The State of Corporate Social Media 2013

Written by
Nick Johnson
Founder, Useful Social Media
@gnjohnson
2O13
#STATEOFCSM
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2
Contents
Introduction
Forewords
Methodology
Organisational Models
Corporate uses of social media
A look at the networks
Social Media Financials
Impact and integration
Drawing Conclusions
3
5
9
11
17
21
28
31
35

3
Hello
Nick Johnson
Founder
Useful Social Media
Welcome to our third annual State of Corporate Social Media briefing.
An awful lot has changed in the world of corporate social media since I put pen to
paper on our first edition in 2010.
Social media has gone from an exciting new marketing opportunity to an
unavoidable requirement of any forward-looking business. Social now informs
marketing strategy, crisis communications, customer service, customer insight,
employee engagement, and much more.
But in the journey from social media to social business, the going is not always
smooth. We know from our conversations with your peers about the many
challenges facing practitioners within large corporations. Whether it’s guidelines
and internal policy, ‘desiloisation’ and evolving organisation models, or simply
tracking the impact of your work, this is a field riddled with challenges.
This is where we hope to help. The briefing is designed to set out benchmarks on
social media adoption and utilisation by large corporations, as well as highlighting
key trends which touch on the role of the corporate social media practitioner. Last
year, the briefing came in at a somewhat unwieldy 65 pages - so we’ve streamlined
this year, and focused on only the core issues that will impact on you in 2013.
That’s not at the expense of depth, however. Indeed, this year we’re happy to
announce that we’ve brought in some of those very practitioners to help us analyse
our data, and highlight how the trends we uncover will affect their (and by extension
your) role. Bill Tolany is Head of Integrated Marketing at Whole Foods, and Esteban
Contreras has moved from a social strategist role at Samsung to now authoring a
book on corporate social media - “Social State”. Both bring their ‘skin in the game’
expertise to bear in this briefing, and we hope you will find their own take on our
findings unique and informative. We’re also thrilled to feature a foreword from Lux
Narayan, the CEO of social media benchmarking company Unmetric.
I hope you find the briefing of use - and I’ll look forward to hearing what you think

4
New for 2013: Expert Contributors
This year, we’ve asked two leading thinkers (and doers!) on
corporate social media to give us their take on our findings.
Our contributors are:
Esteban Contreras
Esteban Contreras is the author of the book
SOCIAL STATE: Thoughts, Stats and Stories
about the State of Social Media in 2013.
Follow him on Twitter @SocialNerdia
Bill Tolany
Bill Tolany is the Senior Director of Marketing
and Integrated Media at Whole Foods Market.
Follow him on Twitter @BTolany
Lux Narayan
Lakshmanan (Lux) Narayan is the CEO and
Co-Founder of Unmetric Inc, the Social Media
Benchmarking company.
Find out more about Unmetric
at www.unmetric.com

5
A Foreword from Esteban Contreras
Social media is no longer a corporate experiment.
Of course, experimentation should always be fostered within companies, but we’re now
officially past the phase in which social media practitioners were allowed to experiment
without real goals or objectives.
The bad news for practitioners is that results are no longer an option.
The good news is that brands can no longer ignore social media, or the practitioners that
have been making the case for social technologies.
2013 is off to a good start and it is already a year of social media optimization.
Companies are getting serious about social.
Social ads are becoming an integral part of media plans, “command centers” are becoming
real-time “news rooms,” and companies with global footprints are organizing advanced
multiple hub-and-spoke models. Social support efforts are closing in on resolution times
and driving costs down, while corporate communications teams are thinking about social
impact beyond impressions. Buzzwords like “social business,” “earned media,” and “real-
time marketing” are seamlessly becoming a reality.
Now that most brands are participating in all things social, they are also looking to take
their efforts to the next level. Some will be stuck in an optimization loop, focused entirely on
data-driven and trends-oriented efforts to drive objectives-based performance. Others will
leapfrog competitors in multiple areas, ranging from customer support to risk management,
paving the way for others to follow and imitate.
Perhaps the best part about the end of the experimentation phase is that social media is
becoming a CEO-level agenda. As social media discussions go up the ladder into senior
management, CIOs, CMOs, COOs, and other corporate leaders are taking control over their
organizations future social media efforts.
Social media teams are getting smarter.
Social media strategists, analytics experts, and planners are starting to get a prevalent seat
at the decision-making table. Community managers and content producers are moving on
to more strategic roles, re-defining brand experiences from the bottom-up. Social media
agencies are taking on more diverse work while established agencies and consultancies are
developing strong social media expertise.
In the end, it’s all about the customer.
Consumers are smart, and their growing expectations are evidence that the overall customer
experience should be the core of how companies approach social media. Bigger budgets,
smarter teams, better tools, faster turnarounds, and complex global organizations will not
have an impact unless the overall customer experience is excellent. Anyone can throw
money at a business problem, but building a loved brand takes time and effort. In order to
win, companies will still have to cultivate long-term relationships with their target markets
(and audiences) in a world where reach and frequency are no longer good enough to create
awareness, preference and advocacy.
Customer-oriented companies will be able to leverage social technologies to drive their
company’s business models, and they will be able to demonstrate their ability to unlock

6
great potential across teams, geographies and business units.
Useful Social Media, the company behind fantastic events such as the Corporate Social
Media Summit, has once again created a an annual report about the state of corporate
social media. This 2013 edition delivers great insights about organization models, trends,
financials, and impact of social media initiatives, as well as much more. The report is based
on a survey that is filled out exclusively by corporate social media practitioners, providing an
up-to-date view on what’s happening at some of the world’s most influential corporations.
Social media is part of how companies do business and that won’t be changing any time
soon. Whether you are a business person, a current social media practitioner, an aspiring
one, or simply someone looking to better grasp how companies are leveraging social
technologies, take note of the pages ahead.
You’ll be glad you did.

