This document discusses the career path of corporate social strategists. It begins with an overview of research conducted including surveys and interviews. It describes the background of social strategists, their responsibilities developing social media programs, and the challenges they face. These include proving ROI, limited resources, and changing technologies. The document outlines two potential career paths - becoming grounded in reactive help desk work, or achieving "escape velocity" through a proactive approach. It speculates on the future of the role moving beyond marketing to span customer experience. Recommendations include taking a proactive mindset and thinking beyond individual business units to influence the entire customer journey.

1. WOMMA
November 18, 2010
Jeremiah Owyang
Industry Analyst
Partner, Customer Strategy
The Career Path of the
Corporate Social Strategist

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The World Changed

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An Open Leader Emerges

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Internal Storms Hinder Progress

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Compounding DemandsCompounding 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
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 About this Research Project
 An Open Leader Emerges
• 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.

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 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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13. © 2010 Altimeter Group
 About this Research Project
 An Open Leader Emerges
• Background
• Responsibilities
• Program
• Challenges
 Career Path: Two Choices
 The Future of this Role
 Recommendations
Agenda

14. © 2010 Altimeter Group
Their Background
© 2010 Altimeter Group
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Digital or marketing background
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Risk-takers and multi-disciplinary

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Their Program
© 2010 Altimeter Group
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Programs are nascent, lacking long-term
direction

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Stem from Marketing or Corporate
Communications

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Limited budgets

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

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Organizational Models
Centralized Distributed Coordinated Multiple Hub
and Spoke
Holistic

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- One department controls all efforts
- Consistent
- May not be as authentic
- e.g. Ford, Regulated
CENTRALIZED

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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

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

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“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

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2. Proving real ROI difficult beyond engagement
metrics

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2. Proving real ROI difficult beyond engagement
metrics

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3: Serving the Entire Enterprise with Few
Resources

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

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

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

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

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“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

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6. Internal and external demands are rapidly
compounding.

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

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

43. © 2010 Altimeter Group
 About this Research Project
 An Open Leader Emerges
• Background
• Responsibilities
• Program
• Challenges
 Career Path: Two Choices
 The Future of this Role
 Recommendations
Agenda

44. © 2010 Altimeter Group
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Path 1: Grounded to
Social Media Help Desk
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Reactive or Proactive?
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 The Tail Spin:
1. As more business units adopt “social media religion”
they will start to demand their own Facebook pages
and Twitter accounts.
2. If the Social Strategist is unable to comply, business
units will deploy on their own.
“Facebook Strategy? Yeah my niece is all over it!”
3. 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
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 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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49. © 2010 Altimeter Group
 About this Research Project
 An Open Leader Emerges
• Background
• Responsibilities
• Program
• Challenges
 Career Path: Two Choices
 The Future of this Role
 Recommendations
Agenda

50. © 2010 Altimeter Group© 2010 Altimeter Group
The Future of this Role
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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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54. © 2010 Altimeter Group
 About this Research Project
 An Open Leader Emerges
• Background
• Responsibilities
• Program
• Challenges
 Career Path: Two Choices
 The Future of this Role
 Recommendations
Agenda

55. © 2010 Altimeter Group
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How to Achieve Escape Velocity
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 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.
Open Research: Use and Share with Attribution
56

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1. A proactive mindset is required –or end up in social media
sanitation.
2. Do this by setting up requirements for social media engagement
before the Business Units ask.
3. Get to Hub and Spoke formation(s) quickly. (Tip: Governance >
Process > Education) covertly manifests COE
4. Become an enabler for Business Units, you can never hire
enough community managers or deploy and manage efforts
5. Deploy scalable programs: communities, advocacy, SMMS, invest
in SCRM. Dialog does not scale.
6. Over time, think and deploy greater than the marketing
department –the duration of your role is limited
Six Steps to Achieve Escape Velocity –and Stay
out of the Social Media Help Desk

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

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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.
ABOUT US

