Vl plus-storyboard-smmp-rev3

Vendor Landscape Plus:
Social Media Management Platforms (SMMP)
Reign in social media by choosing a management platform that’s right for you.

Info-Tech Research Group 1

Introduction

Achieving social media business objectives can be a challenging task.
Select the right Social Media Management Platform (SMMP) to dramatically
boost the effectiveness and efficiency of social media initiatives.
This Research Is Designed For: This Research Will Help You:
 IT managers advising the business on how to  Understand the features and business
improve the effectiveness and efficiency of benefits of using an SMMP to manage social
social media campaigns. media initiatives.

 IT professionals involved in evaluating,  Determine functional requirements based on
selecting, and deploying an SMMP. organizational needs.

 Sales, marketing, and customer service  Understand the current state of the SMMP
professionals interested in how SMMPs can market and evaluate and select an SMMP
improve the outcomes of social media vendor that meets the organization’s
campaigns and interactions. requirements.

 Implement and operate the selected platform.


Executive Summary

• Social Media Management Platforms (SMMPs) reduce the complexity and increase the results of enterprise social
media. SMMPs integrate with a variety of different social media services, including Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and
YouTube. The platforms offer a variety of tools for managing social media, including account management, in-band
response and engagement, and social monitoring and analytics.

• The value proposition of SMMPs revolves around enhancing the effectiveness and efficiency of social media. Using an
SMMP to manage social media is considerably more cost-effective than ad-hoc (manual) management.

• IT must partner with other departments (e.g. marketing) to successfully evaluate, select and implement an SMMP. Before
selecting an SMMP, the organization must have a solid overall strategy for leveraging social media in place.

• SMMPs have a variety of use cases. Prominent departments that can benefit from using an SMMP include marketing,
sales, customer service, public relations, and human resources.

• The market for SMMPs is relatively immature, with no market consensus on standard features. CRM vendors have also
begun to enter the fray with their own social offerings. The vendors that Info-Tech formally evaluated in this set include:
Radian6, Sprout Social, Syncapse, Socialware, Cymfony, Visible Technologies, and Lithium.

• Radian6 and Syncapse were the only vendors to fall into the Champion category; however, other vendors also have strong
feature sets and compelling individual use cases for certain organizations and the SMMP market is only emerging.

• Implement an SMMP by choosing a deployment model, identifying points of integration with CRM suites, establishing a
maintenance model, training end users, and identifying a specialized individual in IT to serve as a resident SMMP expert.


The Info-Tech Social Media Research Agenda

 Consumers are rapidly adopting social media. Organizations that don’t keep pace will
find themselves at a competitive disadvantage (particularly those serving end
consumers and a younger, more connected clientele).
 Build a comprehensive strategy for social media that adds social to the existing channel
mix. Select the social media services that best complement your existing channel
interaction strategies in marketing, sales, and customer service.
Social Media Strategy
Refer to Info-Tech’s solution set, Leverage Social Media for Customer Interaction.

 The proliferation of social media services has made actively managing social initiatives
a challenging task. SMMPs empower managers with a variety of tools for effective (and
efficient) use of enterprise social media.
 Selecting an SMMP involves defining the organization’s functional requirements,
creating a shortlist based on these requirements, formally evaluating vendor offerings,
Select a Social Media and choosing the platform that is best tailored to the organization’s unique
circumstances.
Management Platform
This solution set addresses selecting an SMMP.

 An organization’s social media strategy must constantly evolve to meet the changing
needs of target stakeholders and consumers.
 New social media services and the rise of mobile and location-based services
necessitate that managers constantly fine-tune their social presence.
 Social media marketing campaigns are now a part of any mature multi-channel
marketing strategy and must be properly integrated alongside other campaign channels.
Social Media
Optimization The solution set, Implement a Social Media Strategy will be released in the near future.


SMMPs reduce complexity and increase the effectiveness of
enterprise social media
• Social Media Management Platforms (SMMPs) are solutions End Users
(typically cloud-based) that offer a host of features for effectively (e.g. marketing managers)
monitoring the social cloud and managing your organization’s
presence in the social cloud. SMMPs give businesses the tools
they need to run social campaigns in a timely and cost-effective
manner. SMMP functionality broadly falls into three categories: Account & Campaign

SMMP
account & campaign management, in-band response, and social Management
monitoring/analytics.
In-Band Response
• The typical SMMP integrates with two or more social media Social Monitoring/Analytics
services (e.g. Facebook, Twitter) via the services’ API or a
dedicated connector. SMMPs are not simply a revised “interface
layer” for a single social media service: they provide layers for
advanced management and analytics across multiple services.

• The unique value of SMMPs comes from their ability to manage
and track multiple social media services. Aggregating and
managing data from multiple services gives businesses a much
more holistic view of their organization’s social initiatives and
reputation in the social cloud. SMMPs mediate interactions between
end users and the social cloud.

The increasing complexity of social media coupled with the rising importance of social channels has led to
a market for formal management platforms. Organizations with an active presence in social media (i.e.
multiple services or pages) should strongly consider selecting and deploying an SMMP.


Failing to reign in social media initiatives leads to
more work, uninformed decisions, and diminishing returns
• The growth of social media services has made manually Ad-Hoc Management vs. SMMPs:
:
updating pages and feeds an ineffective and time-consuming What’s the difference?
process. The challenge is magnified when multiple brands,
product lines or geographic subsidiaries are involved. Ad-Hoc Social Media Management
 Use the advanced account management features of an
SMMP to reduce the amount of time spent updating Social media initiatives are managed directly
social media services. through the services themselves. For
example, a marketing professional would log in
to multiple corporate Twitter accounts to post the
• Engaging customers through social channels can be a delicate same content for a promotional campaign.
task – high volumes of social content can easily overwhelm
marketing and service representatives, leading to missed selling
opportunities and unacceptable service windows.
Social Media Management Platform
 Use the in-band response capabilities of an SMMP to
create an orderly queue for social interactions.
Social media initiatives are managed through a
third-party software platform. For example, a
• Consumer activity in the social cloud has been increasing marketing professional would update all social
exponentially. As the volume of content grows, separating the account simultaneously with just a couple clicks.
signal from the noise becomes increasingly difficult. SMMPs also provide cross-service social
 Use the advanced social analytics of an SMMP to ensure analytics – highly valuable for decision makers!
critical consumer insights are not overlooked.

Effectively managing a social media campaign is not a straightforward exercise. If you have (or plan to
have) a large social media footprint, now is the time to procure formal software tools for social media
management. Continuing to manage social media in an ad-hoc manner is sapping time and money!


Cost/Benefit Scenario: A mid-sized consumer
products company wins big by adopting an SMMP
The following example shows how an SMMP at a mid-sized consumer products firm brought in $36 000 a year.

Before: Manual Social Media Management After: Social Media Management Platform

 Account management: a senior marketing manager  Account management: centralized account controls
was responsible for updating all twenty of the firm’s for rapidly managing several social media services
social media pages and feeds. This activity consumed meant the amount of time spent updating social media
approximately 20% of her time. Her annual salary was was cut 75%. Allocated cost savings: $12 000 per year.
$80 000. Allocated cost: $16 000 per year.  In-band response: Using an SMMP provided
 In-band response: Customer Service Representatives Customer Service Representatives with a console for
manually tracked service requests originating from quickly and effectively responding to customer service
social channels. Due to the use of multiple Twitter issues. Service window times were significantly
feeds, several customers were inadvertently ignored reduced, resulting in increased customer retention.
and subsequently defected to competitors. Lost annual Revenue no longer lost due to defections: $10 000.
revenue due to customer defections: $10 000.  Social analytics: The product development group used
 Social analytics: analytics were conducted in a keyword-based monitoring to assist with designing a
crude, ad-hoc fashion using scant data available from successful new product. Social feedback noticeably
the services themselves. No useful insights were boosted sales. Gains from social insights: $20 000
discovered. Gains from social insights: $0.  Cost of SMMP: $6000 per year.

Ad-hoc management is costing this The net annual benefit of adopting
organization $26 000 a year. an SMMP is $36 000.


Go with an SMMP if your organization needs a heavy social
presence. Stick with ad-hoc management if it doesn’t
The value proposition of acquiring an SMMP does not resonate the same for all organizations: in some cases,
it is more cost effective to forego an SMMP and stick with ad-hoc social media management.

Follow these guidelines for determining if an SMMP is a natural fit for your organization.