7
A Foreword from Lakshmanan Narayan
Can we finally say that social media has come of age? Not yet.
The ‘Texas Sharpshooter Fallacy’ describes a methodological error in which pieces of
information that have no relationship to one another are called out for their similarities.
It’s often used for claiming the existence of a pattern. The name comes from a joke about
a Texan who fires some shots at the side of a barn, then paints a target centered on the
biggest cluster of hits and claims to be a sharpshooter.
The fallacy often arises when a person has a large amount of data at their disposal, but in a
classic case of confirmation bias, only focuses on a small subset of that data. Most social
media reports I read are saturated with charts and findings exhibiting confirmation bias.
The conclusions are often assumed, and data is curated to support what has already been
decided.
This #StateOfCSM briefing is a refreshing outlier to the above trend. In fact, when a report
makes no bones about saying that less than half CEOs are convinced about the value of
social media, it’s clear that the industry still has some growing up to do. However, the writing
on the wall is certainly encouraging. A continuing trend from 2012 is that of the social media
director increasingly playing a role outside of marketing. Last year we saw a marked uptick
in the number of businesses providing useful customer support, mostly on Twitter and by
the results of this report, the trend is continuing. This is indicative of a positive trend in the
recognition of the ubiquitous possibilities with social media – beyond marketing.
Equally interesting is the huge variance between B2C and B2B companies in adoption,
focus, and inclination towards different social networks. The dominance of Facebook and
LinkedIn respectively was always expected, but the orders of magnitude outlined in this
report are an eye opener.
The briefing also points to some interesting (some may say, worrying) data on expectation
on social media budget growth in 2013. I do think that an organization focused on
“managing conversations” will see a fundamentally different architecture from one focused
on “managing creatives”. Leading indicators of growth used to, in a pre-web1.0 world, be
media budgets. Social media, by definition, is more people & systems intensive and in times
to come, I believe we will look at budgets beyond spend on platforms and media, and in the
holistic context of investments in people, systems, and yes, marketing. The airline industry
is a great windsock for this. Indeed, one just needs to look at American Airlines who reply
to over 8,000 tweets per month, each within approximately 15 minutes to understand how
much they have transformed their business to make social a key part of their strategy. It’s
very easy to miss seeing the ‘invisible costs towards social media’ – in this case, the ‘cost’
of transformation in systems and processes that allows for the delivery of such amazing
customer service metrics.
Speaking of metrics, as this report indicates, you cannot improve what you cannot measure.
It is good to see (almost) everyone move beyond vanity metrics and brute force numbers
to more meaningful ones rooted in the efficacy of micro-content and its engagement. More
importantly, the larger purpose it must solve. Adoption of more sophisticated measures of
calibration is an indicator of an industry maturing.
And while on the subject of maturity, do remember though, as you draw inspiration and
knowledge from these pages, that social media is still a child in its infancy. With boundless
enthusiasm and a sense of unbridled optimism, she thinks she can change the world. Don’t
be the grown up that tells her what she can’t do. You haven’t seen anything yet.

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9
The findings in this briefing are drawn from responses to Useful Social Media’s annual ‘State
of Corporate Social Media’ survey.
Over 850 respondents contributed to this version of the survey, the majority doing so in
December 2012 and January 2013.
Areas of responsibility
Approximately 30% of respondents were responsible for US operations. Another 30% were
responsible for European operations. Beyond these more typical markets, we have 17% of
respondents for a responsibility for social media in Asia; 15% responsible for the Middle
East and Africa, and 15% responsible for South and Central America. It’s worth pointing out
that these numbers add up to over 100% because several respondents were responsible
for multiple geographic areas
A change from 2012
This year, we tweaked our ‘location’ question. Previously, we asked where each respondent was
based. This year, we asked what areas of the world they were responsible for.
It’s a more illuminating question - showing global responsibility, not simply where their office is. In
turn, that hopefully engenders confidence that the briefing findings will be globally applicable - to
at least some extent.
Corporate focus
Nearly 60% of respondents came from corporates/brands/end users. The rest of our
audience is made of up agencies, service providers, academics, institute members and
the like. For the majority of the briefing, we will, unless otherwise stated, focus only on
corporate responses.
B2B/B2C Differences
We often break our data sets out to show differences between b2b and b2c corporate social
media. As anyone working in and around corporate social media will know, the problems,
opportunities and methodologies for b2b and b2c businesses are often radically different.
We try to use this report to highlight the areas of difference.
Comparison with previous years
This is our third annual State of Corporate Social Media briefing. The data we collected in
2012/13 can be lent context through comparison with submissions from previous years. At
certain points in the briefing, we will take advantage of this additional context to spot trends
and make predictions for the future.
Methodology

