailers are seeing more and more of their customers enter the store with a smartphone; what are they doing about it? Many aren’t doing much. This report chronicles the successes of a few key brands and highlights a means to calculate the maturity of strategies, among others, navigate the right path to mobile, and design an app for success. From companies just starting to ponder mobile and still “on the ground” to those “flying high,” Altimeter illustrates the next steps brands and retailers must take to ensure success.
A Strategy for Managing Social Media Proliferation
January 6, 2012
By Jeremiah Owyang
Get account control now — or risk a career of continual social media sanitation. To match the growing consumer adoption of social media, many companies have launched social media efforts with little planning. As social media spreads beyond corporate communications and marketing, business groups are deploying social media without a standardized process. In fact, enterprise class corporations (those with over 1,000 employees) have an average of 178 social media accounts, and this number will only grow if left unchecked. Companies that don’t control these accounts are at risk of having abandoned accounts, lack of consistent experience, or untrained employees creating a crisis.
August 31, 2011
By Jeremiah Owyang
This report examines four common ways brands are investing in internal readiness. The report looks at how these brands prepared internally to spearhead momentum and makes recommendations on how to dissect business benefits, as well as where continued investment is needed.
A Framework for Social Analytics
August 10, 2011
By Susan Etlinger
This report is intended primarily for business people who are tasked with understanding, interpreting, and acting on social data — executives, strategic planners, social strategists, and marketers. It outlines the key challenges of social data, proposes a value-based framework for social analytics, and recommends clear and pragmatic steps that companies engaged in social media must follow to ensure they are gaining insights, measuring effectively, interpreting accurately, and taking appropriate action — both today and in the longer term.
How Corporations Should Prioritize Social Business Budgets
February 20, 2011
By Jeremiah Owyang and Charlene Li
Altimeter Group surveyed 140 corporate Social Strategists, primary business decision makers at large corporations, and found that social business maturity drives social business spending. In 2011, our data shows that investment in 12 discrete social business categories will vary greatly between three social business maturity levels: Novice, Intermediate, and Advanced. Faced with difficult spending decisions, corporations should heed the benchmarks from our survey — spending on social business should be prioritized on key areas for each maturity level.
Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist
November 10, 2010
By Jeremiah Owyang
Senior managers must hire and foster a Social Strategist’s career based on our 10 guidelines, including the following: find a candidate who comes from a strong digital or marketing background, seek those who focus on business objectives over the latest technologies, and give them the opportunity to take on risk safely. Furthermore, because these programs can cause internal strife, executives must provide air cover and clear roadblocks and then appropriately reward their Strategist with challenges and compensation — or risk losing this key person to companies who can understand and leverage their skills.
Rise of Social Commerce: A Trail Guide for the Social Commerce Pioneer
November 1, 2010
By Lora Cecere and Jeremiah Owyang
Meet the digital consumer. The “Great Recession” set the stage for this new era, and emerging technologies accelerate the transformation. The shopper has fundamentally changed and wants a new buying experience. Trust in big brands is low. Consumers want confidence in what they buy from their friends, as well as insight from their community. Social technologies are enabling this shift in shopping habits. They are maturing from social for the sake of being social in marketing to a new and transformative phenomenon: what we call “The Rise of Social Commerce.”
The 8 Success Critera for Facebook Page Marketing
July 27, 2010
By Jeremiah Owyang
Altimeter Group conducted research and gleaned input from 34 vendors, agencies, and experts to determine success criteria and develop a roadmap for Facebook page best practices. We found eight success criteria for Facebook page marketing and then tested the maturity of 30 top brands across six industries. Our heuristic evaluation revealed that brands fell short — nearly half of the brands we reviewed (14 out of 30) did not fully leverage social features to activate word of mouth, the hallmark behavior of social networks. Within this immature landscape, a few brands were on the right track to successfully harnessing Facebook page marketing. Brands like Pampers, Macy’s, Kohl’s, and AXE increased engagement and activated word of mouth through advocacy and peer-to-peer interactions, or they solicited business calls to action that resulted in transactions.
Social CRM: The New Rules of Relationship Management
March 5, 2010
By R “Ray” Wang and Jeremiah Owyang
Customers continue to adopt social technologies at a blinding speed — yet organizations are unable to keep up. Why? Rapid adoption of social networking enables users to connect with individuals and communities who share mutual interests, increasingly leaving organizations out of the conversation. Simply hiring more people to keep up with social marketing, sales, and support will not be sufficient, as consumers and their new channels will always outnumber employees. As a result, companies need an organized approach using enterprise software that connects business units to the social web — giving them the opportunity to respond in near-real time and in a coordinated fashion.