Go with an SMMP if… Stick with ad-hoc management if…
• Your organization already has a large social footprint: • Regulatory compliance prohibits the use of social media
you manage multiple feeds/pages on three or more in your organization.
social media services.
• Your organization is focused on a small number of
• Your organization’s primary activity is B2C marketing; institutional clients with well-defined organizational
your target consumers are social media savvy. buying behaviors.

• The volume of marketing, sales and service inquiries • Your target market is antipathetic towards using social
received over social channels has seen a sharp increase channels to interact with your organization.
in the last 12 months.
• Your organization is in a market space where only a
• Your firm or industry is the topic of widespread bare-bones social media presence is seen as a necessity
discussion in the social cloud. (for example, only a basic informational Facebook page
is maintained).

Using an SMMP is definitively superior to ad-hoc social media management for those organizations with
multiple brands and product portfolios (e.g. consumer packaged goods). Ad-hoc management is best for
small organizations with an institutional client base who only need a “bare bones” social media presence.


SMMPs are beneficial for companies of all sizes: don’t
overlook an SMMP just because your organization is smaller
A common misconception around SMMPs is that they’re only beneficial for larger organizations – this
tidbit of conventional wisdom is unfounded. Small organizations can also be well-positioned to
successfully use SMMPs, provided the requisite conditions are in place (for example, an active
presence in social media or the need for advanced social analytics). A small manufacturing firm with an
established brand portfolio or a small regional hospital are still ideally positioned for SMMP success.

There was no significant difference in the
0.5 0.45 overall SMMP success between
Average Success Score

0.43
0.41
0.4 small, medium and large/enterprise
organizations
0.3
The degree of SMMP success is
0.2
independent of the size of the
0.1
organization.

0.0 The overall social media management platform success was
calculated by taking the average of the following items on a six-
Small Medium Large/Enterprise point scale (1 = Strongly Disagree to 6 = Strongly Agree):
Size of Organization
• Our brand has been improved
N = 34, Source: Info-Tech Research Group • Our sales have increased
• Customer acquisition has been improved
• Customer retention has been improved
• Our cost-to-serve has been reduced
• We have gained significant competitive intelligence
• Social media risk (i.e. security risk) has been reduced


IT has a valuable role to play in selecting &
implementing an SMMP
• Selection and implementation of an SMMP must involve both
IT and the business units. The business units must own the Who should be responsible for what?
requirements but should do so with IT serving as a valuable
advisor. IT is accountable for providing service, and should
be the primary decision-maker for technical standards. It’s • The business ( e.g. marketing, sales,
important for IT managers to understand the features, customer service) must create the overall
benefits and costs of an SMMP in order to properly assist strategy for using social media. This
business departments like marketing and PR. involves specifying the objectives and
services to be used. IT should be involved
with creating the strategy, but should not
• In order to help the platform run smoothly, IT should be involved be driving it. A senior member of IT should
with SMMP account control and administration (for example, sit as an advisor on the social media
steering committee.
executing access privileges).
• IT should be actively involved with
• IT should design and conduct training sessions. A business evaluating, selecting and deploying an
SMMP. The business needs to specify
analyst in the IT department should be intimately familiar with
functional requirements, but IT should be
the SMMP to serve as a single point of contact for all issues intimately involved in the selection
related to the SMMP. process; IT’s knowledge of the finer
technical details and its experience with
other enterprise applications place it in a
• IT should be responsible for setting up points of integration prime position to serve as a key selection
with existing CRM systems where applicable. IT should also stakeholder.
assist with setting acceptable use policies around social media
and the SMMP.

Related Research: Refer to Info-Tech’s ready-to-use Social Media Acceptable Use Policy.


Build a Strategy for Managing Social Media

What’s in this Section: Sections:
• Overview of how to leverage social media for marketing, Build a Strategy for Managing
sales and customer service. Social Media
• How SMMPs integrate with multiple social media services to Select a Social Media
deliver superior business value. Management Platform
• Details on SMMP features and functionality. Implement Social Media
• Demonstration of various business use cases for SMMPs. Management in Your
Organization


Before selecting an SMMP, start with the fundamentals:
build a comprehensive strategy for enterprise social media
Why build a social media strategy? Important considerations for an
enterprise social media strategy:
• Before an SMMP can be selected, the organization must have a
strategy in place for enterprise social media. Implementing an SMMP • Determine how social media will
before developing a social media strategy would be akin to buying a complement existing customer
mattress without knowing the size of the bedframe. interaction goals.

• Social media is neither a fad nor a phenomenon, it is simply another
• Assess which social media
tool in the business process. Social channels do not necessitate a
opportunities exist for your
radical departure from the organization’s existing customer interaction
organization.
strategy. Rather, social media should be added to your channel mix
and integrated within the existing CRM strategy.
• Consider the specific goals you want
• Social media allows organizations to form direct and indirect to achieve using social channels, and
connections through the Friend-of-a-Friend (FOAF) model, which pick your services accordingly.
increases the credibility of the information in the eyes of the
consumer. • Not all social media services (i.e.
Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn) are equal.
• Social media enables organizations to share, connect, and engage Consider which services will be most
consumers within an environment that they are confortable in. effective for goal achievement.
Having a social media presence is rapidly becoming a pre-
requisite for successful business-to-consumer enterprises.

For more information on developing a strategy for enterprise social media, please refer to
Leveraging Social Media for Enhanced Customer Interaction


Social media is big: Consumers are rapidly embracing social
media services as their communication medium of choice
• Social media services facilitate the creation and
dissemination of user-generated content.

• Consumers can access social media services from their
computers, smartphones and video game consoles. This
ease of access has further fuelled social media
adoption.

• Adoption of social media began with younger
consumers, but sustained growth is taking place across
a range of demographic tiers, from young to old.

• Social media is displacing traditional e-channels, such
as e-mail, as consumers’ preferred method of
interacting with one another.

• Businesses need to understand that social media is an
integral part of their customers’ lives, so when working
in a B2C context, it is essential to have a social
presence… or you’ll risk losing your competitive
advantage.

Organizations must add social channels to the marketing, sales, and service mix or risk being leapfrogged
by savvy competitors. Social channels are essential for B2C organizations: fish where the fish are!


The social cloud is a new point of interaction: integrate social
channels alongside existing customer interaction channels
• Instead of thinking of customers as an island, think of
them interacting with each other and with organizations
in the social cloud. As a result, the social cloud itself
becomes a point of interaction, not just individual
customers.

• The social cloud is accessible with services like social
networks (e.g. Facebook) and micro-blogs (Twitter).

• Previous lessons learned from the integration of Web 1.0
e-channels should be leveraged as organizations add
the social media channel into their overall customer
interaction framework:
 Do not design exclusively around a single channel.
Design hybrid-channel solutions that include
social channels.
 Balance customer segment goals and attributes,
product and service goals and attributes, and
channel capabilities.

Don’t believe that social channel integration will require an entire rebuild of your CRM strategy. Social
channels are just new interaction channels that need to be integrated – as you’ve done in the past with
Web 1.0 e-channels.


Understand the different types of social media services and
how they link to social media strategy and SMMP selection
Before adopting an SMMP, it’s important to understand the underlying services they
manage. Social media services facilitate the creation and dissemination of user-
generated content, and can be grouped according to their purpose and functionality:

• Social Networking: Social networking services use the “Friend-of-a-Friend”
model to allow users to communicate with their personal networks. Users can
share a wide variety of information and media with one another. Social networking
sites include Facebook and LinkedIn.

• Blogging: Blogs are Websites that allow users to upload text and media
entries, typically displayed in reverse-chronological order. Prominent blogging
services include Blogger and WordPress.

• Micro-Blogging: Micro-blogging is similar to blogging, with the exception that
written content is limited to a set number of characters. Twitter, the most popular
service, allows users to post messages up to 140 characters.

• Social Multimedia: Social multimedia sites provide an easy way for users to
upload and share multimedia content (i.e. pictures, video) with both their personal
contacts as well as the wider community. YouTube is extremely popular for video
sharing, while Flickr is popular for sharing photo albums.

In many cases, services do not fit discretely within each category. With minor
exceptions, creating an account on a social media service is free, making use of
these services extremely cost effective. If your organization makes extensive use
of a particular service, ensure it is supported by your SMMP vendor.


Define your goals and select the social media
services that will achieve your specific objectives


What areas are different social media services helpful in?
Proven Useful*

 Potentially Useful

*Proven useful by Info-Tech
statistical analysis carried out on
a cross-section of real world
implementations.