10
Full Dataset
While this document contains edited ‘highlights’ from the full State of Corporate Social
Media survey, it isn’t everything. For those who would find it valuable, we have the full
raw dataset available. If you would like access to the (anonymised) data, please email
nick.johnson@usefulsocialmedia.com
We felt that our briefing - stretching to 65 pages - was somewhat unwieldy in 2012. This
year, we have stripped back and refocused on the core issues you want to discuss.
However, the survey itself was more extensive than ever before, and we have a rich data set
available to all readers.

11
In 2012, we concluded that corporations were moving toward a ‘hub and spoke’ model
of social media management - where there is a small core co-ordination unit (‘hub’), but
responsibility for execution is devolved towards a number of ‘spokes’ - individuals or small
teams embedded within multiple departments.
This model lends itself well to the thorough embedding of social media across a business - a
noted trend in 2012, and something we expect to only accelerate across 2013.
A closer look at social media organisation
From this year’s figures, one sees much evidence that this move towards small centralised
hubs, and an expansion of ‘spokes’ - people for whom social is part of a broader role, sat in
a variety of departments or geographical regions - is indeed the case.
The number of people who work specifically in social media, or for whom social is a named
part of their job role, has not changed. In 2013, 92.5% of companies have at least one
member of staff for whom ‘social media’ is a specific requirement of their job role. That’s
only 0.5% up on 2012 (though one could argue that there is little capacity for growth with
such a high proportion).
92.5%
Companies who have at least one
member of staff for whom ‘social
media’ is a specific requirement
of their job role
Equally, the majority of companies still have 2 to 3 executives with specific responsibilities
for social media. The size of the core ‘hub’ has not changed markedly.
When one shifts attention to ‘spokes’, however, progress is more clearly identifiable. When
we asked how many people use social in a professional capacity (but not as a specifically-
named aspect of their role), the responses showed a far more noticeable trend.
In 2012, most companies had 2-3 additional executives acting as a ‘spoke’ and using social
in a professional capacity. The number of spokes has rocketed in the last year, with 58%
of our respondents declaring that 4+ individuals within their company use social media
professionally.
Organisational Models

12
58%
respondents declaring that 4+
individuals within their company
use social media professionally
These spokes are based across the business, and have chosen to leverage social media to
help them do their job better.
An organic journey towards the social business
This increase in executives using social media professionally, but without it being a named focus
of their role, suggests a somewhat organic journey towards ‘social business’. Had this been a top-
down strategy, one would expect far higher numbers of people working on social as a specific
focus of their role - instructed, in effect, by their superiors. But our figures show that in reality, the
majority of growth in social media adoption by business comes when individuals decide to use it
professionally, but without it as a specific part of their role.
b2b and b2c relations - a surprising finding
One can also spot a difference between b2b and b2c adoption rates when one breaks down
the data - and the finding is a surprising one. While only 51% of b2c-only businesses had 4+
executives working on social in a professional capacity, the figure was a higher 57% for b2b-only
companies1
. This seems to suggest a surprising lead on the journey towards ‘becoming a social
business’ for the b2b side of the corporate world.
Businesses with
4+ executives
working on social
in a professional
capacity
B2BB2C
57%51%
There has also
been a noticeable
jump in companies
with 6+ employees
using social in
a professional
capacity
2012
36%
42%
2013
1
It’s important to note that a
significant proportion of our cor-
porate respondents categorised
themselves as having both b2b
and b2c elements, so where our
‘corporate’ response statistics are
at odds with the average of our
‘b2b-only’ and ‘b2c-only’ figures,
the large group of b2b and b2c
respondents is responsible

13
Who owns social?
Unsurprisingly, social media expertise is still located primarily in the marketing department.
However, the dictatorship is weakening.
While the size of the ‘hub’ has not changed markedly, its location has.
While 57% of social media experts working specifically on the technology were based in the
marketing department in 2012, that figure has dropped considerably in 2013 - only 51% of
corporate social media practitioners are now based in the marketing department.
Corporate social
media practitioners
now based in
the marketing
department
2012
57%
51%
2013
This increasingly ‘spread out’ social media expertise is more evidence of social’s increasing
corporate maturity - a recognition that social’s ownership by marketing will curtail
opportunities for many other departments.
To back this hypothesis up, it’s also worth highlighting that 18% of social media experts
now report directly to the CEO (up from 14% in 2012) - implying an increasing awareness
of the wide reach - and business critical nature - of corporate social media.
Social media
experts that
report directly
to the CEO
2012
14%
18%
2013
While less than a fifth is hardly evidence of a journey complete, it does represent undeniable
progress.

