The document discusses how top performing marketing organizations are leveraging social media more effectively than others. It finds that the best-in-class are more likely to actively engage and monitor social media conversations, have executive support for social media initiatives, dedicate resources to managing social efforts, and deploy tools to measure customer experience data from social media. The best-in-class also focus on metrics like new sales leads to establish a strong business case for social media investments and drive greater marketing performance results.

1. March, 2011
Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links,
Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
The past decade brought a significant change in buying behavior; social Analyst Insight
networks are now used to access and share any information on virtually Aberdeen’s Insights provide the
every organization. In June and August 2010, Aberdeen surveyed more than analyst perspective of the
450 executives for the 2011 Marketing Executive's Agenda. The responses, research as drawn from an
received from companies of all sizes and across all industry segments, aggregated view of the research
highlight the crucial factors driving marketing programs: most companies surveys, interviews, and
understand the rising use of social media and plan to increase their data analysis
investments in the medium accordingly. However, most organizations are
struggling to develop an adequate business case and strategy to leverage
social media adequately in the marketing mix. In fact, a majority of
organizations do not have executive support to undertake such efforts. This
Aberdeen Analyst Insight will review how top performing companies
establish a business case for social media, and use the differentiating factors
they deploy as a result to improve their marketing effectiveness.
Figure 1: 12 Month Marketing Spend Projections
80%
67%
60%
291% Higher
40%
23%
20%
0%
Percent of Companies Increasing Spend
Number of respondents, n=453
Social Media Traditional Media
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
Business Context
The speed and breadth of changes in the marketing arena is intense. Indeed,
Aberdeen's research from the 2011 Marketing Executive's Agenda indicates
that while companies face greater competition and economic uncertainty,
more than half of all marketers surveyed are simultaneously required to
demonstrate a measurable ROI with fewer dollars and resources available
to execute them. Yet, survey results indicate that spending on social media
by all companies will increase by 2.9-times or more over the next 12
This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies provide for objective fact-based research and
represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc.
and may not be reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by Aberdeen Group, Inc.

2. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 2
months versus traditional media (Figure 1). It is important to also note that
24% of companies plan to decrease spending on traditional media while only
2% of companies plan to trim social media spending. These findings show
that despite the pressure to produce more with less, marketing executives
are turning to social media to deliver results.
Barriers to Adoption
Regardless of social media's ability to readily engage customers and
prospects, organizations still face clear challenges with their social media
initiatives (Figure 2). The ability to quantify benefits of social media for
establishing a business case is a key challenge cited by almost half of all
respondents. Limited or no visibility on the benefits or results of social
media investments also has a negative impact on obtaining executive support
for these initiatives. With lack of budget being one of the top pressures
marketers cite within recent research, the ability to produce a strong
business case to gain executive management support is crucial to implement
these efforts.
Figure 2: Key Barriers to Adoption of Social Media
60%
48%
40% 36%
20%
0%
Inability to establish a business case No executive management support /
mandate
Number of respondents, n=453
All Respondents
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
Participation in Social Media Drives Greater Performance Maturity Class Definitions
Despite these challenges, research shows that Best-in-Class companies are √ Best-in-Class: top 20% of
38% more likely than all others (Industry Average and Laggard companies) aggregate performance
to actively engage and monitor conversations (Figure 3). In fact, the Best-in- scorers
Class are 90% more likely than other companies to engage and monitor √ Industry Average: middle
social media activities within their community (prospects and customers 50% of aggregate
subscribed to receive updates through various channels) as well as beyond performance scorers
their community.
√ Laggards: bottom 30% of
aggregate performance
scorers
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3. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 3
Figure 3: Engagement and Monitoring of Social Media Activities
Active social media 58%
engagement strategy 42%
Passive or No social 41% Best-in-Class
media engagement All Others
strategy 51%
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Number of respondents, n=453
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
Aberdeen's February 2009 report The ROI on Social Media Marketing: Why It Performance Results
Pays to Drive Word of Mouth, provides additional context to the underlying
Aberdeen's The 2011
reasons for this finding; it found that companies that realize they can't
Marketing Executive's Agenda
control the message in social media are increasingly focused on creating research shows that Best-in-
context and becoming a contributor. This awakening is fundamentally Class marketing organizations
changing companies' approach to social media; evolving it from "monitor the achieved significant
conversation" to "join the conversation" to "share the conversation." performance gains:
Top-performing marketing organizations are laser-focused on strategies that √ Annual Revenue: 20%
deliver tangible, measurable results. Utilizing key marketing channels like average year-over-year
social media allows them to achieve greater corporate revenue results as improvement, compared
well as higher marketing contribution to sales forecasted pipeline - see 4% worsening among
sidebar. Comparing the social media engagement figures for Best-in-Class Laggard organizations.