Social media is invaluable for
marketing, sales, and
customer service. Some
social media services have a
high degree of efficacy than
others for certain functions.
Be sure to take this into
account when developing a
social media strategy.

Different social media services are more effective than others for different goals. For example, YouTube is
useful as an avenue for marketing campaigns, but it’s of substantially less use for sales functions like lead
generation. The services you select while planning your social media strategy must reflect concrete goals.


Assess which social media opportunities exist for your
organization with Info-Tech’s tool

Use Info-Tech’s Social Media Opportunity Assessment Tool to determine, based on your unique criteria, where social
media opportunities exist for your organization in marketing, sales, and service.

Info-Tech Insight

1. Remember that departmental goals
will overlap; gaining customer
insight is valuable to marketing
sales and customer service.
2. The social media benefits you can
expect to achieve will evolve as
your processes mature.
3. Often, organizations jump into
social media because they feel they
have to. Use this assessment to
identify early on what your drivers
should be.


An explosion of social media services & functionality has made
effectively managing social campaigns a complex task
• Effectively managing social channels is an increasingly Ad-Hoc Management
complicated task. Proliferation of social media services and
rapid end-user uptake has made launching social campaigns a
challenge for both small and large organizations.

• Using multiple social media services can be a nightmare for
account management (particularly when each brand or product
line has its own set of social accounts).

• The volume of data generated by the social cloud has also Platform-Based Management
created barriers for successfully responding in-band to social
stakeholders, and for carrying out social analytics.

• There are two methods for managing social media: ad-hoc
management and platform-based management.
◦ Ad-hoc social media management is accomplished using the SMMP
built-in functionality and administrative controls of each social
media service. It is appropriate for small organizations with a Ad-hoc management results in a number of social
very limited scope for social media interaction, but poses media touch points. SMMPs serve as a single go-
difficulties once “critical mass” has been reached.
to point for all social media initiatives.

Managing social media is becoming increasingly difficult to do through ad-hoc methods, particularly for
larger organizations and/or those with multiple brand portfolios. Ad-hoc management is best suited for
small organizations with an institutional client base who only need a “bare bones” social media presence.


Ad-hoc social media management results in manual,
resource-intensive processes that are challenging to measure
• Most organizations that have pursued social media initiatives have done so in an ad-hoc fashion rather than outlining a
formal strategy and deploying software solutions (such as an SMMP).

• Social media is often a component of Customer Relationship Management (CRM): Info-Tech’s research shows many
organizations are handling CRM without a strategy in place, too.

• Social media management platforms reduce the resource intensive processes required for ongoing social
media involvement and keep projects on track by providing reporting metrics.

Both social media and CRM are often being done without a Many processes related to social media are being done
defined strategy in place. manually, despite the existence of SMMPs.

Source: Info-Tech
Survey, N=64

When we started our social media campaign it took 34 man hours a week. an SMMP that
streamlines these efforts is absolutely an asset.
- Edie May, Johnson & Johnson Insurance Company


Social analytics vary: Balance requirements among
monitoring goals and social presence/property management
Segment your requirements around common SMMP vendor product design points. Current
market capabilities vary between two primary feature categories: social cloud monitoring and
social presence and property management.

Cloud-Centric Social Monitoring Content-Centric

Social cloud monitoring enables: Social presence & property management enables:

• Brand and product monitoring • Monitor and manage discussions on your social
• Reputation monitoring properties (e.g. Twitter feeds, Facebook
• Proactive identification of service pages, YouTube channels)
opportunities • Execute marketing campaigns within your social
• Competitive intelligence properties

Social Analytics
Social analytics provide insights to both dimensions of social media monitoring.
Some firms only need social cloud monitoring, some need to manage their own social media properties and others will
need to do both. Some vendors do both while other vendors excel in only one feature dimension. If you are NOT prepared
to act on results from social cloud monitoring, then don’t “boil” the social cloud for no reason. You can always add cloud
monitoring services later. Likewise, if you only need to monitor the cloud and have no or few of your own social
properties, don’t buy advanced management and engagement features.


SMMPs provide functionality for robust account management,
in-band customer response, and social monitoring/analytics
The value proposition of SMMPs revolves Three Types of SMMP Functionality:
around enhancing the effectiveness and
efficiency of social media initiatives.
Account/ • Integrate and push content to
• Features such as unified account management and in-band Campaign
multiple social media services
response capabilities boost the efficiency of social campaigns. • Define and implement policies
Management for privacy and security
These features reduce duplication of effort (for example,
manually posting the same content to multiple services).
Leverage account management functionality and in-band
response to “do more with less.”
• Track customer conversations
In-Band and provide the ability to
• Features such as comprehensive monitoring of the social cloud Response respond in-platform to social
and advanced social analytics (i.e. sentiment analysis, trends interactions
and follower demographics) allow organizations to more
effectively use social media. These features empower
organizations with the information they need to make informed
• Monitor and analyze a variety
decisions around messaging and brand positioning. Use social of social media services:
analytics to zero in on your most important brand advocates. Social
provide demographic
Monitoring & analysis, frequency
Analytics analysis, sentiment analysis
I don’t want to pull up sixteen accounts, I want one dashboard
and content-centric analysis.
that will allow me to manage multiple accounts, fast.
- PR Consultant

SMMPs provide a suite of indispensible tools for organizations looking to strengthen the outcomes of social
media campaigns and decrease time to results. SMMPs complement (but do not replace) an integrated
strategy for enterprise social media. Identify areas of the strategic social media plan that can be
augmented by the capabilities of an SMMP.


Take advantage of social analytics to realize the
greatest value from an SMMP
Our research indicates successful organizations employ both social cloud monitoring as well as management of their own
properties, with analytical tools to enhance both feature categories. But the market is segmented into vendors that do one or
the other well, with few vendors exceling at both. Larger organizations should be prepared to buy more than one product to
satisfy all requirements. However, we expect feature convergence over the next 1-3 years, resulting in more more
comprehensive vendor offerings.

The features that have a statistically
significant impact on the overall
success of the SMMP are:

• Advanced social analytics
• Centralized account controls
• In-band response capabilities
• Multiple social media service
integration

The feature with the largest
impact on the overall SMMP
success was executing advanced
social analytics

The more important executing
advanced social analytics, the
*Each bar represents a statistical estimate of the impact more successful the SMMP – take
each factor has on the overall SMMP success
advantage of this functionality!
Refer to Appendix A for information on how the success
score was calculated.


SMMPs equip front-line sales staff with the
tools they need for effective social lead generation
• Content-centric social analytics allow sales staff to see click- Using an SMMP to assist the sales
through details for content posted on social networks. In many process can...
cases, these leads are warm and ready for immediate follow-up.

• Increase the number of leads
• For example: a software development firm uses an SMMP to generated through social
post a whitepaper promoting its product to multiple social
channels as a result of social
networks. The whitepaper is subsequently downloaded by a
sharing.
number of potential prospects. Content-centric analytics within
the SMMP link the otherwise-anonymous downloads to named
social media accounts. The leads are then assigned to specific
• Increase the quality of leads
generated through social
account managers, who use existing CRM software and publicly
available records to pinpoint contact information and follow-up in channels by examining influence
a timely manner. scores.

• Increase prospecting efficiency
• Organizations that intend to use their SMMP for sales purposes by finding social leads faster.
should ensure their vendor of choice offers integration with
LinkedIn. LinkedIn is the “business formal” of social networks, • Keep account managers in touch
and is the network with the greatest proven efficacy from a sales with prospects and clients
perspective. through social media.

Social media is on the rise in sales organizations. Savvy companies are using social channels at all points
in the sales process, from prospecting to account management. Organizations using social channels for
sales will want an SMMP to manage the volume of information and provide content-centric analytics.


SMMPs allow marketers to hit all their birds with one stone

• Have a marketing manager jointly responsible for the Joint IT/Marketing partnerships for SMMPs
selection of an SMMP to realize higher overall success. This increase overall success of the platform
will significantly improve customer acquisition approval ,
competitive intelligence, as well as the overall SMMP success. 0.51 0.50

Average Success Score
0.49

• The marketing manager should be involved in fleshing out the 0.36 0.38
business requirements of the SMMP, in order to select the 0.33
most appropriate solution.