14
b2c/b2b focus - an interesting tidbit
Break out figures on social ownership by b2b and b2c company, and an interesting discrepancy
becomes obvious. We argue that social’s decreasing ownership by marketing departments
implies a broader adoption across business - and thus a more advanced corporate social media
model. The increasing direct-reporting to CEOs back up this data.
The evidence in this case suggests b2c companies have made more progress in corporate
recognition of social’s value than their b2b counterparts. 60% of b2b company respondents
reported directly to the Head of Marketing - versus a far lower 43% for b2c companies. Also,
while only 15% of b2b social media executives report directly to either the board or the CEO, the
figure is a far higher 28% for b2c companies.

Respondents
who report
directly to
the Head of
Marketing
B2BB2C
6O%
43%
Respondents
who report
directly to
the board
or CEO
B2BB2C
15%
28%
It seems that the rapid progress made by b2b companies to ‘catch up’ to their b2c counterparts
still has a way to go

15
Impact on organisational structures
61%
of businesses stated that social has
impacted on internal structures,
departmental organisation, workflow
and responsibilities
The fundamental impact is one of teamwork, collaboration and the reduction of silos. Taking
some direct quotes from our respondents, it becomes apparent that the advent of corporate
social media adoption has had a deep and lasting impact on organisational structures.
bill
says
The maturation of the social discipline is an exciting development.
Some of the growth can simply be attributed to time. Comparing prevailing attitudes to those
of the past lends perspective on the present and aids practitioners in planning for the future.
New innovations and market options can also lend a depth and rigor to the discipline.
The key indicator of success, however, remains a tight integration of social operations into the
general operations of a company. If your company develops products and serves customer in
a highly centralized fashion, then your social approach should follow suit. That also holds true
for product or geographic divisions. Take how you are organized (and more importantly, how
your customers see you), and reflect it in your social structure.
When we asked about this impact in more detail, it becomes clear that social has led to
‘silos dissolving’; that “it has forced departments that have traditionally operated in a
vaccuum to work more closely”; and has led to “more frequent communication between the
different functional areas of the organisation”.
Perhaps the best summing up of the impact social has had on internal infrastructure is that
it “‘requir[es] several of our divisions to take a more collaborative approach”.
esteban
says
We are seeing 3 important trends across companies with global footprints:
1 Social media’s global relevance is a catalyst for change within large organizations. What was
once seen as experimental is now an important part of how companies view, interact and
learn about customers on a daily basis. Social media has encouraged (or force) companies
to re-think how, when, where and why they communicate with their customers.
2 Social technologies are enabling collaboration across previously siloed organizations.
The development of multiple hub-and-spoke models requires new ways of thinking and
forces teams to realize that social cannot be “owned” by a single team or business unit.
3 Social media is becoming a CEO-level agenda. As social media practitioners become
sought out in the boardroom, social goals, strategies, and tactics gain greater importance
at the top, and this will further enable social media programs to scale as needed.

16
KEYFINDINGS
To sum up this section, it appears that not only has social media’s organisational
structure within a business evolved and matured (hub and spoke becoming the
core model, spokes increasing implying embedding across departments, and
increasing direct reporting to the upper echelons of a corporation implying an
increasing recognition of the value of social from senior management), but social
has actually impacted on the organisation and structure of the entire business, and
has wrought meaningful change on broader organisational models. Fundamentally,
social has forced different departments to work more closely together to become
more responsive and better able to serve a consumer that expects social
proficiency and one-to-one communication.

17
Current focuses for social media deployment
Unsurprisingly, marketing and communications are still core focus areas for social media
use within business. Social was welcomed into corporations through marketing’s door,
after all. The ability to communicate in a new, more personable and interactive way led to
formidable marketing gains in terms of response rate, loyalty and satisfaction. It is therefore
profoundly unsurprising that a clear 90% of companies now use social media as part of a
broader marcomms strategy.
9O%
of companies now use social
media as part of a broader
marcomms strategy
But social is increasingly expanding into other business units. The leader of the pack is the
customer service department. In 2013, the majority of large corporates (53%) have added
social media elements to their customer service function. It’s unsurprising - the speedy and
direct communication that social media offers means it is not only attractive to a consumer
looking to resolve issues, but to the savvy customer service department looking to highlight
their responsiveness, share positive stories - and spot issues in the first place.
b2c/b2b comparison
Again, b2c companies take the lead here. While 50% of b2c companies now use social media for
customer service, the b2b community lags behind with only a 36% adoption.

Companies who
use social media
for customer
service
B2BB2C
36%
5O%
Perhaps this is unsurprising - social lends itself to customer service at high volume, not in-depth
and often complex issues that arise with a smaller, more demanding customer base as tends to
be the case in b2b businesses.
Corporate uses of social media

