Social Channels: A Content Management Imperative How enterprise social content management provides a competitive edge for success Introduction There is no doubt that the Social Web is in an explosive growth mode. A recent PQ Media forecast done in January of this year found that Social Media as a share of the advertising and marketing dollar grew to $2.83 billion last year a 42% increase year over year. And, in terms of enterprise strategies - despite the hype - there is real, actionable work being done across the entire organization when it comes to actively pursuing social as a strategy. Get in touch +1 877 414 4776 sales@onehippo.com www.onehippo.com Page 1 of 12
There are inward facing Enterprise 2.0 solutions such as the one Phillips, a global healthcare, lighting and consumer business has embarked upon rolling out a social network across its 100,000 employees. As their CIO Maarten de Vries said, they ve been surprised at the level of success they ve achieved in such a short period of time. Then, there are also outward facing solutions such as using social channels for content marketing and web engagement management for consumers. This has been hugely popular. Social Media Examiner, the world s largest online social media magazine recently conducted a study of almost 4,000 marketers and found that 94% were using social media to drive marketing results. Brands like Coca Cola, McDonalds, American Express and Red Bull have been able to attract and engage millions of engaged community members across Facebook, Twitter and Youtube leading to higher sales and a huge amount of brand awareness and loyalty. One thing ties every successful social strategy together and that s content. It s content and conversation that s creative, engaging and most importantly managed well. Managing Social Content Well Provides Marketing Advantage Certainly the early adopters of successful social strategies have enjoyed a first mover advantage against the competition as they captured early mindshare of the consumer. But even these enterprises are realizing that the real key to providing a long-term competitive advantage is the ability to manage social content successfully and effectively through every channel. As Social Media expert Brian Solis blogged recently: social media s true path is the integration of collaborative extensions to existing business units and processes. And, Web Content Management is one of those processes. Social Content is, after all, content that needs to be governed from creation, through a workflow and ultimately published out to a destination where it can be optimized, nurtured and measured. Delivering social content effectively is an important piece of the WCM process. Today s social channels especially the outward facing ones (like Twitter and Facebook) - are dynamic but they are driven by the needs of the entire community not the individual enterprise. Savvy enterprises will start utilizing the data coming out of the external social networks to drive content optimization for their own goals. Page 2 of 12
For example, Facebook channels can be personalized with both what makes Facebook useful, but also for what makes the enterprise content more relevant for that particular audience member. Also, using data gleaned from an audience s interaction with content on the social channels will be vital data for the enterprise to hold. If a consumer clicks on a particular product in a Facebook or Blog channel that preference should carry through to the enterprise website, ecommerce catalog or beyond. Managing Social Content Well Provides Better Governance Finally, a centralized and effective social content management strategy helps protect against the risk and danger that so many CEO s and CIO s are afraid of. Using a centralized and governed process mitigates and creates protective measures for how social content can be exploited for the benefit of the enterprise without the brand risk of a rogue group that may compromise the brand. While social media guidelines and policies will help direct the process a good content management system can enforce many of these policies. This is true for both inward and outward facing strategies. When CIO s were interviewed recently by AIIM (The Association of Information Management Professionals) they echoed the marketing studies saying that social applications are an imperative to the enterprise. More than half said that it was of significant or imperative importance that the business develop a social business strategy. Figure 1: AIIM Study on Social Business Page 3 of 12
And whether it is a process driven by marketing for a marketing result or an internal process driven by the CIO for a collaboration result, content is at the heart of it. And there are some effective features to consider as the enterprise prepares to roll out a Social Content Management process. Like any other content management process - it is facilitated by tools and effective Web Content Management tools are certainly driving many of the solutions here. This white paper will look into some of the real benefits of the social content management system and outline some of the key features that a good tool should help to facilitate. SOCIAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT: A BUSINESS IMPERATIVE Despite the hype, many enterprises are struggling with keeping their outward social channels updated. It s not that they haven t leaped in with gusto. In fact, a report by Analyst firm Altimeter Group found that big brands are managing an average of 178 social media accounts. But that same report found that the enterprises typically lack clear goals and a process for success. Only 43% of those enterprises said that they have any type of formalized strategy or roadmap addressing how business goals can be met. Additionally, many CIO s have not embraced the idea of Social Media within the enterprise. Gartner predicts that by 2015 that only 40% of large businesses will have a Facebooktype-Network within their enterprise. And, according to the Social Media Examiner study, marketers are still finding that it takes a lot of time to manage social media channels. 