• Once selected, the SMMP has multiple benefits for marketing
professionals. One pivotal benefit of SMMPs for marketing is
the capability for centralized account management. Multiple
social pages and feeds can be rapidly managed at pre- Customer Gained Overall SMMP
acquisition competitive Success
determined times, through an easy-to-use dashboard. delivered intelligence
improved
from one source,
Success Items
Marketing Management Responsible - No
• This functionality is especially pertinent for organizations with a
wide geographic client base, as they can manage wide social Marketing Management Responsible - Yes
media campaigns within multiple time zones, delivering their
messaging appropriately. (i.e. contests, product launches, etc.) N = 37, Source: Info-Tech Research Group

Managing multiple social media accounts on an Ad-Hoc basis is time consuming and costing your
organization money. Lower your costs and get the best results out of your social media campaigns by
involving your marketing team in the SMMP selection process, and knowing their functional requirements.


Leverage SMMPs to proactively identify & respond to
customer service issues occurring in the social cloud
• SMMPs are an invaluable tool in customer service
organizations. In-band response capabilities allow Customer
Service Representatives to quickly and effectively address
Customer initiates process
customer service issues – either reactively or proactively.
Customer receives service
• Reactive customer service can be provided through SMMPs
by providing response capabilities for private messages or
public mentions (e.g. “@AcmeCo” on Twitter). Many SMMPs Reactive service is customer-initiated.
provide a queue of social media messages directed at the
organization, and also give the ability to assign specific
messages to an individual service representative or product
expert. Responding to a high-volume of reactive social media
requests can be time consuming without an SMMP. SMMP-
enabled
Monitoring
• Proactive customer service uses the ability of SMMPs to
monitor the social cloud for specific keywords in order to identify Proactive Resolution
customers having issues. Forward-thinking companies actively
monitor the social cloud for customer service opportunities, to SMMPs permit organizations to monitor the
protect and improve their image. social cloud for service opportunities and
provide proactive service in-band.

Historically, customer service has been “reactive” (i.e. customer initiated) and solely between the customer
and supplier. Social media forces proactive service interactions between customer, supplier, and the entire
social cloud. Using an SMMP significantly improves reactive and proactive service.


SMMPs are indispensible for allowing PR
managers to keep tabs on the firm and its brands
• Public relations is devoted to relationship management: as Benefits of Sentiment Analysis for PR
such, it is critical for savvy PR departments to have a social
media presence. • Take the pulse of public perception
of your brands (and competitors).
• Mitigate negative comments being
• SMMPs empower PR professionals with the ability to track the made and respond immediately.
sentiment of what is said about their organization. Leverage • Identify industry and consumer
keyword searches and heuristic analysis to proactively mitigate thought leaders to follow on social
threats and capitalize on positive opportunities. For example, networks.
sentiment analysis can be used to identify detractors making
false claims over social channels. These claims can then be
countered by the public relations team.

• Sentiment analysis can be especially important to the PR
professional through change and crisis management situations.
These tools allow an organization to track the flow of information,
as well as the balance of positive and negative postings and their
influence on others in the social cloud.

• Social analytics provided by SMMPs also serve as a goldmine for
competitive intelligence about rival firms and their products. Use sentiment analysis to monitor the social cloud.

They say that no publicity is bad publicity, however negative statements unaddressed can cause harm to
an organization’s reputation. Use an SMMP to track what is being said about your organization; take
advantage of response capabilities to quickly respond and mitigate PR risk.


SMMPs for recruiting is an emerging talent recruitment
technique and will lead to stronger candidates
• Social media is an indispensible tool for targeted recruiting and A social media campaign managed
engaging with prospective employees. via SMMP can…

• Social media is taking over because it provides more direct • Increase the size of the applicant
connections between employer and applicant. It’s faster and more pool by “fishing where the fish
flexible than traditional e-channels. are.”

• SMMPs should be deployed to the HR silo in order to provide a • Increase the quality of applicants
by using monitoring to create
host of features that will aid with recruiting top-quality candidates.
targeted recruitment materials.
Account management functionality can dramatically reduce the
amount of time HR managers spend synchronizing content
between various social media services. • Increase recruiting efficiency by
having a well-managed, standing
presence on popular social
• In-band response capabilities flag relevant social conversations media sites – new recruiting
and allow HR managers to rapidly respond to prospective campaigns require less
employee inquiries. Rapid response over social channels gives “awareness generation” time.
candidates a positive impression of the organization.
• Allow HR/recruiters to be more
• Analytics give HR managers insight into hiring trends and the job in-touch with hiring trends via
market at large – sentiment analysis is useful for gauging not just social analytics.
candidate interests, but also anonymous employee engagement.

Social media increases the visibility of an organization’s job postings and brand. It connects firms with
networks of qualified candidates. SMMP functionality compliments a social media recruiting strategy.


Incumbent CRM vendors are rapidly integrating social
media with their solutions as they realize its potential value
• Rapid adoption of social media by consumers has driven most
large vendors of CRM solutions to integrate social media

CRM Suites with Social Media Integration
functionality into their products.

• Some vendors (e.g. Oracle) natively support social channels,
while others (e.g. Microsoft Dynamics CRM and SugarCRM) are
dependant on third-party tools (e.g. InsideView) to enable social
media functionality.

• While social media integration has been proceeding quickly, it is
still a relatively new direction for most CRM vendors. As a result,
integration hasn’t reached full maturity yet. This is an area where
further development and refinement can be expected. For now,
standalone SMMPs remain the dominant force for managing
social campaigns.

Info-Tech Insight

Due to the rapid adoption of social media by incumbent CRM
vendors, the market for pure-play social channel aggregators
and managers will be smaller than the market for similar Web
1.0 services.


The market landscape for social media solutions is split in two:
Choose a standalone SMMP for social campaign execution
• The market for social media management platforms is still quite Social Media Management Platforms
immature. The features offered by most SMMP vendors have only
been around for the last two to three years. The market can be Account/Campaign Management
broadly segmented into two categories:
In-Band Response
 Standalone SMMP Vendors
Social Monitoring & Analytics
Standalone SMMP vendors have arisen due to the proliferation of
challenges associated with managing social media. Standalone
SMMPs focus almost exclusively on social media, eschewing more
traditional features found in CRM suites. Some standalone vendors Standalone SMMPs focus purely on social, with
do offer points-of-integration with existing CRM solutions (like few (if any) traditional CRM features.
Salesforce.com). Select a standalone vendor when the primary
goals are social media campaign execution. This research is
primarily focused on standalone vendors. Customer Relationship Management Suites

SMMP
 CRM/Marketing Automation Vendors with Social Integration Functionality

CRM vendors are also starting to get their feet wet in the social
Account
media space. Many CRM providers have realized that social Marketing,
Management
channels are here to stay, and are integrating social media Sales and
Customer
alongside more traditional features like customer databases and e- Service
Databases
mail marketing. Select a CRM or Marketing Automation vendor Campaign In-Band
with social integration when the primary goal is proactive Automation Response
customer service and/or integrating social media marketing
campaigns into existing multi-channel marketing campaigns.
Social
Analytics


Free and “freemium” clients are a good way to get your feet
wet with SMMP features, but don’t displace the paid vendors!
TweetDeck

• Hootsuite is a web app • TweetDeck is another • Cotweet is a subsidiary
and also an Adobe AIR popular app available of online marketing
and app that allows as an Adobe AIR app powerhouse
aggregation of multiple that allows ExactTarget.
social media accounts aggregation of multiple • Cotweet is a elegant
from multiple services to social media accounts social conversation
be monitored from a from multiple services manager with basic
single window. to be monitored from a analytics.
• Additional social single window. • Standard Edition is free
accounts can be added • Services are currently and Enterprise Edition
for a fee. free, but Twitter with advanced features
• Elementary analysis of recently purchased is available for a fee.
social traffic is free and TweetDeck, so The Enterprise Edition
additional analytical Twitter’s future plans includes Salesforce.com
tools are available for a for it have not been integration.
fee. announced. • An iPhone app is
• Mobile apps and an • Mobile apps and an available for the
iPad app are available. iPad app are available. Enterprise Edition

Free and “freemium” social media monitoring and management tools can be a great way for a small
business or department to gain experience in social media management before investing in more
functional social media management platforms.


SMMP vendors price by topics and seats, so choose the
solution that is most cost effective, based on overall needs
SMMPs aren’t priced in a black box. The majority of vendors offer paid monthly subscriptions
(occasionally with an annual commitment) to cloud-based services based on two primary factors: topics
and seats. Topics are the number of searches and/or social content pages that can be managed
simultaneously. Seats are the number of end-users who have access to the platform.