60. 1. Steve Bendt, Senior Marketing Manager, Social Media,
Best Buy
2. Richard Binhammer, Senior Manager, Strategic Corporate
Communications, Dell
3. LaSandra Brill, Senior Manager, Global Social Media,
Cisco Systems Inc.
4. Rebecca Brown, Director, Social Media Strategy, Intel
Corporation
5. Kelly Colbert, Director, Marketing Strategy, Wellpoint
6. Marty Collins, Director, Emerging Media, Microsoft
7. Florence Drakton, Social Media Manager, Toyota Motor
Sales U.S.A.
8. Kati Driscoll, Community Specialist, Social Media, AAA
9. Bert DuMars, Vice President, E-Business & Interactive
Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
10. Frank Eliason, Senior Vice President, Social Media, Citi
11. Kimberley Gardiner, Manager, Marketing, Toyota Motor
Sales U.S.A.
12. Jeannette Gibson, Director, Social Media Marketing, Cisco
Systems Inc.
13. Jamie Grenney, Senior Director, Social Media,
Salesforce.com
14. Julie Haddon, Senior Director, Global Social Media, eBay
inc.
15. Gareth Hornberger, Coordinator, Social Media, Levi’s
16. Ken Kaplan, Manager, New Media and Broadcast, Intel
17. Steven Lazarus, Lead Strategist, Social Media &
Interactive Marketing, IBM
18. Jason Long, Community Manager, QlikTech
19. Dan Maloney, Global Vice President, Ecosystem Business
Development & Web Strategy, SAP
20. Manish Mehta, VP, Social Media & Community, Dell
21. Scott Monty, Manager, Global Digital & Multimedia
Communications, Ford Motor Company
22. Petra Neiger, Senior Manager, Global Social Media, Cisco
Systems Inc.
23. Marcus Nelson, Director, Social Media, Salesforce.com
24. Bowen Payson, Manager, Online & Digital Marketing,
Virgin America
25. Holly Potter, Vice President, Public Relations, Kaiser
Permanente
26. Maria Poveromo, Director, Social Media, Adobe Systems
27. Toby Richards, General Manager, Community & Online
Support, Microsoft
28. Chip Rogers, Vice President and COO, SAP Community
Network and Ecosystem Events
29. Vanessa Sain-Diéguez, Strategist, Social Media, Hilton
Worldwide
30. Dan Schick, Manager, Web Communications, TELUS
Communications
31. Daniel Schmidt, Senior Product Manager, CBS Interactive
32. Liya Sharif, Director, Marketing, Qualcomm
33. Peter Simonsen, Senior Director, Web, QlikTech
34. Ted Sindzinski, Manager, Internet Marketing, Monster
Cable Products
35. Shiv Singh, Head of Digital, PepsiCo Beverages North
America
36. Kim Snedaker, Manager, Social Media, AAA
37. Ed Terpening, Vice President, Social Media Marketing,
Wells Fargo
38. Alexandra Wheeler, Director, Digital Strategy, Starbucks
39. Mark Yolton, Senior Vice President, SAP Community
Network
Interviews with Corporate
Social Strategists (39)
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61. 1. Tac Anderson, Vice President, Digital Strategies, Waggener Edstrom
2. David Armano, Senior Vice President, Digital, Edelman
3. Tom Bedecarre, CEO, AKQA
4. John Bell, Managing Director & Executive Creative Director, Ogilvy Public
Relations Worldwide
5. Andrea Harrison, Vice President, Strategy, Razorfish
6. Liza Hausman, Vice President, Marketing, Gigya
7. Shel Israel, CEO, SI Associates
8. Peter Kim, Managing Director, North America, Dachis Group
9. Jennifer Leggio, Social Business Blogger, CBS Interactive (ZDNet)
10. Steve Rubel, Senior Vice President, Insights, Edelman Digital
11. Andy Sernovitz, CEO, SocialMedia.org / Social Media Business Council
12. Dan Ziman, Vice President, Marketing, Lithium Technologies Inc.
Interviews: Topic Authorities
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62. © 2010 Altimeter Group
 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
 Asha Hossain Design, Inc.
 Sonal Mehta, Student
 Jennifer McClure, Society for New
Communications Research;
 Anita Wong, Student
 Gil Yehuda, GilYehuda.com
Contributor Recognition
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