18
The utility of social media as a bellwether - something giving the corporate enhanced
ability to spot trouble brewing - links closely into another huge area of social’s expanding
influence within business. Again, a majority of corporations (53%) are now using social to
augment their ‘reputation preservation and crisis communications’ function. This area has
experienced formidable growth - less than a third of companies were leveraging social for
this function in 2012. This is perhaps spurred by two things:
1 The realisation that corporations no longer have the power to dictate their own brand
messaging: The company is now only one voice in the conversation, and the role of the
communications department is only ever to influence, not dominate, discussion.
2 A spate of high-profile social media ‘screw ups’ in 2012 - from Kenneth Cole and the
Egyptian riots; to Nestle, Sinar Mas and Greenpeace; to Ragu Pasta Sauce alienating
‘daddy bloggers’ - problems snarling up on social media have led to real embarrassment,
brand damage, and in some cases, share prices dropping.
Using social media for reputation preservation is now a sensible part of corporate risk
management.
The third key area of social expansion within business is ‘customer insight’. 56% of our
corporate respondents are now using social to get more clarity and detail on who their
customer is, where they are, and what they like. This links in with our initial hypothesis - that
the rise of ‘customer centricity’ as a corporate focus in 2013 is fuelled in large part by the
increasing clarity and detail that social monitoring offers. It’s akin to the shift from normal
resolution to HD in televisions - the detail is now there to spot.
56%
corporate respondents are now using
social to get more clarity and detail on
who their customer is, where they are,
and what they like
To summarise, over half of all corporations are now using social media for:
• Marketing
• Communications
• Customer Service
• Increased Customer Insight (and yet only 16% of companies have a social CRM
system)
• Reputation Preservation and Crisis Communications

19
Future plans
Planned increase
in adoption
of social for
new business
functions
2012 2013
58%
53%
34%
75%
67%
49%
Customer
insight
Customer
service
Employee
engagement
In 2013, we see a continued focus in the areas above - with the use of social media for
customer service and insight becoming the norm. By the end of the year, social’s adoption
by customer service departments will grow by 24% to 67% of all corporations.
Customer insight’s adoption will grow even quicker, to an even higher point - up 29% to
75% of all corporations.
bill
says
Social media’s move beyond marketing will likely continue, but notions of ownership, budget,
and scale can sometimes cloud the larger point.
Social media offers the potential (as yet unrealized) to fundamentally change the way
companies do business.
Social must be more than a cheaper content distribution platform or faster customer service
mechanism. We need to start harnessing its power to change the very way we create
products and services. We need to use it to remove all friction from our interaction with
customers.
And we need its ubiquity and immediacy to aid in measuring the impact of our efforts.
This potential may not be something to be “achieved”, but rather it is a continuous journey
toward remaking how our companies can ultimately improve the lives of all involved
stakeholders.
The third area is perhaps most interesting. By the end of 2013, 49% of all corporate
respondents expect to be using social media for enhanced employee engagement. This
is a development driven by b2b companies, where 53% expect to use social media for
employee engagement in 2013, compared to 34% of b2c companies.

20
esteban
says
Most companies are leveraging social media for marketing and there is no going back. Social
media is also becoming a key element for customer care, market research and corporate
communications practitioners at most companies, showing that the ROI of social media is
multi-faceted.
In my opinion, the social media barrier of entry is much greater for customer care and
corporate communications leaders; few would deny that it is easier to start publishing (ie.
marketing) on Twitter than it is to properly respond to customer complaints and diligently
monitor conversations and spot trends.
Companies must adapt by investing time, resources and money to develop the right
strategies, measure the right metrics, and use the right tools. Social media programs need
to become more sophisticated and this requires great coordination and planning.
SoLoMo is a nice buzz term but it is also the reality of how Internet users behave online:
We share content and opinion on social networks; we seek for information in context with
what’s around us; and we are becoming increasingly mobile thanks to advancements in
smartphone and tablet technologies.
KEYFINDINGS
Social is increasingly being leveraged by far more than simply the marketing
department. Ability with social media is now an expected skillset for the savvy
communications executive, customer service executive, customer insight and
experience executive - and even risk managers.
Over 2013, this adoption of social by the entirety of a company will continue -
spearheaded by b2b companies’ leveraging of social tools for better employee
engagement.

21
An analysis of corporate adoption rates
of existing social networks
Overall
51%
71%78%
88%89%
Facebook Twitter LinkedIn YouTube Corporate
blog
B2C
46%48%
71%
83%
97%
Facebook Twitter YouTube Corporate
blog
LinkedIn
B2B
55%
7O%
81%87%88%
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook YouTube Corporate
blog
It’s unsurprising that Facebook is used by the vast majority of b2c companies - and is the
most popular social network overall for all corporate respondents. It’s the largest social
network, with the most mature marketing capabilities and plenty of case studies and
examples as to how companies can take advantage. Twitter, likewise.
Perhaps the most interesting observation for the b2c business is how few companies now
use a corporate blog - and also the comparative weakness of LinkedIn. To round out the
study, Less than 50% of b2c companies use Google+, Foursquare, Pinterest, or Instagram
(indeed, less than 40% use Pinterest and only 23% use Instagram - despite the huge buzz
around them in 2012).
A look at the networks

22
For b2b companies, there is an equally unsurprising network at the forefront - LinkedIn’s
capabilities for identification, and engagement with, a corporate audience is unrivalled (one
can perhaps track the popularity for b2b marketing by checking the number of marketing
messages filling your LinkedIn inbox).
Perhaps more surprising is the widespread adoption of YouTube, and the comparative
weakness of corporate blogging - only 55% of respondents now use this method.
Unsurprisingly, Instagram and Foursquare barely register (5% adoption for each), though
Pinterest has a surprisingly high 20% adoption.
Another small point - more b2b companies are using Twitter than b2c companies, which
certainly surprised me.

