I’m frequently asked “What’s the top challenge the corporate social strategist is struggling” and over and over, ROI comes up very high. To tackle this challenge head on, Altimeter has conducted a research project to find out how companies are connecting social technologies to the overall buying process as well as analyzing how they increase revenues for brands.
In conjunction with our recent conference on Social Commerce, we’ve now published the findings from interviewing top social commerce vendors and brands that are connecting commerce with social media. Our lead researcher analyst on this project is Lora Cecere who stems from Gartner and AMR and stems from Supply Chain Management, her and I will be doing a no-cost webinar to discuss these findings, I hope you join us.
This report is intended for you to use, share, and spread, under creative commons, feel free to embed it on your own blog, comment on it, and discuss. I look forward to hearing your feedback.
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Honestly I don't know what to trust about this research. I can't tell where research ends and opininon from Altimetere begins. The flaw are so numerous. Just one example, you are drawing conclusions on the phase of enlightened engagment based on 5% of the qualitiative respondents. Hmmm… that's TWO PEOPLE. Now, are you merely trying to fit responses into the agenda already set forth by your consulting group or are you delivering something new and meaningful? Did the research create the matrix or are you force-fitting research into a matrix Altrimeter had already developed? Honestly, I can't tell and it seems to be a pattern in the style of your “research” reports. My suspicion is you are using big name brands to try to justify loose assumptions in your pre-determined strategy and hoping people don't read the report very carefully.
Hi Mark
I was the primary analyst on this report. I value your feedback and wanted to respond.
Based on Jeremiah™s current research projects, one of the most important characteristics for the effective social strategist is to empower a multi-disciplinary approach. In line with this premise, this report was not written for the marketer focused on social marketing; rather it was written for value chain leaders focused on social commerce. It is designed to help this audience understand the potential of social technologies to engage the digital consumer to improve their buying experience through the use of social commerce.
Is the report lightweight? I am sorry that you think so. We tried to follow rigorous research protocols. Social commerce is new and evolving. It is very different than social media. The 54 interviews took four months to complete. The interviews were supported by the 123 quantitative responses, and the report was shared with 150 attendees at our Rise of Social Commerce event. It is hard to condense this much data into 14 pages. Please let me know if you would like to see the detail.
Is the report a different view? Yes. It is about social commerce not social media. It is designed for a new audience. Social commerce is evolving quickly. There are no fixed and set processes yet.
I would expect a social strategist to feel uncomfortable reading the report. The report was not written for the marketing audience. Instead, it is designed for a value chain audience to understand the potential of social media in a larger context of the evolution of social commerce. For this audience, social is very new; and as a result, explaining the concepts (social media extension to social commerce and why it matters) may seem elementary to an advanced marketing audience. Consider that this may be the power of the report.
I am committed to unleash the understanding of social technologies to drive multi-disciplinary outcomes. I think that it is important that the power/understanding of social not be contained solely as marketing for the sake of marketing.
Can we keep the dialogue going?
You are so right. The best companies use technologies to balance growth and efficiency against the strategy. This is new for social, and will become more important as social technologies move past the walls of interactive marketing to enable direct interaction of the entire organization with the digital consumer.
Yes, I would like to see the detail. You can email it to mschaefer700@gmail.com. Thank you.
BTW, you didn't really answer my questions, including, is it fair to draw a conclusion based on the input of two people? And I'll add this question: Jeremiah tweeted that this report was the answer to ROI in social media. Do you believe that is so?
I'm not trying to be provocative. I'm just fed up with crappy data being broadcast onto the social stream with over-hyped claims and under-developed data.
Thanks in advance for the report.