A recent report published by Tata Consulting Services shows just how large corporations are dealing and/or still struggling with social media.
The global report, which was called "Mastering Digital Feedback," featured respondents with an average revenue number coming in at $15.6 billion. So we're talking very large corporations here, with both significant infrastructure and marketing capabilities. These respondents are also likely facing bureaucratic hurdles that make a real-time medium such as social much more difficult to manage and successful harness.
Amazingly, when asked about their actual return-on-investment in the social media space, nearly half - 44% - hadn't measured the value of their social media investment at all. Of respondents, 12% don't even plan to measure it. This may come as a surprise, given the necessity of proving ROI in most avenues in large corporations.
However, this result may also demonstrate that social still has not come of age in some companies, where it remains in the experimental phase.
The importance of social media is coming into ever-starker relief, as recent reports show that, at five hours per day, average time spent online in the US is eclipsing the 4.5 hours of daily television time in that country.
In the travel space, these developments have long been heralded as sea-changes, especially given the rise in mobile. This particular survey only had 6% of respondents in the travel space, and was highly overrepresented by banking and financial services companies.
This extensive analysis allows for direct comparisons of how the travel sector is performing relative to other industries, and how the travel industry has been using social media to further their revenues.
One of the most compelling statistics to emerge from the report is the following graph, which identifies travel as the industry that benefits most from increased brand affinity due to social media. This makes perfect sense, as social allows for trip planning and sharing, and heaps of organic inspirational content that drives tribe creation and community engagement.
Of particular interest to corporate social media marketers is company structures in regards to social media management. Is this a cross-functional, shared capability or does it get centrally managed by a parent company or one silo within the organization?
This also points to the importance of transparency in social media, as said transparency is one of the key tenants that has made it so popular with consumers. Brands seen as opaque are never seen as authentic, and authentic representations generally come directly from the department being represented - it's hard to fake it in social, after all.
In travel, the report identifies the most collaborative of social media marketing efforts - 41% of corporations have four or more business functions that work closely together on social.
This again emphasizes the need to be transparent and authentic, especially in regards to emotionally-driven purchases like travel. And of these respondents in travel, 51% say that their corporate structure is effective or highly effective when it comes to social media activities. This rates only just behind telecom companies, showing that travel feels like it's doing ok when it comes to social.
One of the most telling pieces of this report comes from the direct comparison of investments in social media versus Big Data. Respondents are spending four times on Big Data, showing a continued faith and investment in the promise of the data versus social.
Even when compared to mobile, the nebulous Big Data continues to marshal serious resources from the largest companies. These companies are most likely have the deep data streams, which promise a potential goldmine when it comes to retargeting and increased customer knowledge.
At 136 pages, the report is extremely detailed, and can be downloaded here.