Topics Seats Total
(e.g. number of brands (e.g. number of end users Monthly
being monitored) with platform access) Price

SCENARIO: A mid-sized consumer goods company wants to track and manage 10 of its
brands, and offer platform access to 15 brand managers. The chosen SMMP vendor offers 5
brands per user for $100/month.

10 Topics $3000/month
($100 for a bundle of 5, so 15 Seats
$200 for 10) ($200 x 15)


Select a Social Media Management Platform

• Overview of the current market for Social Media Build a Strategy for Managing
Management Platforms. Social Media
• Examination of basic and advanced SMMP features. Select a Social Media
Management Platform
• Rankings and evaluation of key vendors in the SMMP
marketspace. Implement Social Media
• Scenario-specific selection advice. Management in Your
Organization
• RFP, demo script, and scoring templates.


Follow Info-Tech’s model for Selecting an SMMP
Perform in-
depth vendor
Determine Determine review and
business evaluation select a
requirements criteria vendor

Translate into Evaluate
functional vendors
requirements against
criteria

Before evaluating and selecting vendors, be sure to sit down with relevant stakeholders in the
business (e.g. marketing, sales, customer service, etc.) to ascertain the necessary business
requirements the platform must meet. For example, if a marketing manager expresses interest in
gathering market research or competitive intelligence, the complementary functional requirement is
the ability to execute advanced social monitoring and analytics.

Even if IT is leading the charge on SMMP selection, the process MUST involve ongoing
consultation with different departmental stakeholders!


Market Overview

How it got here Where it’s going
• The SMMP market was created in response to the • The market is generally fragmented between two
exploding popularity of social media and the realization broad camps: SMMPs focused on social monitoring
that it can be harnessed for a wide variety of enterprise and analytics, and SMMPs focused on in-band
purposes (from consumer and competitive intelligence to response/engagement and social campaign
marketing campaigns and customer service). management.

• As the number of social media services has • Over the next two to three years, Info-Tech predicts
expanded, and as the volume of content generated via that SMMP feature sets will converge significantly with
social networks has ballooned, it became increasingly more platforms performing social monitoring and
difficult to mine insights and manage social campaigns. analytics, response/engagement, and social campaign
A number of vendors (mostly start-ups but some management equally well.
incumbent players) began offering platforms that
attempted to streamline and harness social media • Info-Tech also expects a significant amount of vendor
processes. consolidation in the near future – the market is not big
enough to support the myriad of incumbent vendors.
• The SMMP market is still relatively immature, with
little market consolidation or even convergence on • Integration with CRM platforms will continue to
“standard” feature sets across platforms. increase in importance (with CRM vendors themselves
adding SMMP functionality) to enable 360-degree
views of the customer.

As the market evolves, so do the features you need to evaluate. Pay close attention to the convergence
between SMMP feature sets, as well as the absorption of SMMPs into the broader CRM ecosystem.


SMMP Criteria & Weighting Factors
Usability
Product Evaluation 15%
Architecture
The solution provides basic 5%
Features and advanced features/functionality. Features 50%

The five year TCO of the solution is 30%
Affordability
Affordability economical.

The solution’s dashboard and reporting tools Product
Usability are intuitive and easy to use.
50%
The delivery method of the solution aligns with
Architecture what is expected within the space.

Vendor Evaluation
50%
Vendor is profitable, knowledgeable, and will Vendor
Viability be around for the long-term.
Viability
Vendor is committed to the space and has a Reach 30% 10%
Strategy future product and portfolio roadmap. 10%
Channel

Vendor offers global coverage and is able to
Reach sell and provide post-sales support.
50%
Vendor channel strategy is appropriate and the
Channel channels themselves are strong.
Strategy


The Info-Tech SMMP Landscape

Champions receive high scores for most
evaluation criteria and offer excellent value.
They have a strong market presence and
are usually the trend setters for the industry. Radian6
Sprout Social
Emerging players are newer vendors who
are starting to gain a foothold in the
marketplace. They balance product and Lithium
vendor attributes, though score lower Syncapse
relative to market Champions.

Innovators have demonstrated innovative
product strengths that act as their
competitive advantage in appealing to niche
segments of the market.

Market Pillars are established players with
very strong vendor credentials, but with
more average product scores. Socialware
Visible
Technologies

Cymfony
For a complete description of Info-Tech’s Vendor
Landscape methodology, see the Appendix.


Every vendor has its strengths & weaknesses;
pick the one that works best for you

Product Vendor
Overall Features Usability Price Platform Overall Viability Strategy Reach Channel

Radian6

Sprout Social

Syncapse

Socialware*

Cymfony*

Visible
Technologies

Lithium

* Vendor declined to provide pricing information.


Info-Tech Value Score

On a relative basis, Sprout Social
What is a Value Score?
maintained the highest Info-Tech Value
Champion
ScoreTM of the vendor group. Vendors
The Value Score indexes each vendor’s product were indexed against Sprout Social’s
offering and business strength relative to their performance to provide a
price point. It does not indicate vendor ranking. complete, relative view of their product
offerings.
Vendors that score high offer more bang for the
buck (e.g. features, usability, stability, etc.) than
the average vendor, while the inverse is true for
those that score lower.
Average Score: 55.3
Price-conscious enterprises may wish to give the 100
Value Score more consideration than those who 96 84
are more focused on specific vendor/product
75
attributes.

17
7 9 7
Sprout Social Radian6 Syncapse Lithium Visible Socialware* Cymfony*

Sources:
1. To calculate the Value Score for each vendor, the affordability raw score was backed out, the product scoring
reweighted, and the affordability score multiplied by the product of the Vendor and Product scores.
* Vendor declined to provide pricing scenarios.


Most SMMPs offer a combination of basic features; use
advanced features to further differentiate between platforms

Basic Features What We Looked For What Does This Mean?

Ability to track and monitor popular social The products assessed in this Vendor
Social Channels LandscapeTM meet the majority of the basic
channels, particularly Facebook and Twitter.
Basic monitoring and analysis: for features; deficiencies in basic features were
Social Analytics example, frequency analysis and demographic penalized during formal vendor scoring and
analysis. evaluation.
Ability to interact with stakeholders over social
In-Band Response Many of the vendors go above and beyond the
channels using the platform itself.
outlined features, some even do so in multiple
Centralized Robust management of multiple social media categories.
Account Controls accounts across multiple services.
Ability to maintain a history of social
Social Archiving
interactions.

Mobile Access Compatibility with popular mobile browsers.

API access for social media service
Platform
integration.

If Basic Features are all you need from your social media management solution, the primary differentiator
for the organization is price. Otherwise, dig deeper to find the best price to value for your needs.


Beyond basic features, vendors were evaluated
on their individual advanced feature offerings
Features What We Looked For
Integration with social media services beyond
simply the table stakes – for
Social Channels
example, integration with LinkedIn and
YouTube.
Advanced abilities such as sentiment
Advanced features scoring methodology: Advanced
analysis, influence analysis and/or content-
Social Analytics
centric analysis.
Info-Tech scored each vendor’s features Ability to engage social stakeholders from an
offering as a summation of their individual In-Band Engagement established contact list; ability to use analytics
scores across the listed features. Vendors for engagement purposes.
started with 0.5 for each category. If basic
features were missing or deficient, points Advanced Account Advanced management of social campaigns:
were subtracted (e.g. a rating of 0.3 and Campaign for example, ability to quickly create custom
assigned). If vendors offered advanced Management tabs on Facebook Pages.
features on a given dimension, they were
awarded additional points (e.g. 0.7). Final Advanced Archival of
Integration with third-party archival solutions.
scores were normalized out of 10. Social Interactions

Dedicated mobile applications for one or more
Dedicated Mobile
major mobile platforms (i.e.
Applications
iOS, BlackBerry, Android).
Advanced integration with social media
Platform services via dedicated connectors; integration
with CRM suites.


Each vendor offers a different feature set;
concentrate on what you need

Sprout TNS Visible
Radian6 Syncapse Socialware Lithium
Social Cymfony Technologies

Social Channels

Social Analytics

In-Band Engagement

Centralized Account Controls

Archiving

Mobile Applications

Platform

= advanced feature available
= basic feature available

= basic feature available but limited


Radian6 is a champion in the SMMP market; a robust
platform backed by Salesforce that covers a range of features
Champion Overview
Product: Social Media Monitoring Software • Radian6 provides a full spectrum of social media management
Employees: 300+ functionality – account management, monitoring, analytics and
Headquarters: Fredericton, NB in-band response/engagement.
Website: radian6.com • The firm was recently acquired by Salesforce.com.
Founded: 2006
Presence: NASDAQ: CRM: US
(subsidiary of Salesforce.com)
Strengths
FY09 Revenue: $US1.03B • Relative to its competitors, Radian6 offers the most
(Salesforce) comprehensive feature set. This makes it a winner for
organizations looking for one platform that “does it all.”
• Radian6 also provides basic integration with Salesforce.com’s
CRM products, which will only deepen. This helps to build a
360-degree view of the customer.

