Pretty solid job by the team at Altimeter, and an interesting read at that. Print it, share it, let your boss read it, learn from it what matters, and apply what you can. (If the embed doesn’t work for you, check out the report here.)
One tiny little thought: The emphasis on having a strong background in marketing or digital media without also including customer service in that bucket is an error, in my opinion. Marketing and digital media tend to focus mostly on content and push, which is why so many social media programs currently go nowhere. By excluding (or omitting) the natural inbound nature of customer service communications and the crucial customer-facing experience that comes with the discipline, the study fails to identify a vital aspect of a successful Social Media Strategist’s skill-set. (Not knocking the report. It merely reflects the state of Social Media adoption in the enterprise in 2010.)
One of the main reasons why companies fail in the space is because of their emphasis on hiring or promoting the wrong people to this type of role – People whose professional backgrounds tend to skew their “social media strategy” towards marketing and digital. What companies end up with is essentially marketing being pushed out to social media channels rather than the holistic social business evolution that companies like Ford, Starbucks and Zappos are currently exploring, with notable success.
The emphasis on these two areas of expertise is at the crux of the problem facing social media integration in business today. Effective social media program development reaches far beyond ‘marketing’ and ‘digital.’ Look at figure 6.3: How many social media programs touch on customer service and product management? 1% and 1%, respectively. That is ridiculous. 1%?!?! Meanwhile, Marketing and Corporate Communications get the lion’s share of the social media management role with 41% and 30% respectively, and Digital gets 11%. This imbalance is symptomatic of the problem: How can customer service and product management find themselves all but excluded from the typical business’ social media practice? What I see here is far too much emphasis on push.
No wonder social media still doesn’t work for most companies. (And no, “followers” don’t count until they are converted to loyal, vocal customers.) “Reach” is a means to an end, not an outcome. The emphasis on marketing in the space is creating an obvious imbalance – now quantified, thanks to this report.
Fascinating little report and great snapshot of the state of Social Media management today. Bookmarked, saved, and printed (yes, on paper) for good measure.
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
I really appreciate this review thank you! We looked for more social strategists in support, but didn’t find them, in fact the survey data indicates this is the case.
Only 1% of respondents were in the support organization as we surveyed a variety of companies
Data:
One of the predictions we made in the report is we expect this number to rapidly increase in groups OUTSIDE of marketing, and we believe this role, the Corporate Social Strategists will likely transcend business units all together.
That doesn’t surprise me.
The report is sound, Jeremiah. The problem isn’t with the report – It is with the state of SM integration in the enterprise. You reported on what you found there, and identified (purposely or not) a huge flaw in the way SM is being deployed across companies: The emphasis on attaching SM to the Marketing function, and reinforcing that error by assigning Marketing Directors to develop these programs is presented loud and clear in your study. I didn’t realize it was that bad.
I hope that ratio changes in 2011.
Thanks, man. 🙂
Thanks Oliver, it should change over time, yes.
You make a great point, Oliver about the exclusion of customer service as part of a social media strategist’s skillset. If employers continue to hire people to be the representative of their social media practices with the intent to use social media channels to only push content, companies will continue to fail at social media. Social media channels are great for companies to build relationships with customers and that takes good customer service skills. Marketing via social media channels is starting to increase, but I am starting to see more using the channels as another form of direct mail in a digital format.
Yes. It’s a disappointing trend. With all the potential in SM, to see it turned mostly into another spam channel for marketers is kind of heartbreaking.
Interesting discussion! In my experience, customer service and marketing are lateral departments on the organizational chart that both report up to sales. In any case, ideally, I tend to think a Corporate Social Strategist needs deep experience in all key areas of business, including sales and marketing, communications, pr, customer service, etc., PLUS have a certain level of expertise in the social space. A tall order perhaps, but these people do exist if a company is willing to make the investment. Overall, I agree with Jeremiah that the role of Social Media Strategist may ultimately transcend or even overlay traditional business units altogether.
It is a tall order, but that is what it takes. Add change management to the list as well. The role is much more important than most organizations realize. Where companies fail is in misunderstanding how high a standard they need to set on the individual’s skill set. The job can’t be done properly by someone who isn’t well versed in every business function. Too much focus in any one discipline will cause a social media practice to fail. We are seeing that with most companies struggling to show results in the space.
Great comment. 🙂
This blog was very interesting for us,,it has a big impact of how to care the company and it will grant for a big dissapointment and i agree that one of the main reasons why companies fail in the space is because of their emphasis on hiring or promoting the wrong people to this type of role.