Shoutlet has features built into its platform

that help brands make sense of all the

social data at their disposal

25%

of marketing budgets is spent on content marketing

With proper planning and execution, smart CMO-CIO teams can produce a positive ROI in their social

marketing

an increase in social media marketing spending will be

fuelled by increasing numbers of

addressable devices

5Over the next

years

Data-driven marketing has now become a necessity,

propelled by the quick rise of digital

marketing and social media

“The new reality is that the CMO and CIO’s paths are now intersect-ing, and data-driven marketing means technology plays a front and centre role,” says Roy Juges-sur, head of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA), for social media marketing platform pro-vider Shoutlet. “CMOs and CIOs have come to realise that they must work together to keep up with the demand, and stay relevant in this ever-changing landscape.”

In its Western European Social Media Marketing Forecast, 2012 To 2017 report, Forrester notes that increasing social media marketing spending over the next five years will be fuelled by “increasing numbers of addressable devices; consumers’ willingness to use them; continued consolidation of the social network landscape in Europe; and growth in the number of Western Europeans who use social networks”.

But the fact remains that adoption is much slower than in other parts of the world, particularly in North America, due to a much slower mat-uration market, habitual usability by the consumer and the marketer’s understanding of how to improve the brand-fan relationship. As a result, an important part of the deci-sion-making process comes down to hard numbers.

Social marketing’s return on investment (ROI) is still a challenge for many, but with proper planning and execution, smart CMO-CIO teams can identify areas for invest-ment and, eventually, return. To get started, brands need to keep in mind the “VSP” of social data:

VolumeThere’s a staggering amount of social data to be tracked and con-sumed. According to Mary Meeker’s D11 Internet Trends report, social content creation and spend is explod-ing. It’s shaping the human experi-ence. Social users are exposed to more information, new experiences and they’re sharing them. People can’t consume content fast enough. And consequently brands can’t cap-ture the data fast enough. With this explosion of content comes an even bigger explosion of data. For the CMO-CIO approach, the volume of content will inform many of the con-tent generation, budget and techno-logical support decisions that have to be made. But how do you know what to look for? And how do you make sense of it all?

The capabilities of social media have exploded and its embrace has become a critical part of a successful brand’s organisation. Social’s oppor-tunities are boundless, and the abil-ity to connect with fans and potential customers has spurred the need to understand how it is impacting the bottom line.

Social touches nearly every part of business, from how companies con-nect with consumers to how employ-ees collaborate with each other around the world.

Until this disruption occurred, chief marketing officers (CMOs) and chief information officers (CIOs) were occu-pied with their own aspects of the business. CMOs focused squarely on how marketing impacted their goals and had little need to understand the technicalities, and CIOs didn’t expend much energy on understanding how the marketing machine worked.

However, data-driven marketing has now become a necessity. This has been propelled by the quick rise of digital marketing and social media. CMOs are finding themselves knee-deep in the technology-decision pro-cess, and CIOs are getting involved in how these new platforms interact with established systems, helping determine security levels and more.

CMOs and CIOs are coming together to understanding how IT-related marketing decisions affect the overall organisation. According to B2B Marketing Insider, market-ers on average spend more than a quarter of their marketing budget on content marketing. How then can they ensure they’re getting the biggest bang for their buck?

theraconteur.co.uk twitter.com/raconteurmedia 5

COMMERCIAL FEATURE

SegmentationSocial data can be broken down into three buckets: high-level, mid-level and individual-level data. High-level is the bird’s eye view of your brand’s impact in the social stratosphere that will help identify your target demo-graphic. Mid-level is a deeper dive into the data, which highlights inter-ests and social activity of your fan base. Individual-level will expose your brand’s biggest fans and who is most likely to evangelise your brand on your behalf. Utilise this social data to iden-tify and trigger action in these fans in a brand advocacy programme.

PotentialHaving data underline the working relationship between the CMO and CIO can uncover potential oppor-tunities for the overall brand and

Why social data mattersin marketing and IT

The new reality is that the CMO and CIO’s paths are now intersecting, and data-driven marketing means technology plays a front and centre role

Marketing and information technology are poised to form a profitable partnership by tackling social media together in a consolidated approach

organisation, including: better col-laboration between employees and external audiences, such as your social fan base; improved speed and efficiency through having CMOs and CIOs on the same page; informed content strategy by taking your social data and viewing it from different angles to expose gaps in content, and highlight areas that are resonating with your audiences; and better results, understand-ing what works for both internal and external communication, and applying that knowledge to future programmes to position your brand for success.

Approaching social planning and execution through the eyes of a data-minded CIO-CMO executive team can only improve the way busi-nesses approach and implement

social marketing. In making an effort to understand the volume of data, how to segment the captured metrics and applying these lessons to take full advantage of social’s potential is the winning formula for proving social return.

Shoutlet has features built into its platform that help brands make sense of all the social data at their dis-posal, giving them the ability to view it through all three segment lenses. Customers have successfully utilised the social analytics features to help build the social profiles necessary to identify, engage and empower their strongest fan relationships.

To learn more about Shoutlet, visit www.shoutlet.com or contact us at sales@shoutlet.com

THE POWER OF SOCIAL DATA

Many companies monitor social data to uncover

mentions about their brand, trends in their industries and

feedback on competitors

pieces of content are processed each day by

Facebook

2.5bntweets are processed each day by Twitter

400mhours of video content

are uploaded to YouTube every minute

48Digital marketing in all its forms has become a primary way to reach

customers

SEGMENTATION OF SOCIAL DATA

DATA TYPE IDENTIFY PUT IT INTO ACTION

HIGH WHO YOUR AUDIENCE IS

WHAT THEY CARE ABOUT

WHO’S MOST VALUABLE TO YOUR BRAND

BUILD YOUR BRANDADVOCATE PROGRAMME

DESIGN TARGETEDCAMPAIGNS

PLAN YOUR CONTENT STRATEGY

MID

INDIVIDUAL

42%80%

THE FUTURE OF SOCIAL DATA

of marketers plan to apply more social customer

data to drive marketingcampaigns in 2013

of marketers plan to further integrate social

data

FORECAST OF DATA-RELATED MARKETING EXPENDITURE IN 2013

48%

23%

20%

6%

2%

1%

6%

Increase slightly

Stay the sameIncrease greatlyNot determined

Decrease slightlyDecrease greatly

Source: Marketers upping the ante on big data in 2013, MarketingProfs

Source: The Marketer's Guide to Social Customer Data, 2013, Shoutlet