Challenges
• While Radian6 is a jack-of-all trades, some of its more focused
competitors provide greater depth on certain features.
• For example, organizations that are primarily interested in
comprehensive social analytics (with little to no social
Priced between $50,000 to $100,000. engagement or campaign management) may want to look at
other vendors.

Info-Tech Recommends:
Radian6 is the clear market leader in terms of breadth of SMMP functionality. Organizations looking to
conduct analytics, respond to customers, and manage social campaigns should look at Radian6.


Syncapse is an engagement focused platform, great for
managing large scale social marketing campaigns
Champion Overview
Product: Syncapse Platform • The Syncapse platform is strongly focused on customer
Headquarters: Toronto, ON engagement and social campaign execution and management
Website: syncapse.com for large enterprises. The platform is especially content-
Founded: 2007 centric, with strong in-band response capabilities.

Strengths
• High integration with a variety of social channels, and utilizing
multiple personas.
• Strong social presence and property management, ability to
create content from within the platform and engage with
consumers. Allows organizations to execute marketing
campaigns from within the platform.

Challenges
• Lacking in social cloud monitoring capabilities, means limited
opportunity for proactive monitoring and gaining competitive
intelligence. Organizations requiring strong monitoring
capabilities in addition to strong social engagement tools
Priced between $50,000 to $100,000 should consider pairing Syncapse with a vendor that excels at
social monitoring.

Syncapse is best suited to organizations primarily interested in monitoring their own properties (as
opposed to the social cloud as a whole), or who use social media for executing marketing campaigns.
Adding cloud monitoring would make them a significant threat to Radian6.

Sprout Social provides small-to-medium enterprises with
a host of features at a highly competitive price point
Innovator Overview
Product: Sprout Social Platform • Sprout Social is a new entrant to the SMMP market with a
Employees: 20 strong focus on small-to-medium enterprises (SMEs).
Headquarters: Chicago, IL • Sprout offers features for account management, social
Website: sproutsocial.com monitoring and analytics, and in-band engagement.
Founded: 2009
Strengths
• Sprout Social does social customer engagement for small
businesses very well.
• The platform has an easy-to-use, easy-to-understand interface
with high-level dashboards that provide a snapshot of social
activity and customer engagement.
• Sprout Social is priced competitively vis-à-vis other vendors.

Challenges
• Some monitoring features are absent, such as the ability to
conduct cloud-wide sentiment analysis.
• There’s presently no dedicated mobile application (although
iOS and Android support is on the company’s roadmap).
Priced between $25,000 to $50,000 • Given the focus on SMEs and client engagement, Sprout may
not be ideal for companies with compliance restrictions.

Sprout Social is an innovator in the SMMP market. SMEs should definitely consider Sprout, given its
relatively comprehensive feature set and inexpensive price point.


Lithium provides powerful and comprehensive analytics, but
currently lags on social account management and engagement
Innovator Overview
Product: Lithium Social Media Monitoring • Lithium has traditionally been known for its e-community (i.e.
Employees: 200+ discussion forum) engagement products. It has recently
Headquarters: Emeryville, CA branched into social media with its Social Media Monitoring
Website: lithium.com suite, acquired from Scout Labs.
Founded: 2001
Strengths
• Lithium demonstrated unrivalled ability to conduct cloud-wide
monitoring and analysis.
• The breadth of social media services it monitors is
impressive, making it ideal for organizations that wish to
conduct social analytics on services beyond table-stakes like
Facebook and Twitter. They’re strong with photo and video
services.
Challenges
• Lithium’s Social Media Monitoring is not strong on centralized
account management and in-band response/engagement.
• Integration with other Lithium products that provide response
for traditional online communities and discussion boards is on
Priced between $50,000 to $100,000 its roadmap, but has not been deployed at this point. Existing
Lithium customers will benefit strongly from this integration.

Organizations needing social analytics covering a broad range of social channels should consider
Lithium; companies needing strong social management and engagement can pass or combine with
another vendor.
.

Cymfony: A pillar in social monitoring and analytics

Market Pillar Overview
Product: Maestro • Established vendor experienced in monitoring brands and
Employees: 26 500 (Kantar Group) reputations in all forms of online media.
Headquarters: Burlington, MA • Was an early vendor to make the leap to social media
Website: cymfony.com monitoring.
Founded: 1996
Strengths
• Strong focus on monitoring the social cloud, and analyzing
results to produce a variety of social metrics.
• Targeted well towards large enterprise usage, they also have a
well established reputation for working with agencies (e.g.
Advertising, PR, Marketing).
• Highly scalable solution – supports large number of users.

Challenges
• Plays in the monitoring field, but not strong in managing a
company’s own social properties or campaign execution
through social properties.

Vendor did not provide pricing information.

As a category leader in social monitoring and analytics, Cymfony is often deployed alongside social
media management-focused tools from other vendors; however, it needs to add or acquire social media
management features of its own soon to battle Radian6.

Visible Technologies provides data-intensive social analytics,
but a lack of engagement tools means it’s not right for everyone
Market Pillar Overview
Product: Visible Intelligence Platform
• Visible Technologies’ primary focus is on large
Employees: 100 enterprises, and provides a comprehensive platform for
Headquarters: Bellevue, WA monitoring the social cloud across a number of different
Website: visibletechnologies.com dimensions.
Founded: 2005
Strengths
• Strong ability to track and monitor multiple social channels and
integrate with other systems. It allows organizations to track
brand health, identify influencers, understand sentiment, and
derive meaningful insights.
• High quality graphs and drill downs allow for clear presentation
of analytics.

Challenges
• Small-to-medium enterprises will likely need to dedicate a
specific resource for advanced data analysis.
• Outgoing engagement capabilities are minimal, possibly
necessitating a second platform (though engagement
Priced between $250,000 to $500,000 capabilities are on the roadmap for summer 2011).
• An expensive solution comparative to other platforms.

Visible Technologies’ platform is a great option for large enterprises that want to conduct comprehensive
analyses of the social cloud. However, the platform will be too much for the average SME. Adding strong
management and engagement tools will make them an easy Champion.

A strict focus on financial services makes Socialware the
industry favorite, but less than ideal for other organizations
Emerging Player Overview
Product: Insights, Compass and Voices • Specializing in social media management for financial
Headquarters: Austin, Tx. services, with a strong focus on industry compliance and
Website: socialware.com regulatory developments. Socialware, maintains a partnership
Founded: 2009 with LIMRA.

Strengths
• Greatest strength of the Socialware platform is its historical
and archiving features. Especially important is their capability
for integration with an organization’s existing e-mail archiving
functionality.
• Central account management is another area where they
excel, especially if security is a concern.

Challenges
• As a result of their strong focus on financial services, the
platform is not ideal for other industries.
• Limited integration with social channels means that while the
in-band capabilities are high, organizations with diverse social
Vendor did not provide pricing information. media goals may have to work outside of the platform.

Socialware sets the early standard for social media management in a regulatory environment.
Financial Services must include Socialware on their SMMP shortlist.


Radian6 has the most comprehensive feature offering, but
other platforms (like Sprout and Syncapse) are contenders too
Radian6 has an impressive overall feature set, as well as the backing of CRM
juggernaut SalesForce.com. Sprout is great for budget-conscious SMEs.

1 Require a platform that “does it
all” with multiple capabilities
Large Enterprise

2
Require a platform that excels Small-to-Medium Sized Enterprises
on social analytics (e.g. for
consumer or brand insights)

3 Require a platform that excels
for social campaign
management

4 Require a platform that meets
regulatory compliance
restrictions


Lithium, Visible Technologies, and Cymfony are the dominant
platforms for conducting cloud-based social monitoring & analytics

Marketers or PR professionals looking to mine insights from the social cloud will find
the feature sets offered by Lithium, Visible Technologies, and Cymfony to be
comprehensive & powerful.

1
Maximum number of services integrated
Require a platform that “does it

2
Require a platform that excels Depth of potential data mining

for social campaign
management
Ease-of-use

restrictions


Organizations looking to carry out social campaigns for
marketing or PR should consider Syncapse and Radian6
Advanced social account and campaign management tools, coupled with content-
centric analysis puts vendors like Syncapse and Radian6 on the social campaign
management shortlist.