23
Which network is the most
useful for you?
Overall
2O%21%
4O%
Facebook LinkedIn Twitter YouTube
B2C
65%
Facebook Twitter YouTube LinkedIn Corporate
blog
Other
B2B
17%21%
37%
LinkedIn Twitter Facebook Corporate
blog
YouTube Other
8%
5%
12%
6%17% 3%
4%
11%
2%
Corporate
blog
8%
Other
3%
Most notable is Facebook’s total dominance in terms of utility. Considering 65% of b2c
companies said it was the most useful network for them, it is unsurprising that 97% of
companies use the network.
Twitter, from which one would perhaps expect a stronger showing, was the network of
choice for only 20% of all corporations. Considering the relative immaturity of the platform
in terms of specific functionality for large brands, this is perhaps explained to a certain
extent. Twitter’s corporate packages are still being rolled out.
For b2b companies, Facebook is way down in third place - only 17% of companies say it is

24
the most useful network for them. Number one in a far more evenly spread field is LinkedIn,
the choice of 37% of respondents. Twitter overtakes Facebook to take 21% of the vote.
bill
says
Choosing to engage on specific social networks is not an either/or proposition. Yes, we all
have limited time and must focus. But that does not mean effort on one platform should
always be viewed as coming at the expense of another.
We should instead view each network in the same way a craftsperson views a toolbox. Some
jobs call for a hammer, while others require a screwdriver. Use the right tool for the job, and
when something goes wrong don’t blame your tools
Similarly, consumers do not view these social options as perfect substitutes for each other.
They will use Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest for very different purposes. Rather than
rating the networks against each other, consider why your customers and prospects use a
particular network, and then help them meet their needs on that specific platform.

25
58%
More than
once a day
4.5%
Never
22%
Less than
once a day
1O%
Less than
once a week
5.5%
Less than
once a month
Facebook
Frequency of engagement
54%
More than
once a day
9%
Never
19%
Less than
once a day
1O%
Less than
once a week
8%
Less than
once a month
Twitter
The declared ‘use’ of social media channels by corporates means little without looking into
the frequency of that use. While different channels have different expectations re frequency
of engagement (one would always expect more tweets than YouTube videos, for instance),
companies not engaging on a network at least once a month are letting a community die -
and evidently don’t value the return received for said network.
When one focuses on b2c frequency of use, one finds that Facebook is indeed number
one - 66% of respondents engaging on the network over once a day - and only 11% using
the network less than once a week.
Twitter, perhaps surprisingly considering the immediacy of the network and emphasis on
trends and fast-moving information, is in second place - 54% of companies engaging on
Twitter more than once a day - though with a significantly higher 17% using the service less
than once a week.

26
From here, engagement levels drop significantly. Next is corporate blogging and Google+,
which is used by 10% of brands more than once a day. Only 9% use LinkedIn more than
once a day.
Pinterest - considering the specific nature of the audience, the engagement opportunity,
and the relative immaturity of the network itself, has an impressive 7% of b2c companies
engaging on it more than once a day.
Foursquare, YouTube and Instagram fare significantly worse - with less than 6% of
companies using them once a day. Instagram is more likely to be used less than once a
month, YouTube a few times a month, and Foursquare (perhaps because of the emphasis
of temporary ‘deals’) only a few times a year.
The picture for b2b companies is different, as one would expect. Frequency is down across
the board, as b2b companies struggle to engage on a daily basis, whatever network they
use.
Twitter takes the lead - with 46% of companies using it more than once a day - and only
9% of respondents using it less than once a month. Facebook, perhaps surprisingly, is in
second place with 45% using the network more than once a day, and only 9% using it less
than once a month.
LinkedIn is third, which is interesting, considering most companies declared it their most
useful network. Only 34% of respondents use the network more than once a day.
From here, frequency of use drops off considerably. Corporate blogging and Google+ are
both used more than once a day by 11% and 12% of respondents respectively.
In another boon to those who suggest that b2b social media is slower moving than that of
b2c counterparts, the adoption of the big 2012 networks Pinterest and Instagram is minor.
Only 3% use Instagram once per day, and 5% use Pinterest with this frequency.
Emerging Platforms
Across the board, the adoption rates of emerging networks is slow. Not only are the big new
networks of 2012 (Pinterest and Instagram) still used infrequently and by a low percentage
of all respondents, but newer - or simply more global - networks like App.net, VKontakte
(Russia’s Facebook) and Sina Weibo (China’s Twitter) have very poor adoption rates.
Considering Sina Weibo has over 400m registered users2
(the same as the far more popular
Google+3
), it represents a missed opportunity that only 29% of those respondents who
declared themselves responsible for social media in Asia actually use the service (and only
11% of all respondents).
App.net - a new, paid-for social network which keeps data private and does not sell it to
advertisers, has a 6.67% adoption rate. Vkontakte has only 6% of corporate respondents
using the service overall, and a poor 7% of those specifically responsible for social in the
European mainland.
2
Engadget, November
2012 http://www.engadget.
com/2012/11/16/sina-weibo-
400-million-users/
3
September 2012, http://
news.cnet.com/8301-
1023_3-57514241-93/
google-signs-up-400-million-
users-with-100-million-active/

