Businesses know social is critical, but still struggling: Hootsuite

• Survey of current or prospective clients, including in Malaysia and Singapore
• To address gap, Hootsuite unveils its Global Agency Partner Programme

THE majority of organisations surveyed in a Hootsuite Social Business Benchmark believe social media is critical to staying competitive and engaging audiences, yet admitted they face challenges in deriving value from the data they mine from social and aligning departments.
 
Hootsuite said it had commissioned Harris Poll to conduct the survey on social adoption in the enterprise, involving more than 750 interviews among current or prospective clients of Hootsuite in Australia, Canada, Germany, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States.
 
Interviews were conducted in English and took place between Jan 7 and Oct 1, the company said in a statement. Invitations were sent by Harris Poll and no mention of Hootsuite was made.
 
“While social media is a part of everyday life for consumers, effectively integrating social in the workplace hasn't been as easy,” said Hootsuite chief executive officer Ryan Holmes (pic).
 
“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 organisations unlock the rewards of social media across the enterprise,” he added.
 
Eighty-four percent of respondents recognise the importance of using social media to enhance relationships with existing customers, and 79% value the ability to monitor external conversations about their company.
 
However, 67% of those surveyed find it difficult to assess the effectiveness of social media activities and another 60% 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 to translate digital interactions into valuable action, given McKinsey Global Institute’s recent report that organisations can unlock up to US$1.3 trillion in annual business value using social technologies, Hootsuite said in its statement.
 
Among the key findings (click infographic to enlarge):
 
1) 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%) agree that social media is important to maintain a competitive edge.

• Data insights are rarely used: Less than half (40%) of these organisations said they were using data gained from social media to improve their bottom line, while 60% stated they were challenged to find actionable use for data collected.

2) 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%) agree the number of departments using social media is growing.

• Aligning campaigns is a challenge: A majority (64%) 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% of respondents said that creating a social media strategy was difficult in the first place.

3) Social media is the new way to interact with customers and influencers.

• Building relationships and reputation: A majority of respondents (84%) 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%), and to monitor external communication (79%).

• Social viewed as best vehicle to engage with audiences: 73% of respondents value social media’s capability to resolve customer complaints and questions.

Global programme
 
To address this gap in scaling social, Hootsuite unveiled its Global Agency Partner Programme, a new initiative for equipping large, global agencies with the education, tools and support to accelerate enablement of social business across their enterprise clients.
 
Charter members of the programme include FleishmanHillard, M&C Saatchi, Lost Boys (part of the DigitasLBi family) and Ogilvy Digital Health.
 
The Global Agency Partner Programme includes resources that help agencies educate account teams and stay on the leading edge of social media through tailored training workshops, access to industry leaders and enhanced support specific to the business needs, and client delivery model of large agencies, Hootsuite said.
 
“Hootsuite has long been the partner of choice for global agencies helping enterprises drive social across their business. Our experience working with some of the world’s top brands will arm digital practices with insights and tailored tools that translate into tremendous value add for clients,” said Homes.
 
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