against all other companies in the graph above strongly validates the value of Also, 100% of Best-in-
Class improved in this
social media as a differentiating marketing channel utilized by these top metric, compared to 11%
performing companies to achieve greater marketing effectiveness. of Laggard organizations
√ Percent of the sales
Establishing a Business Case for Social Media forecasted pipeline
Aberdeen's research shows that leading companies are more active in using generated by marketing:
social media because they can quantify its impact on their business 47% for Best-in-Class,
performance - in fact, the Best-in-Class are 40% more likely than others to compared to 5% of
do so. Laggard organizations
When asked about the most valuable metrics to measure social media's
contribution to overall marketing efforts, the Best-in-Class indicated quality
and quantity (number) of new sales leads as the most valuable metrics - 3.35
and 3.07 respectively on a scale of 1 to 5 where 1 = no value 5 = highly
value (Figure 4). This demonstrates that in order to establish the connection
between business performance and investment in social media efforts, the
Best-in-Class are monitoring the source of sales leads. By analyzing the
percent of closed business coming from leads generated and nurtured
through this channel, leading companies are able to understand the impact
of social media, and establish a financial model / justification for spending.
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
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4. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 4
This also provides greater visibility for executive management team to
understand the benefits of investing in social media as a strategic marketing
channel.
Figure 4: Building a Business Case for Social Media
3.80
3.62
3.46
3.40
3.00 2.90 2.90
2.60
Quality of new sales leads Quantity (number) of new sales leads
Value of Metric, n=453
Best-in-Class All Others
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
The benefits and importance of lead management are identified further in Best-in-Class Criteria
Aberdeen's January 2010 benchmark report, Crossing the Chasm with The following key
Automated Lead Management. In that research, Aberdeen notes that lead performance indicators were
management allows organizations to monitor prospect behavior to engage used to determine the Best-
in timely, personalized interactions that have a higher chance of generating in-Class for Crossing the
revenue. Best-in-Class companies from this research improved their average Chasm with Automated Lead
annual revenue by 59% year-over-year, compared to 3% average decrease in Management:
annual revenue. Clearly, integrating information captured through social √ Annual revenue
media with lead management activities is beneficial in establishing a business
case for social media as well as improving overall business results. √ Click-through rate on
email marketing campaigns
Success in Social Media is in the Eyes of Capabilities and √ Customer acquisition
Enabling Tools revenue
While there are many factors that account for the success of a marketing
organization, Aberdeen's research reveals critical capabilities and specific
tools that enable Best-in-Class companies to reap greater benefits from
their efforts. "We monitor social media
because it provides unsolicited
and unbiased consumer
Key Capabilities opinions about our products
As noted earlier, executive management support is closely associated with and brands in real time."
the ability to establish a business case for social media efforts. However, it
~ Christine Stasiw Lazarchuk
does not stop there; having support for this channel allows companies to
Director, Global Market
capture and provide crucial customer feedback to executives including Research, Ford
strategic visibility into how customers perceive product(s), brand(s), and the
company. Research shows that the Best-in-Class are 65% more likely than
other companies to have executive-level support for their social media
initiatives (Figure 5). Such important information provides companies with
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

5. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 5
much needed insights on the impact of their marketing on customer Best-in-Class Criteria
perception and experiences. Aberdeen's October 2009 report The ROI on
The following key
Social Media Monitoring: Why It Pays to Listen to Online Conversation, shows performance indicators were
that Best-in-Class companies are twice as likely as Laggards to have used to determine the Best-
processes in place for applying costumer insights captured through social in-Class for The ROI on Social
media into their overall marketing efforts, including product development Media Monitoring:
and brand reputation management.