60% of those practicing social media content marketing are spending 6 hours or more each week and a third (33%) are spending more than a day a week. Does this slow success and fear of failure mean that that a well-governed and optimized social content strategy is unattainable? No, it simply means that effective ways to manage these channels have not been deployed in many enterprises. This includes both inward and outward facing social channels. In that same AIIM Survey, a quarter of the respondents said that the biggest issue with internally focused social networking was employees creating content outside the normal enterprise content management process. And, likewise, content governance and optimization is one of the biggest reasons that managing social content across all the networks is so time consuming for marketers. There is no doubt that C-level executives are noticing the impact that Facebook, Twitter, blogs and other social networks are having in the consumer world. And, there is also no doubt that this mindset is changing the way in which we communicate. Page 4 of 12
Social Content Can Improve Revenue Opportunities: A study for the Center for Media Research found that the number of people saying that social media content strongly influences a purchase decision as risen 20% just in the last six months. Successful Social Content Efforts Provide Huge Internal Collaboration Opportunities: A study done by emarketer found that internal collaboration was a primary business objective and an active project among 40% of businesses. But Successful Social Content Efforts Depend On Content Re-Use: In a joint study done by both Content Marketing Institute and MarketingProfs more than 40% cited sourcing engaging content across functional areas of the business as one of the primary roadblocks to a successful content marketing and social media strategy. So, it s early days in the development of social strategies and there is both slow success and fear about the risk. This provides an enormous opportunity for the enterprise that is ready to embrace these new challenges and develop a competitive edge. It s now time to build the capabilities for effectively and centrally managing the content and conversations in both our outward and inward facing social channels. THE SOCIAL CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEM So, like any function within the organization a content management system is a process facilitated by tools. Web content is no different. The Web Content Management System that an enterprise uses, is facilitated by the software appropriate for that job. In the first part of the 2000 s Web Content Management (WCM) software solutions were focused on one thing and one thing only; making it easier and more powerful for nontechnical people to move content from their desktop to their web site. Interfaces were critical. Every enterprise web content management provider touted their easy-to-use UI and how flexible and intuitive their solution would make the web content management process. And power-user enterprise features were also key with the focus on powerful workflows, and approval processes and the ability to integrate with other enterprise tools. But now, as social channels have become such an integral part of the content and marketing equation IT is beginning to participate again (to look to inward collaboration networks) Marketing needs some very specific social content publishing and optimization features. Page 5 of 12
Effective WCMS systems are now helping organizations to publish, optimize and measure social content. And, with the expansive and explosive growth of mobile and the internet of things context is becoming an incredibly important piece of that content management process. Consumers expect to see relevant and personalized content across any channel on which they choose to engage. So, where content personalization, optimization and measurement is a given on our Web site it s also now just as important (or maybe even more so) on the social channels we are managing. So what are the critical areas that the new Social Content Management System features should cover. Easy-To-Add New & Multiple Channels As stated before, according to analyst firm The Altimeter Group, the average large enterprise now manages more than 100 different social media channels. Now, certainly these aren t all active at the same time but as the enterprise starts to add channels for customer service, marketing, sales, product development and all of them in different languages adding new social channels needs to be quick and easy. This is where a social CMS and an easy to use Channel Manager comes to play. Marketing and other non-technical personnel should be able to set up new channels for social publishing without the need of developers to create new code. Easy-To-Find Content For Re-purposing Through Social One of the key benefits to managing all those channels centrally is that social content comes from all parts of the organization and a WCMS organizes and stores all of that content in a central repository so that it can be accessed by multiple teams. Social content is especially appropriate for content re-use and repurposing and using a Web content management solution where