27
esteban
says
Few would be surprised that Facebook is the leading social network for corporate purposes,
and few would be surprised by LinkedIn taking the lead when it comes to B2B. I’m also not
surprised by the importance of YouTube and Twitter, and how the four big social networks
tend to be seen as more valuable than corporate blogs.
I do find the figures of Google+ (50%), Pinterest (40%), and Instagram (23%) very interesting.
While these findings seem low compared to the other social networks, it is important to
remember that just a few years ago Facebook, Twitter and YouTube were in the same
situation.
These days, brands jump into new social networks like Vine in a matter of days. This shows
how the social universe is expanding, and brands are realizing that their presence needs to
be as diverse as its customers and the social websites and services they are using.
While the figures for Sina Weibo and VK seem small, I believe this will change in 2013, and
most brands will start paying more attention to international non-English social media.

28
How does your budget compare?
6O%
$0 - $10,000
12%
$10,001 -
$25,000
2%
$1,000,001 -
$2,500,000
3%
$500,001 -
$1,000,000
1%
More than
$2,500,000
7%
$25,001 -
$50,000
8%
$50,001 -
$100,000
7%
$50,001 -
$100,000
While 6% of corporates have over $500,000 to spend on social media activity, the vast
majority of our respondents have considerably less. A full 60% of those corporates who
completed our survey have less than $10,000 to spend per year, with another 27% working
on a budget of less than $100,000.
Budget increases are slowing...
Over time, money pumped into social media adoption by big business is reducing. In 2011,
77% of our respondents were confident of a budget increase, and in 2012 this had reduced
to 62%.
In 2013, for the first time since our study began, the majority of corporate respondents (a full
58% of them) don’t think their budgets will increase in 2013.
Social Media Financials

29
Those that do see an increase are doubtful of a significant rise. 20% of respondents think
any increase will be between 1% - 5% of last year’s total, with another 21% expecting 10%
or less. When one looks at those expecting a major increase, only 5% expect an increase of
75%+ compared to their 2012 resources.
Again, this tallies with a trend identified last year. In our first 2011 study, 29% expected the
increase to be 75% or higher. In 2012, only 7% expected a jump of 75% or more, and this
year that figure has reduced again.
Number of
people expecting
75% or more
growth in social
2011 2012
7%
2013
5%
29%
...But don’t worry - social is still important
It would be a mistake to read these figures evidence of social’s decreasing importance.
After all, 93% of our 2013 respondents say that social is becoming a more important part
of marketing strategy.
As we felt last year, this caution over budgets can almost certainly be explained by the
‘groundwork’ now being complete - hiring is slowing, and new technologies have now been
purchased.
As corporate maturity with this new channel increases, the need for external help also
diminishes - only 36% of respondents now pay for external advice/assistance with their
social media presence. Costs are, perhaps thankfully, reducing significantly - and budget
growth will slow accordingly.
B2B/B2C Comparison
Again, B2B companies appear to be slightly behind their B2C counterparts when it comes to
committing resource to social media adoption. Only 46% have more than $10,000 pa, compared
to 59% of B2C companies. Only 3% of B2Bs have more than $500,000 to spend on social media
within their company - compared to 4% of B2Cs.
42% of B2C companies are confident their budget for social media activity will increase over
2013, and 7% are confident of that being a significant increase of 50% or more. For B2Bs, there
is more caution. Only 37% are confident of a budget increase, though the same proportion, 7%,
see this being an increase of 50% or more..

30
esteban
says
Companies overall are spending more wisely in social media.
While a few years ago they would’ve spent large amounts of money into emerging tools and
over-promising agencies, they are now ensuring that there is a return on investment.
In recent years, social media practitioners have been focused on getting budgets for their
efforts. This year, they will have to optimize, innovate and demonstrate their success before
their budgets grow exponentially.
I believe those who leverage social technologies to help leapfrog competitors will be the
ones getting the budget increases they need to keep growing and enhancing their efforts.

31
Misplaced confidence?
93%
of respondents say that social is
becoming an increasingly important
part of their marketing strategy
While a huge 93% of respondents say that social is becoming an increasingly important part
of their marketing strategy - and a significant 40% are confident that social media drives
sales for their business - the metrics and KPIs used to support these claims are somewhat
suspect.
4O%
of respondents are confident
that social media drives sales
for their business
And this caution is not only in the eyes of outsiders. Only 31% of our respondents are
confident that they’re accurately measuring the impact of social media activity, while only
44% even attempt to measure ROI.
Equally, while the social media practitioner is evidently confident that social media is having
a positive impact on their business, there is evidently a way to go before the C-suite buys
in to the concept - only 45% of those surveyed feel that their CEO is convinced of social
media’s value.
Those who feel
that their CEO
is convinced of
social media’s
value
ConfidentNot confident
45%
55%
Impact and integration

