Keynote: Career Path of Corporate Social Strategist

WOMMANovember 18, 2010
The Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist
Jeremiah Owyang
Industry AnalystPartner, Customer Strategy

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The World Changed
© 2010 Altimeter Group

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An Open Leader Emerges

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Internal Storms Hinder Progress

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Compounding Demands
Compounding Demands

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Two Paths for the Strategist

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Path 1: Grounded to Social Media Help Desk

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Path 2: Achieve Escape Velocity

About this Research Project
Background
Responsibilities
Program
Challenges
Career Path: Two Choices
The Future of this Role
Recommendations
Agenda

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Definition: The Corporate Social Strategist is the business decision maker of social media programs – providing leadership, roadmap definition, innovation; and directly influencing the spending on technology vendors and service agencies.

Scope: Companies with over 1000 employees, which we define as enterprise class corporations (SMB data available for clients)
Data Sample: Quantitative and Qualitative
An online survey of 140 enterprise-class Social Strategists across industries
51 interviews and interactions with corporate Social Strategists or topic authorities
50 job descriptions on company and recruitment web sites
50 LinkedIn profiles of current Social Strategists
Hundreds of Social Strategist hires catalogued on Web Strategy blog’s “On The Move” series
Ongoing catalog the “List of Corporate Social Strategists for 2010”
Research Methodology (WOMMA)
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Background
Responsibilities
Program
Challenges
Recommendations
Agenda

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Their Background

Digital or marketing background
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Risk-takers and multi-disciplinary

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Their Program

Programs are nascent, lacking long-term direction

Stem from Marketing or Corporate Communications

Limited budgets

Understaffed to serve enterprise
Average team was only 3.1 for companies with 1,000 to < 5,000 employees (Figure 6.5).

Organizational Models

CENTRALIZED
One department controls all efforts
Consistent
May not be as authentic
e.g. Ford, Regulated
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ORGANIC
Organic growth
Authentic
Experimental
Not coordinated
e.g. Sun
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COORDINATED
One hub sets rules and procedures
Business units undertake own efforts
Spreads widely around the org
Takes time
e.g. Red Cross
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MULTIPLE HUB AND SPOKE
OR “DANEDELION”
Similar to Coordinated but across multiple brands and units
e.g. HP, Microsoft, Tech Giants
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HOLISTIC OR “HONEYCOMB”
Each employee is empowered
Unlike Organic, employees are organized
e.g.Twelpforce, Zappos
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Five Ways Companies Organize: Hub & Spoke and Centralized
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Their Challenges

1. Friction from internal culture and a lack of education thwart progress.

“Right now, the social media professional has been a visionary pioneer willing to endure frustration and criticism by a great many senior corporate people who were set in their ways.”-@shelisrael

2. Proving real ROI difficult beyond engagement metrics

3: Serving the Entire Enterprise with Few Resources

“Challenge: budget and resources. It’s not well understood, so its not well funded.”
-Director, Social Media and Community

4. Ever-changing technology space leaves Strategists with “Head Spinning”

Various data types, APIs and reporting, third parties can make changes “on a whim.”

5. Initially perceived as a threat, success breeds jealousy.

“They will get slings and arrows in the front (from customers) and the back (from colleagues), as social challenges the status quo and existing positions.”-Director, Corporate Communications and Social Media

6. Internal and external demands are rapidly compounding.

“from 4 to 5 times more requests this year from last.”
-Social Strategist

“There are two people standing in front of my office demanding Facebook pages.”
--Social Strategist

Background
Responsibilities
Program
Challenges
Recommendations
Agenda

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Path 1: Grounded to Social Media Help Desk

Reactive or Proactive?
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The Tail Spin:
As more business units adopt “social media religion” they will start to demand their own Facebook pages and Twitter accounts.
If the Social Strategist is unable to comply, business units will deploy on their own.
“Facebook Strategy? Yeah my niece is all over it!”
Then the Social Strategist succumbs to mere order taking and clean up, relegating themselves to a “Social Media Help Desk.”
Path One: “Social Media Help Desk.”
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Path 2: Escape Velocity

Savvy Social Strategists develop a proactive business program that gets ahead of business – and customer requests.
Serve the entire enterprise as an internal resource –engagement doesn’t scale.
Grow scope beyond their business unit –assisting the end user along the entire customer journey.
Path Two: Escape Velocity
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Background
Responsibilities
Program
Challenges
Recommendations
Agenda

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Strategists may work themselves out of a role:
“In five years, this role doesn't exist. The role will be subsumed into every part of the company.”
“We don't have a ‘verbal communication strategist’ or an ‘email planner’ now.” -@steverubel
Yet, we expect that these corporate entrepreneurs will likely move on the next wave of emerging technologies.
If successful, they work themselves out of a job
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While these technologies are disruptive today, they will eventually become the norm.
Every customer touchpoint in their journey
All departments
Like “Air” – it’s pervasive
As we heard from one Social Strategist:
“The need for a dedicated staff will diminish, social will be a part of the fabric - marketing, PR, IT.”
The program transcends marketing– to span the entire customer journey
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John Bell, Global Managing Director at Olgivy’s 360 Digital Influence team, said:
“In two years, Social Strategists are involved in every marketing operation at the table. In five years, they are at the head of the table.” -@jbell99
Thus, today’s Social Strategist may rise to executive status
VP of Customer Experience
Chief Customer Officer
A role we’ve yet to imagine
Some will have opportunity for the Corner Office
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Background
Responsibilities
Program
Challenges
Recommendations
Agenda