1
In-depth campaign management
Require a platform that “does it

2
Require a platform that excels Campaign management with broader features

for social campaign
management

restrictions


Socialware is designed around compliance requirements,
specifically in financial services industries
Socialware is the pre-eminent vendor for regulated industries. The firm currently
focuses almost exclusively on the financial services vertical, but plans to branch into
other “locked down” industries (e.g. healthcare) soon.

1 Require a platform that “does it
Designed to be compliance-centric

2
Require a platform that excels

for social campaign
management

restrictions


Identify leading solution candidates
with the SMMP Vendor Shortlist Tool
The Info-Tech SMMP Vendor Shortlist Tool is designed to generate a
customized shortlist of vendors based on your key priorities.

This tool offers the ability to modify:
• Overall Vendor vs. Product Weightings

• Product Criteria Weightings
 Features
 Usability
 Affordability
 Architecture
• Vendor Criteria Weightings
 Viability
 Strategy
 Reach
 Channel

Care more about the product
Tool Tip
than the vendor?
Change the weightings!
Info-Tech’s shortlist will adapt to your organization’s
priorities.


Issue an RFP to ensure that the vendor fits your needs;
not the other way around
Use Info-Tech’s SMMP RFP Template to conduct
this critical step in your vendor selection process.

Info-Tech’s SMMP RFP Template is populated
with critical elements including:

 The Statement of Work
 Proposal Preparation Instructions
 Scope of Work
 Basic Feature Requirements
 Advanced Feature Requirements
 Sizing and Implementation
 Vendor Qualifications and References
 Budget and Estimated Pricing
 Vendor Certification


To get the most value out of the RFP process,
use the RFP Scoring Tool
A standard & transparent process for scoring individual vendor RFP
responses will help ensure that internal team biases are minimized.

Use Info-Tech’s
SMMP RFP Scoring Tool to:

Evaluate RFP Responses!
The SMMP RFP Scoring Tool is pre-built with
essential criteria complementing the SMMP RFP
Template.

Use the tool to drive the procurement meeting
with your procurement department


Take charge of vendor finalist demos with a Vendor
Demonstration Script
A product demo helps enterprise decision-makers better understand the
capabilities & constraints of various solutions.

This tool is designed to provide vendors
with a consistent set of instructions for
key scenarios from the perspective of IT
and departmental managers.

The SMMP Vendor Demonstration Script
outlines solution capabilities and processes
around:
• Social media monitoring
• Social property monitoring
• Social campaign engagement
• Platform architecture
• Mobile access


Implement Social Media Management in Your Organization

• Understand the framework for implementing an SMMP. Build a Strategy for Managing
Social Media
• Create points of integration between the SMMP and
enterprise CRM platforms. Select a Social Media
Management Platform
• Establish policies for ongoing platform maintenance
• Map deployment to organizational models Implement Social Media
Management in Your
• Train for success: conduct end-user training on social Organization
channels and the chosen SMMP


Follow these steps for effective SMMP implementation

What to Consider…
• Creating an overall social media strategy is the critical first step for implementing an SMMP.
• Selecting an SMMP involves gathering business requirements, then translating those requirements into specific selection
criteria. Know exactly what your business needs are to ensure the right SMMP is selected.
• Implement the platform with an eye toward creating business value: establish points of integration with the existing CRM
solution, establish ongoing maintenance policies, select the right deployment model, and train end users around role-
based objectives.

 Develop a strategy for customer interaction
Plan  Develop a formal strategy for social media
 Determine business requirements

Create RFP  Translate into functional requirements
 Determine evaluation criteria

 Evaluate vendors against criteria
Evaluate  Shortlist vendors
 Perform in-depth vendor review

 Integrate with existing CRM ecosystem (if applicable)
Implement  Establish ongoing maintenance policies
 Map deployment to organizational models
 Train end-users
 Designate an SMMP subject matter expert


Integrate SMMPs with CRM to strengthen the realization of
social media goals
• Linking social media to existing customer relationship
management solutions can improve information accuracy,
reduce manual effort and provide more in-depth customer
insights.
Organizations Info-Tech surveyed, which integrated their
solutions, achieved more goals as a result.

• Several major CRM vendors are now offering products that
integrate with popular social networking services (either natively
or by providing support for third-party add-ons)
For example, Salesforce.com now allows for native
integration with Twitter, while an add-on available for Oracle
gathers real-time information about prospects by pulling their
extended information from publicly available LinkedIn profiles.

• Some CRM vendors are acquiring established SMMPs outright
For example, Salesforce.com acquired Radian6 for their
clients that have advanced social media requirements.

For companies that have not formally integrated social media with CRM, IT should develop the business
case in conjunction with the applicable “business-side” partner (e.g. Marketing, Sales, Service, PR, etc.).


Establish points-of-integration between SMMPs & CRM suites
to gain a “360 degree view” of the customer
• Social media is a valuable tool from a standalone perspective, • New channels do not mean they stand alone
but its power is considerably magnified when it’s paired with the and do not need to be integrated into the rest
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) suite. of the customer interaction architecture.

• Challenge SMMP vendors to demonstrate
• Many SMMPs offer native integration with CRM platforms. For integration experience with both CRM
example, Radian6 and Salesforce CRM. IT should identify and vendors and multimedia queue vendors.
enable these connectors to strengthen the business value
of the platform. • Manual integration, adding resolved social
inquiries yourself to a CRM system after
closure, cannot scale given the rapid
increase in customer inquiries originating in
the social cloud. Integration with interaction
management workflows is most desirable.

These tools are enabling sales, and they help us
serve our customers better. And anything that
does that, is a good investment on our part.

- Chip Meyers, Sales Operation
An example of how an SMMP linked via CRM can provide proactive Manager, Insource
service while contributing to sales and marketing.

SMMPs are a necessary single-channel evolutionary step, just like there used to be e-mail-only and Web
chat-only customer service options in the late 1990s. But they are temporary. SMMPs will eventually be
subsumed into the larger CRM technology ecosystem. Only a few best-of-breed will survive in 10 years.


Establish a plan for ongoing platform maintenance

• Like other enterprise applications, the SMMP will require
periodic upkeep. IT must develop and codify policies around
ongoing platform maintenance.

• Platform maintenance should touch on the following areas:
Social Media
◦ Account access and controls – periodically, access
privileges for employees no longer with the organization Management Platform
should be purged.

◦ Platform security – cloud-based platforms will be
automatically updated by the vendor to plug security holes,
but on-premise solutions must be periodically updated to
ensure that there are no gaps in security.

◦ Pruning of old or outdated material – pages (i.e. Facebook
Groups, Events and Twitter feeds) that are no longer in use
should be pruned. For example, a management console for IT: SMMP Maintenance Checklist
an event that was held two years ago is unnecessary.  Account upkeep and pruning
Remove it from the platform (and the relevant service) to cut
 Security, privacy, and access
down on clutter (and reduce costs for “per-topic” priced
platforms.)  Content upkeep and pruning

Even cloud-based platforms like SMMPs require a certain degree of maintenance around
account controls, security and content pruning. IT should assist the business units in carrying
out periodic maintenance.


There are three primary models for SMMP deployment:
the agency model uses the SMMP as a third-party offering

There are three models for deploying an SMMP: agency, centralized, and distributed

Agency Model
• In the agency model of SMMP deployment, the platform
is managed on behalf of the organization by a third-party
Social – typically a marketing or public relations agency.
Cloud SMMP • The agency serves as the primary touch point for the
client organization: the client requests the types of
market research it wants done, or the campaigns it
wants managed. The agency uses its own SMMP(s) to
execute the requests. Often, the SMMP’s results or
dashboards will be rebranded by the agency.

Agency • Pros: The agency model is useful when large portions of
(e.g. marketing or public relations agency) marketing, service or public relations are already being
outsourced to a third party provider. Going with an
SMMP dashboards agency also splits the cost of more expensive SMMPs
rebranded over multiple clients, and limits deployment costs.
• Cons: The client organization has no direct control over
Client Organization the platform; going with an agency is not cost effective
for firms with in-house marketing or PR capabilities.
Marketing Sales Service • Advice: go with an agency-managed SMMP if you
already use an agency for marketing or PR.