32
Metrics not fit for purpose
There is still a surprising reliance on simplistic metrics when tracking social impact.
The top metrics used by corporate social media practitioners in 2013 are Web traffic (44% of
respondents say this is one of their top three most important metrics); increasing follower
numbers (another 44% - somewhat depressingly, as outlined in the text box below) and
increasing activity/engagement. This is positive as while undeniably harder to track, this
metric better reflects social media’s impact. While only 14% chose this as one of their most
useful metrics in 2012, that number has shot up to 43% in 2013.
It’s notable that other more advanced metrics - share of conversation vs competition;
revenue per follower; customer sentiment; # of evangelists - are all rarely used. All have
only 14% or less of our respondents identifying them as key (though we’re going in the right
direction - that’s up from only 10% in 2010).
There is evidently still a considerable way to go before the metrics match the enthusiasm
around social media adoption.
Why are ‘increasing follower numbers’ such a flawed metric?
One of the most alarming findings in this year’s State of Corporate Social Media briefing is that
44% of corporate practitioners still see ‘increasing follower numbers’ as one of their top three
most critical metrics.
Why are we so against this metric?
It’s akin to being a performer at a music festival. An artist can be on stage at Glastonbury or
Coachella, performing live. They can use all sorts of incentives to get people to turn up and watch
the gig - free drinks, dancers, an incredible stage show.
But if the audience numbers increase because people are motivated by the dancers or the drinks,
they’re unlikely to buy the merchandise, or even sing along. The gig will be flat, and ultimately
pointless for the artist.
It’s the same with social media. If your increase in follower numbers is because you’ve been
offering the equivalent of free drinks or backing dancers (offers unrelated to your core product
offering, hijacking memes with little relation to your company, etc), you face the same problem.
While follower numbers increase, the impact on your bottom line will be minimal.
But if the audience is arriving motivated by actually listening to the music, every audience member
is far more valuable. The number of people at the gig may be smaller - significantly smaller - but
ultimately it adds up to higher merchandise sales, and a better response to the gig. The artist can
also expect those in the audience to go home and spread the word about the concert - leading to
more sales, and bigger audiences in the future. The same applies with your social media strategy.
It’s about quality, not volume. It’s about genuine engagement, not initial contact.
Follower numbers, therefore, track the wrong thing.

34
KEYFINDINGS
Measurement is an interesting part of corporate social media. On the one hand,
measurement is what allows companies to have a more data-driven approach to
social (ie. leveraging metrics to derive insights and take action on such insights).
On the other hand, measurement is what often shows less than desired results
in social media (ie. owned and paid media not driving as much earned media as
needed).
In addition, the lack of widely acceptable standards and the vast amount of
possible metrics (ranging from operational and reach metrics, to growth and
engagement metrics) can make the task of measurement a difficult one, especially
for professionals with a background in web analytics and search marketing. I
believe all social media efforts should be measured against objectives, and all
costs should be diligently tracked against perceived benefit. For example, PR
professionals often make assumptions that become internal standards (ie. the
value of an impression equals $X).
Companies must standardize their approach to measurement and weigh each
meaningful metric according to the value of the objective it represents. For
example, growth and reach metrics should be important for companies that have
growth and reach related targets and goals.
Every company will do measurement differently, even if there are similarities across
all of them. What is key is to understand everything that can be measured and to
ensure that what is most meaningful is measured correctly and consistently.

35
Drawing Conclusions
In some areas, social media has stayed remarkably (some would say worryingly) static.
In others, real progress has been made.
2012 and we have made progress
There are three distinct areas of meaningful progress in 2012:
1 Social media has become far more critical to - and integrated within - broader marketing
strategy
2 Social has taken meaningful steps into other areas of business, and beyond marketing
- and this is set to continue (and accelerate) in 2013. The expectation is that by the
end of 2013, the use of social tools for better customer service, employee engagement,
crisis resolution and customer insight will become the norm. One need only consider the
fact that nearly 20% of social media teams now report directly to the CEO to see this
development writ large.
3 Organisational models are changing and maturing. Internally, the hub and spoke model
now dominates, and implies social is becoming embedded across many business units.
Equally, the rise of social media has led to meaningful changes in the way the whole
company works together - precipitating an increased transparency, and a drive to better
inter-departmental collaboration.
Issues to be resolved in 2013
Two areas show potential problems - though one can be dealt with quite simply.
Our figures show a slowdown in budgets being allocated to social activity. A simplistic
reading would suggest a decreasing focus on social within business. We are more convinced
by the argument that initial expenditure is over, and that maturation of social engagement
in-house has reduced the need for spend on external assistance from vendors and other
service providers.
The second problem is deeper, and harder to deal with. The measurement of social media’s
impact and value is still deeply flawed, and fundamentally based on the wrong metrics.
The key KPIs chosen by our corporate respondents indicate a weak and simplistic focus on
basic numbers - with a depressingly small number of people pushing ahead towards more
complex, qualitative metrics - which are far better equipped to give companies detailed
insight on their progress and activity.
Conclusions
In short, social has undeniably become a fundamental impact on how business does
business. Increasingly, social networks and tools are changing companies, and helping
them to achieve better results in all areas of business.
There is still a way to go. 2013 will be characterised by the journey away from ‘social media
marketing’ and towards becoming a ‘social business’ and all that entails.

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