Marketers & Social Media Monitoring Survey 2011
RSW/US & Web Liquid Survey Conducted May/June 2011 Version 1 27 July 2011 From: Web Liquid
RSW/US
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Web Liquid New York 55 Washington Street Suite 800 Brooklyn, NY USA webliquidgroup.com
What’s in here Introduction ....................................................................................................................3 Executive Summary ..........................................................................................................4 Who’s using Social Media Monitoring? ........................................................................................ 4 What tools are they using? ........................................................................................................ 5 How valued is SMM? .................................................................................................................. 6 How is the investment trending? ................................................................................................. 6 Survey Results .................................................................................................................7 About Web Liquid ........................................................................................................... 12 About RSW .................................................................................................................... 12
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Introduction
Few would deny that Social Media is the most talked-‐about marketing opportunity in recent history, yet its value remains debated amongst marketers. Does it influence purchase behavior? How should ROI be measured? What metrics actually matter? What is Social Media Intelligence? Questions the digital marketing industry is trying to answer, including the many companies that provide Social Media Monitoring services. The options for monitoring Social Media range from simple automatic search engine alerts (e.g. Google Alerts) to channel specific data queries and highly sophisticated research companies offering broad datasets masterfully collated and presented for a premium subscription. There are no less than 150 companies providing some level of Social Media Monitoring services that allow marketers to better understand the intersection of their brand and consumers’ social behavior.
But with such vast options in this emerging channel we wondered how many marketers actually use these services and among those that did, what value they perceive? The following is the result of a social media monitoring survey conducted in partnership with RSW/US in May & June of 2011, aimed at getting answers to such questions directly from digital marketing executives – 237 senior marketing executives participated in our survey.
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Executive Summary Social Media Monitoring (SMM) is an important emerging marketing research and brand management function. In this early stage of its development, many marketers are merely dabbling… and there is a tremendous opportunity for those who get it right. Most marketers are doing some form of SMM and virtually all of these have seen some value in the practice. However, less than a quarter report being extremely satisfied with their tool(s) of choice. Further, we've observed an overall lack of sophistication in use of SMM tools -‐ 59% of those doing SMM rely solely on Google Alerts, a practice cautioned against in this report from November of 2010: Google Alerts for Social Media Monitoring. Marketers who use paid social media monitoring solutions are twice as likely to be “extremely satisfied” compared to those using a free solution. Given this, we believe now is the time for digital marketers to invest in more valuable SMM programs. The benefits of these investments are diverse, but the most commonly reported applications are in Communications Strategy and Customer Service (28% and 19%
of users, respectively). With nearly two-‐thirds of respondents planning to increase their use of SMM, we encourage marketers to educate themselves on the tools currently available (request a copy of our 2011 Social Media Monitoring Buyers Guide) as well as the agencies with experience in applying these insights, or Social Media Intelligence, to optimize Social Media and cross-‐channel marketing efforts.
Who’s using Social Media Monitoring?
Actively Monitoring
26% Yes No 74% n=237
Nearly three quarters of marketing executives surveyed are actively monitoring Social Media through the use of both paid and free tools.
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As one may expect, the large companies reported to be actively monitoring Social media more than medium or small companies. Large companies also report use of a paid Social media Monitoring tool more so than others, but it’s medium companies that most often report using free tools.
What tools are they using?
Tools Used Google Alerts
Company Size & Paid vs Free
Other Radian6
100%
Nielsen Buzzmetrics Brandwatch
Large Medium
9%
Meltwater Buzz
Sysomos
50%
Small
0% Paid Tool
Free Tool
Relative company size based upon revenue: <$100M = Small $101M – $500M = Medium $501M+ = Large
n=237
18%
59% n=237
Google Alerts is the dominant Social Media Monitoring tool as marketers’ desire to retain costs often outweighs the quality and usability of the data. Amongst the paid tools, a vast set of options exist, but respondents to our survey reported their use of Radian6, Meltwater Buzz and Neilsen Buzzmetrics most frequently.
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How valued is SMM?
How is the investment trending?
Future SMM Investment
Value & Paid vs Free 100% Extremely Valuable Somewhat Valuable
Decrease
50%
37%
Same
Not Valuable
Increase
62%
0% Paid Tool
Free Tool
n=164
Our data shows that those who do pay for SMM tools are twice as likely to consider them extremely valuable and in fact very few marketing executives find little to no value in the SMM regardless of their level of sophistication.
n=164
Most marketers reported a plan to increase their SMM investments in the coming year with very few suggesting that they’ll retreat from their current investment levels.
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Survey Results Please select the job title that best describes your position.
Please provide a best guess estimate of the revenue of your organization.
n=237
n=237
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What is your primary marketing objective?
How aware are you of Social media Monitoring?
n=237
n=231
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What tools does your company currently use to monitor Social Media for marketing intelligence? Please check all that apply
To what degree do you find the insights gleaned from social media monitoring of value to achieving your business objectives?
n=237
n=164
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How satisfied are you with your Social Media monitoring solution?
If you are using social media monitoring to glean business intelligence, how are you using this data – how are you making it actionable? Please check all that apply
n=164
n=237
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What departments within your organization are most often using the social media intelligence?
How are you evolving the use of Social Media monitoring to achieve your company’s objectives?
n=164
n=237
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About Web Liquid
About RSW
Web Liquid lives at the intersection of consumer behavior and digital technology, literally extracting insight from online conversations to deliver more revenue and sales from digital marketing. From awareness to loyalty, our services engage customers and build profit. Founded in 2003 with offices in New York, London and Lagos, our mission is to shepherd marketers through an increasingly complicated digital landscape. We combine the analytics of a consultancy with the communication expertise of an advertising agency, to deliver bespoke solutions that fit each client’s unique challenges. By placing WOM (word-‐of-‐mouth) research & insight at the foundation of our efforts, we help our clients deliver a proposition revolving around meaningful, customer-‐centric dialogue. With the chief objective of inspiring consumer confidence and building trust in our clients’ brands, we offer strategic insight and efficient channel management to help maximize ROI in the digital world.
RSW/US is a full service, outsourced business development group that helps Agencies win new business by developing positioning and prospecting plans, building the industry's cleanest lists, getting clients qualified meetings in front of decision makers, and moving clients beyond the initial meeting to get them closer to close. More information can be accessed at: www.rswus.com or by contacting Mark Sneider (513.559.3101 or mark@rswus.com).
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