content can be search, filtered and ultimately repurposed across multiple channels enables tremendous efficiency in the enterprise. Role Based Publishing At its simplest and most basic a capable WCMS should publish any content in a shareable way. Any content that is managed by the content management system whether it s articles, or press releases, ecommerce catalog content, images etc.. it should all be able to be published to a web platform in a way that it can be shared into the social networks. But additionally, content should be able to be limited by, or specific to, the channel it will ultimately live on. Perhaps a great example of this is global content. Marketers are now spending a lot of time strategizing how to manage their Web content across multiple languages. But what about Social Content? How do you manage your Facebook page in different languages? How will brands optimize blogs and other social platforms to meet localization needs? This is where a capable WCMS can be very helpful. Page 6 of 12
Figure 2: Managing Social Channels in Hippo CMS But beyond that, it s the social channels that need to be managed separately from the Website, mobile, blog or even the global microsites. The workflow needs to be flexible for the ephemeral nature of social content (and conversation) and is important that this two-waystreet be incorporated. A capable WCMS that is socially optimized will have the ability to both publish content into the social channels, but also to accept content from them as well. This empowers the users within the enterprise to have notifications, and the ability to react much faster to conversations happening in real time. It also empowers the organization to begin to use this conversation to deliver more relevant messaging and content based on the quality of that engagement. For example, within Hippo CMS we often will assign users the role of Social Publisher. This content management role has the ability to manage the social content for the organization and have the conversation with users creating engagement and conversation with consumers. Page 7 of 12
Figure 3: Managing Social conent in Hippo CMS Social Content Search & Archiving Additionally, content, especially when placed into the outward facing social channels, is often completely outside the purview of the enterprise (e.g. comments and threads on Facebook or Twitter). It becomes unsearchable from the Web site or Intranet, and (perhaps even more importantly) isn t archived as a critical piece of content. Fundamentally, a reliance on Facebook, Twitter, Linked-In or others to make this content available as an export is not a tenable enterprise strategy. By placing the content into a centralized repository the enterprise is managing this content in a way that it can be searched, archived and retrieved at any time now or in the future. As the communication whether it s across an outward facing channel or an internal network becomes more important and valuable (e.g. customer service focused or marketing focused) the need to have it available for search and archival purposes will be a critical success factor. Social Content Analytics Beyond being able to show how many Followers or Likes a particular page has a social content WCMS should be able to utilize this data into both a dashboard and also into the way that it optimizes content. Using this data should be a natural extension of our content optimization process and the social content management system should enable users to prioritize content based on how well it is resonating through the social networks. For example, it should be easy to prioritize a piece of content on the front page based on its Likes or if it has been retweeted a certain number of times. Page 8 of 12
Figure 4: Managing content in a way that it can be searched, archived - and retrieved at any time The feedback loop here is almost completely automatic utilizing real-time data availability, plus user behavior to automatically manage and change the interface, the design and even the content. For example, Hippo CMS can monitor #Hashtags across Twitter and based on the popularity of a given hashtag across the customer s social graph the front page of the Website can be altered to address that content need. Additionally, influencers and/or other connections to the customer s social graph can be monitored in order to personalize the Web interfaces for this particular group of people. This evolution may, indeed, feed the need to review how marketers look at Web analytics since we will be delivering very personal experiences. Marketers will need to separate out analytics into persona or even channel segmented strategies. Managing Compliance Across Channels Adding different formats and compliance rules for different social channels is a must. For example, serving up personalized content in the US falls under different compliance and privacy rules than does serving that same content to a German audience. Using a CMS like Hippo, for example, brands can associate different workflow to different channels (e.g. the German users of the Facebook page) so that any unique compliance and or brand guidelines are met. Page 9 of 12 A CMS That Helps Build A Fanbase Of course the marketing group s main goal is to build a fan base across the social networks (e.g. Facebook). Using Social Publishing features like that in Hippo CMS can enable a much more emotional connection with fans as the interaction can be much more fluid. And, using the Social Content analytics, the system can automatically optimize the content cross these social channels (e.g. an optimized Facebook page) to create a more relevant and emotionally engaging experience for the users.