Select the centralized deployment model when SMMP
functionality rests in the hands of a single department

Centralized Model
• In the centralized model, a single SMMP workspace is
owned and operated predominantly by a single business
Social unit or department. Unlike the agency model, the SMMP
Cloud functionality is utilized in-house.
• Information from the SMMP may occasionally be shared
with other departments, but normally the platform is used
almost exclusively by a single group in the company.
Marketing or public relations are usually the groups that
maintain ownership of the SMMP in the centralized model
(with selection and deployment assistance from the IT
department).
SMMP
• Pros: The centralized model provides small organizations
with an in-house, dedicated SMMP without having to go
through an agency. Having a single group own and
manage the SMMP is considerably more cost-effective
than having SMMPs licensed to multiple business units in
a small company.
Marketing Sales Service • Cons: If more and more departments start clamoring for
control of SMMP resources, the centralized model will fail
to meet the overall needs of the organization.
In this example, marketing owns • Advice: small-to-medium enterprises with mid-sized topic
or brand portfolios should use the centralized model.
and manages a single SMMP


Go with a distributed deployment if multiple business units
require advanced SMMP functionality

Distributed Model

Social • In the distributed model, multiple SMMPs (sometimes
from different vendors) or multiple SMMP workspaces
Cloud (from a single vendor) are deployed to several groups
(e.g. multiple departments or brand portfolios) in the
organization.

• Pros: The distributed model is highly effective in large
SMMP organizations with multiple departments or brands which
SMMP SMMP SMMP each are interested in SMMP functionality. Having
separate workspaces for each business group enables
customizing workspaces to satisfy different goals of the
different business groups.
Marketing

Customer

• Cons: The cost of deploying multiple SMMPs or SMMP
Relations
Service

Public
Sales

workspaces may be prohibitive for SMEs.
• Advice: go with the distributed model if your
organization is large and has multiple relevant
departments or product marketing groups, with differing
social media goals.


Create an SMMP training matrix based on social media roles

IT must assist the business by creating and executing a role-based training program. an SMMP expert in
IT should lead training sessions for targeted groups of end users, training them only on the functions they
require to perform their jobs.
Use the table below to help identify which roles should be trained on which SMMP features.
Product
Marketing Brand, Customer IT
PR Development &
Product & Channel Service Reps Application
Professionals Market
Managers & Manager Support
Research
Account
Management
Response &
Engagement
Social Analytics
& Data Mining
Marketing
Campaign
Execution
Mobile Access

Archiving

CRM Integration


Assign a dedicated resource to serve as the
resident expert on all facets of the SMMP
• Select an individual who can understand the business needs of the organization (and who has hands-on social media
experience) to become intimately familiar with the SMMP, and serve as the resident subject matter expert.

• For SMMPs, where the main goal is high-level social analytics of multiple brands (using a platform from a vendor like
Visible Technologies), consider hiring a Business Intelligence (BI) Specialist. This individual can assist with selecting,
blueprinting, gathering requirements, designing, and rolling out social analytics solutions through the chosen SMMP. As
the amount of data generated through the SMMP increases in size and complexity, having an individual who can make
sense of the data is a step in the right direction.

• The decision of whether to hire, or roll the SMMP responsibilities in with an existing position depends on your
business goals, and the complexity of your organization’s social media efforts.

COMPLEXITY OF SOCIAL ANALYTIC NEEDS
Integrate Within Existing Position Hire A Full Time Resource
• An organization using an SMMP primarily for its basic • The more complex the social media strategy and the
analytic features or for social campaign management greater the demand for sophisticated analytics, the
should designate a “SMMP expert” in the organization. more necessary it is to hire a full time BI specialist to
• Ideal candidates for this role include business analysts manage the analytics capabilities of the SMMP.
in IT or social media specialists in marketing or PR. • Platforms such as Visible Technologies and Lithium
can benefit by having a BI specialist to assist in
interpreting large amounts of data that can be
captured through these platform.

For a full job description of the Business Intelligence (BI) Specialist refer to
Job Description – Business Intelligence Specialist


Recommendations

• Adopt an SMMP to increase the effectiveness and efficiency of enterprise social media initiatives (particularly
if your organization operates in a predominantly B2C context).

• IT must be involved with assisting the business on evaluating, selecting, and implementing an SMMP.

• Develop a formal strategy for social media prior to deploying an SMMP.

• Establish business requirements, translate into functional requirements, and evaluate and select a vendor
based on these needs.

• There are a number of vendors to choose from in the SMMP market space; your functional requirements will
drive which vendor you select, as there is no clear “winner” for all organizational scenarios.

• After a vendor has been selected, establish points of integration with CRM solutions to enable a 360-degree
view of the customer.

• Create a model for ongoing platform maintenance, and select a deployment model (i.e. agency, centralized,
or distributed), which makes sense given the size and vertical of your organization.

• Train end users in a role-based manner, and assign someone in the organization to serve as the “resident
expert” on the SMMP.


Appendix A
Scoring Methodology


Vendor Evaluation Methodology

Info-Tech Research Group’s Vendor Landscape market evaluations are a part of a larger program of vendor evaluations which includes
Solution Sets that provide both Vendor Landscapes and broader Selection Advice.

From the domain experience of our analysts as well as through consultation with our clients, a vendor/product shortlist is established.
Product briefings are requested from each of these vendors, asking for information on the company, products, technology, customers,
partners, sales models and pricing.

Our analysts then score each vendor and product across a variety of categories, on a scale of 0-10 points. The raw scores for each vendor
are then normalized to the other vendors’ scores to provide a sufficient degree of separation for a meaningful comparison. These scores are
then weighted according to weighting factors that our analysts believe represent the weight that an average client should apply to each
criteria. The weighted scores are then averaged for each of two high level categories: vendor score and product score. A plot of these two
resulting scores is generated to place vendors in one of four categories: Champion, Innovator, Market Pillar, and Emerging Player.

For a more granular category by category comparison, analysts convert the individual scores (absolute, non-normalized) for each
vendor/product in each evaluated category to a scale of zero to four whereby exceptional performance receives a score of four and poor
performance receives a score of zero. These scores are represented with “Harvey Balls”, ranging from an open circle for a score of zero to
a filled in circle for a score of four. Harvey Ball scores are indicative of absolute performance by category but are not an exact correlation
to overall performance.

Individual scorecards are then sent to the vendors for factual review, and to ensure no information is under embargo. We will make
corrections where factual errors exist (e.g. pricing, features, technical specifications). We will consider suggestions concerning benefits,
functional quality, value, etc; however, these suggestions must be validated by feedback from our customers. We do not accept changes
that are not corroborated by actual client experience or wording changes that are purely part of a vendor’s market messaging or
positioning. Any resulting changes to final scores are then made as needed, before publishing the results to Info-Tech clients.

Vendor Landscapes are refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.

Value Index Ranking Methodology

Info-Tech Research Group’s Value Index is part of a larger program of vendor evaluations which includes Solution Sets that provide both
Vendor Landscapes and broader Selection Advice.

The Value Index is an indexed ranking of value per dollar as determined by the raw scores given to each vendor by analysts. To perform the
calculation, Affordability is removed from the Product score and the entire Product category is reweighted to represent the same
proportions. The Product and Vendor scores are then summed, and multiplied by the Affordability raw score to come up with Value Score.
Vendors are then indexed to the highest performing vendor by dividing their score into that of the highest scorer, resulting in an indexed
ranking with a top score of 100 assigned to the leading vendor.

The Value Index calculation is then repeated on the raw score of each category against Affordability, creating a series of indexes for
Features, Usability, Viability, Strategy and Support, with each being indexed against the highest score in that category. The results for each
vendor are displayed in tandem with the average score in each category to provide an idea of over and under performance.

The Value Index, where applicable, is refreshed every 12 to 24 months, depending upon the dynamics of each individual market.

Pricing Scenario Methodology

• Pricing scenarios are based on a 36-month straight-line TCO of the following hypothetical SME scenario:

◦ Organization: Mid-sized consumer packaged goods firms

◦ Social Media Services: Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, WordPress

◦ Number of Brands/Topics Being Monitored: Ten (10)

◦ Number of Seats: Fifteen (15)


SMMP Cost/Benefit Example Assumptions

• Cost/benefit assumption is based on a mid-sized consumer products organization with a broad-based social footprint
(active presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube).

• The organization has one brand manager overseeing five different product lines (5 topics).

• Brand manager is compensated at US$80 000.

• Fifteen Customer Service Representatives

• Cost of the SMMP is $500 a month


Appendix B
SMMP Survey Results


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