√ Customer advocacy
Figure 5: Capabilities Are Crucial to Achieve Greater Results √ Ability to generate
consumer insights that
drive new product/service
Executive-level 71% development
support for Social
Media initiatives 49% √ Customer service costs
√ Ability to identify and
reduce risk to the brand
A formal strategy 47%
devoted to Social
Media 30%
Dedicated resources 43% Best-in-Class
devoted to managing
30% All Others
Social Media efforts
10% 30% 50% 70% 90%
Fast Facts
Number of respondents, n=453
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
Aberdeen's research
indicates the following
Given that social media as a marketing channel is still in its early phases for findings in terms of the
many companies, creating and implementing a formal strategy is crucial. As likelihood of Best-in-Class
companies having processes
indicated in Figure 5, Best-in-Class companies are 57% more likely than
in place to share insights
others to have a formal social media strategy currently in place. Those gleaned through social media
organizations with no existing strategy for social media initiatives should be with following functions
willing to examine what's been done in other industry segments, and adopt across the enterprise;
successful approaches regardless of the source of these ideas.
√ Product Development:
In order to ensure successful processes to monitor, engage and analyze 217% more likely than all
social media conversations (see sidebar), organizations need to deploy the others
right resources for managing these efforts. Again, as illustrated by the chart
√ Sales: 169% more likely
above, top performing companies are 43% more likely than all other than all others
companies to dedicate appropriate resources for their social media efforts.
Considering that a majority of these top performing companies have annual √ Customer Service: 167%
revenue below $50 million, dedicated resources for social media activities is more likely than all others
not a matter of organizational size but a matter of strategic importance √ Executive Management:
related to marketing spend. 150% more likely than all
others
√ Marketing: 127% more
likely than all others
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
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6. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 6
Having the Right Tools Makes All the Difference
Simply deploying social media to extend organizational reach and brand Benefits of Social Media
awareness is only "the tip of the iceberg." What lies below the water line is Tools/Solutions
how customer experience data is used to drive marketing efforts, and Besides the performance
research shows that top performing companies are 52% more likely than results illustrated in Figure 6,
Laggards to invest in a combination of social media monitoring, engagement Aberdeen's The ROI on Social
and analytics tools to measure and report customer experience data. The Media Marketing research
benefits of deploying these solutions on improving overall marketing also reflects impressive
campaign results are illustrated in Figure 6 and the side bar. findings on average year-
over-year performance gains
of companies using social
Figure 6: Benefits of Deploying Social Media Monitoring, media monitoring,
Engagement, and Analytics Tools engagement, and analysis
tools, compared to non-
users:
Customer 49%
√ 5% average year-over-year
profitability 33% improvement in customer
profitability, compared to
2% improvement by non-
Return on 43% users
marketing
21% √ 4% average year-over-year
investment Users of social media monitoring, improvement in Return on
engagement, and analysis tools Marketing Investments
(ROMI), compared to 1%
Likelihood to 31% Non-users of social media improvement by non-users
recommend monitoring, engagement, and
12%
analysis tools √ 3% average year-over-year
improvement in likelihood
to recommend (net
0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60%
promoter score, online
Percent of companies improving year-over-year performance, n=304 promoter score),
compared to 1%
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
improvement by non-users
There is a broad range of social media monitoring, engagement, and analysis
solutions to help companies listen, join, and understand the implications of
conversations. These solutions continue to evolve at a tremendous pace.
Whatever the social media solution, one thing is clear: as control of a
brand's marketing messages continues to shift from traditional media to
social media, companies need to recognize that paying attention to how
they're perceived in the online world is crucial!
Valuable Social Media Applications/Approaches
To understand the value of the social media approaches companies use,
Aberdeen asked executives participating in the 2011 Marketing Executive's
Agenda study to indicate which applications are used to support social media
initiatives and their importance/value. The results were clear; certain
applications and approaches are nearly twice as valuable for top performing
companies compared to Laggards (Figure 7).
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

7. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 7
Social networks (i.e. LinkedIn, Facebook) allow individuals to communicate
with each other, voice their opinions and experiences, and follow company
events and information. Research shows that top performing companies are
25% more likely than other companies to utilize such networks in their
social media activities.
Figure 7: If Customers are Talking, Companies Need to Listen,
and Participate
60%
Social networks
48%
56%
Blogging
31%
39% Best-in-Class
Commenting
24% All Others
0% 20% 40% 60% 80%
Number of respondents, n=453
Source: Aberdeen Group, March 2011
Blogging is another key application leveraged by top performing companies.
The Merriam Webster New World Dictionary defines it as "a Web site that
contains an online personal journal with reflections, comments, and often
hyperlinks provided by the writer." Best-in-Class companies are 81% more
likely than other companies to use blogging in their pursuit to capture
customer information, analyze what they mean, and engage with them in a
targeted manner.