Contextual Awareness and Content Personalization The value presented by Web Experience Management (WEM) is that this process is, at its heart, about managing the audience s experience in such a way that they ultimately do what the marketer wants them to do. But as users begin interacting through social channels more or even exclusively the opportunity is to deliver a contextually aware experience through them. This will be critical in developing a competitive platform which has real-time context awareness where the content can be changed and optimized even AS the user is interacting with the content. For example, on Facebook, we may want to optimize content as the user interacts with the interface. The system will watch the clicks, monitor the speed of connection, track the user s location and utilize other real-time behaviors to make subtle, but perhaps important optimization to the content. That s not something Facebook controls it is something the brand controls. This is where the use of metadata and user profiles that build over time will be key. Smart and flexible metadata schemes will need to be employed to allow both content and user matching in much more creative and flexible ways. Conclusion As social media becomes an imperative part of the enterprise business strategy, it s vitally important that the organization get a handle on the explosiveness of all the content that will be generated. While some of it will be trivial in nature much of it will add extraordinary value to the enterprise. And, managing it well will mitigate many of the fears that the C-Suite may have about opening up new social content channels. At Hippo, we are constantly focused on not only how to create better experiences for audiences; we think that Context Aware Content Management will be the primary way for organizations to deliver the future of social marketing both internally and externally. We know that customers now expect to be able to engage with a company at EVERY stage in their buying process. And, by making it easier and more contextually relevant on both sides a good WCMS can facilitate the social conversation and empower the audience. An enterprise that employs a Socially enabled Web Content Management System will: Create efficiencies across the entire enterprise as a repeatable, strategic process is created to manage, re-use and repurpose content that is published out to the Social channels. Page 10 of 12
At Hippo, we are constantly focused on not only how to create better experiences for audiences; we think that Context Aware Content Management will be the primary way for organizations to deliver the future of social marketing both internally and externally. We know that customers now expect to be able to engage with a company at EVERY stage in their buying process. And, by making it easier and more contextually relevant on both sides a good WCMS can facilitate the social conversation and empower the audience. An enterprise that employs a Socially enabled Web Content Management System will: Create efficiencies across the entire enterprise as a repeatable, strategic process is created to manage, re-use and repurpose content that is published out to the Social channels. Drive brand consistency across the multitude of social channels that they are managing and ensure that the content will always remain within the organization instead of behind the walls of Facebook, Twitter or Linked-In. Create new revenue opportunities by being able to drive more engagement through the use of personalized, contextual content through the social channels. Enable a much more agile marketing organization that can respond faster, and create richer experiences for consumers from one, centralized dashboard. Measure engagement, conversions and customer service much more effectively from one platform rather than combining multiple platforms. As content becomes such an intrinsic piece of the business infrastructure Social Content will also become an important asset for the business to manage well. The key is to add the governance needed to mitigate risk and create scalability without inhibiting the flexibility for the business to engage and be conversational. That s what social success is all about. Page 11 of 12
Resources PQ Media Study http://www.marketwatch.com/story/new-pq-media-forecast-us-mobile-social-mediarevenue-surged-30-to-454-billion-in-2011-and-projected-to-accelerate-31-in-2012-driven-bystrong-growth-in-consumer-business-demand-for-access-content-2012-01-30 Phillips Enterprise 2.0 Case Study http://www.cio.com/article/598921/my_enterprise_2.0_rollout_4_keys_to_success AIIM Study on Social Business http://www.aiim.org/pdfdocuments/iw-socialbusiness-2011.pdf Social Media Examiner Study On Social Media Marketing http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/social-media-marketing-industry-report- 2012/#more-16846 Altimeter Group: A Strategy For Managing Social Media Proliferation http://www.altimetergroup.com/2012/01/buyers-guide-a-strategy-for-managing-socialmedia-proliferation-altimeter-report.html New Media Trendwatch: Social Media and User Generated Content http://www.newmediatrendwatch.com/markets-by-country/17-usa/127-social-networks-andugc Rethinking Social Business http://www.briansolis.com/2011/01/rethinking-the-future-of-business-and-social-media/ Page 12 of 12