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How to Achieve Escape Velocity

Open Research: Use and Share with Attribution
This independent research report was 100% funded by Altimeter Group.
This report is published under the principle of Open Research and is available at no cost.
The Creative Commons License is Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States at http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/3.0/us.
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Six Steps to Achieve Escape Velocity –and Stay out of the Social Media Help Desk
A proactive mindset is required –or end up in social media sanitation.
Do this by setting up requirements for social media engagement before the Business Units ask.
Get to Hub and Spoke formation(s) quickly. (Tip: Governance > Process > Education) covertly manifests COE
Become an enabler for Business Units, you can never hire enough community managers or deploy and manage efforts
Deploy scalable programs: communities, advocacy, SMMS, invest in SCRM. Dialog does not scale.
Over time, think and deploy greater than the marketing department –the duration of your role is limited

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THANK YOU
Jeremiah Owyang
Industry Analystjeremiah@altimetergroup.com
web-strategist.com/blog
Twitter: jowyang
With assistance from Christine Tran, Andrew Jones, and Charlene Li

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ABOUT US
Altimeter Group is a research-based advisory firm that helps companies and industries leverage disruption to their advantage. We have four areas of focus: Leadership and Management, Customer Strategy, Enterprise Strategy, and Innovation and Design.
Visit us at http://www.altimetergroup.com or contact info@altimetergroup.com.

Steve Bendt, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media, Best Buy
Richard Binhammer, Senior Manager, Strategic Corporate Communications, Dell
LaSandra Brill, Senior Manager, Global Social Media, Cisco Systems Inc.
Rebecca Brown, Director, Social Media Strategy, Intel Corporation
Kelly Colbert, Director, Marketing Strategy, Wellpoint
Marty Collins, Director, Emerging Media, Microsoft
Florence Drakton, Social Media Manager, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.
Kati Driscoll, Community Specialist, Social Media, AAA
Bert DuMars, Vice President, E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
Frank Eliason, Senior Vice President, Social Media, Citi
Kimberley Gardiner, Manager, Marketing, Toyota Motor Sales U.S.A.
Jeannette Gibson, Director, Social Media Marketing, Cisco Systems Inc.
Jamie Grenney, Senior Director, Social Media, Salesforce.com
Julie Haddon, Senior Director, Global Social Media, eBay inc.
Gareth Hornberger, Coordinator, Social Media, Levi’s
Ken Kaplan, Manager, New Media and Broadcast, Intel
Steven Lazarus, Lead Strategist, Social Media & Interactive Marketing, IBM
Jason Long, Community Manager, QlikTech
Dan Maloney, Global Vice President, Ecosystem Business Development & Web Strategy, SAP
Manish Mehta, VP, Social Media & Community, Dell
Scott Monty, Manager, Global Digital & Multimedia Communications, Ford Motor Company
Petra Neiger, Senior Manager, Global Social Media, Cisco Systems Inc.
Marcus Nelson, Director, Social Media, Salesforce.com
Bowen Payson, Manager, Online & Digital Marketing, Virgin America
Holly Potter, Vice President, Public Relations, Kaiser Permanente
Maria Poveromo, Director, Social Media, Adobe Systems
Toby Richards, General Manager, Community & Online Support, Microsoft
Chip Rogers, Vice President and COO, SAP Community Network and Ecosystem Events
Vanessa Sain-Diéguez, Strategist, Social Media, Hilton Worldwide
Dan Schick, Manager, Web Communications, TELUS Communications
Daniel Schmidt, Senior Product Manager, CBS Interactive
Liya Sharif, Director, Marketing, Qualcomm
Peter Simonsen, Senior Director, Web, QlikTech
Ted Sindzinski, Manager, Internet Marketing, Monster Cable Products
Shiv Singh, Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages North America
Kim Snedaker, Manager, Social Media, AAA
Ed Terpening, Vice President, Social Media Marketing, Wells Fargo
Alexandra Wheeler, Director, Digital Strategy, Starbucks
Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President, SAP Community Network
Interviews with CorporateSocial Strategists (39)
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Tac Anderson, Vice President, Digital Strategies, Waggener Edstrom
David Armano, Senior Vice President, Digital, Edelman
Tom Bedecarre, CEO, AKQA
John Bell, Managing Director & Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
Andrea Harrison, Vice President, Strategy, Razorfish
Liza Hausman, Vice President, Marketing, Gigya
Shel Israel, CEO, SI Associates
Peter Kim, Managing Director, North America, Dachis Group
Jennifer Leggio, Social Business Blogger, CBS Interactive (ZDNet)
Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President, Insights, Edelman Digital
Andy Sernovitz, CEO, SocialMedia.org / Social Media Business Council
Dan Ziman, Vice President, Marketing, Lithium Technologies Inc.
Interviews: Topic Authorities
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Charlene Li, Partner, Altimeter Group
Christine Tran, Researcher, Altimeter Group
Andrew Jones, Researcher, Altimeter Group
Susan Etlinger, Altimeter Group
Prathima Murphy, Altimeter Group
Tarah Remington Brown, WOMMA
Ann Handley, MarketingProfs
AshaHossain Design, Inc.
Sonal Mehta, Student
Jennifer McClure, Society for New Communications Research;
Anita Wong, Student
Gil Yehuda, GilYehuda.com
Contributor Recognition
62

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Keynote: Career Path of Corporate Social Strategist

by Jeremiah Owyang

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