In the context of social media marketing, commenting means enabling
comments to others' blog posts (i.e. individuals, groups, associations). It is
particularly beneficial as it allows organizations to generate conversations
with customers, add breadth to existing conversations and determine
specific customer perceptions and sentiment based on the content within
these comments. Top performing companies are 63% more likely than
others to rely on this approach in their social media programs.
Key Takeaways
With the swift changes to the global economy and to customer purchasing
behavior, social networks have risen to become a strategic marketing
channel that is attracting some of the spending traditionally allocated to
conventional media and programs. Yet, Aberdeen's research shows that
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

8. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 8
many companies still don't know how to leverage this medium in their
marketing activities. The following actions will help organizations across all
levels of experience (beginners, intermediate, and experts) to improve their
marketing effectiveness through using social media:
• Establish the business case and secure executive support.
Integrate your existing lead management activities with social media
efforts to determine the value of leads that are currently generated
or nurtured through social media. By doing so, Best-in-Class
organizations are 40% more likely than others to establish a
business case. If your organization doesn't have leads produced from
this channel, start on a smaller scale; begin generating and nurturing
leads through social networks and track them through the sales
cycle to determine the impact on your business.
• Create a formal social media strategy to integrate
networks, blogging and commenting within the marketing
mix. Identify where social media integrates with product
development, customer service, and marketing to produce
maximum results from these efforts. For example, 50% of all leading
companies have processes in place to share insights captured
through social media with executive management team, compared
to only 20% of others. Given the value of targeting customers, these
strategies must include social networks, blogging and commenting.
• Devote necessary organizational resources to support and
manage your organization's efforts. The ability to allocate
budget and personnel not only communicates the importance and
relevance of social media for each business unit but also provides
crucial components needed for success. With only 30% of Industry
Average and Laggard companies providing necessary resources for
their social media programs, there is substantial improvement
potential to be achieved.
• Use a combination of social media monitoring,
engagement, and analytics tools. These tools are crucial to
track the overwhelming number of conversations currently
underway through countless social networks and are leveraged 52%
more by Best-in-Class, compared to others. These solutions allow
detecting conversations that matter the most and registering them
on the corporate radar to understand customer perceptions and
align marketing activities accordingly.
For more information on this or other research topics, please visit
www.aberdeen.com.
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897

9. Social Media Marketing - Friends, Links, Tweets, Lend Me Your Ears!
Page 9
Related Research
Email Marketing: Customers Take It Crossing the Chasm with Automated Lead
Personally; December 2010 Management; January 2010Offer
Results Speak Louder than Words: Using Optimization: Using Customer Analytics to
Marketing to Improve Sales Effectiveness Improve Marketing Performance,
December 2010 October 2009
Sales and Marketing Alignment: Data Driven Marketing; October 2009
Collaboration + Cooperation = Peak Social Media Marketing: Why It Pays to
Performance; September 2010 Drive Word of Mouth; February 2009
The 2011 Marketer's Agenda: Accessing Social Media Marketing: The Latest Buzz
and Understanding Customer Experience on Word of Mouth: July 2008
Data is Life or Death, July 2010
Authors: Chris Houpis, Senior Research Analyst, Marketing Strategy &
Effectiveness (chris.houpis@aberdeen.com);
Omer Minkara, Research Associate, Customer Management Technologies
(omer.minkara@aberdeen.com)
Since 1988, Aberdeen's research has been helping corporations worldwide become Best-in-Class. Having
benchmarked the performance of more than 644,000 companies, Aberdeen is uniquely positioned to provide
organizations with the facts that matter — the facts that enable companies to get ahead and drive results. That's why
our research is relied on by more than 2.2 million readers in over 40 countries, 90% of the Fortune 1,000, and 93% of
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(800) 456-9748 or go to http://www.harte-hanks.com.
This document is the result of primary research performed by Aberdeen Group. Aberdeen Group's methodologies
provide for objective fact-based research and represent the best analysis available at the time of publication. Unless
otherwise noted, the entire contents of this publication are copyrighted by Aberdeen Group, Inc. and may not be
reproduced, distributed, archived, or transmitted in any form or by any means without prior written consent by
Aberdeen Group, Inc. (2011a)
© 2011 Aberdeen Group. Telephone: 617 854 5200
www.aberdeen.com Fax: 617 723 7897