Gleansight Social Media Marketing

November 2010

Gleansight
.

Social Media Marketing
With more than 500 million people on Facebook, and with media outlets
Content reporting every day on the brief, sometimes bizarre messages that celebri-
Part 1: Topic Overview ties, politicians and corporations send out on Twitter, it’s clear that social
Part 2: Reasons to Implement
Part 3: Value Drivers media has entered the mainstream. Consumer product companies are
Part 4: Challenges paying their agencies big money to incorporate social media into their
Part 5: Performance Metrics marketing campaigns. Retailers have moved beyond customer reviews,
Part 6: Success Story
Part 7: Vendor Landscape and are giving consumers a much larger role in social selling. And you
can scarcely watch a commercial without seeing the iconic Facebook,
Sidebars:
Survey Stats
Benchmark KPIs
Core Technologies
Gleanster Numbers

Twitter and YouTube icons as part of the message. But the ROI on this
effort is still squishy at best. Brands are still trying to determine the value
of a Facebook fan, and there continues to be no consistent barometer of
success. Given the dearth of reliable data, it’s no wonder that companies
Rate & Review
are struggling to determine just how much social media marketing is right
Related Research for them. And practitioners are left to talk as much about the cost of not
Tell a Friend participating in social media marketing as of the value of doing so. This
Note: This document is intended for individual
Gleansight explores what top performing companies are doing – and
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- measuring – as they make their initial forays into social media marketing
ing on a personal website is in violation of the
terms of use. and how they’re working to achieve their desired business objectives.

Entire content © 2010 Gleanster, LLC. All rights reserved. Unauthorized use or reproduction is prohibited.

Gleansight: Social Media Marketing 2

Survey Stats Part 1: Topic Overview
With the phenomenal growth of Facebook and the staggering amount of
The research findings featured
in this Gleansight benchmark attention paid to Twitter and YouTube, it’s clear that social media marketing
report are derived from the is on a rapid growth trajectory. Every day, established brands gain
Q3 2010 Gleanster “Voice footholds on Facebook, lured by the giant audience and the opportunity to
of the Customer” survey.
communicate with its users. A few particularly aggressive companies have
• Total survey responses: 396
begun creating large-scale viral campaigns—asking for customer photos
• Qualified survey responses: 284
of their products, for example, or launching cause-based initiatives that
• Company size: Very Small (18%); purport to have a larger sense of purpose.
Small (31%); Medium (18%);
Large (20%); Very Large (13%) Others have begun transacting commerce These days, brands are looking to social media
• Geography: North America through Facebook applications and “tabs” marketing to increase customer acquisi-
(67%); Europe (15%); Asia/ on their fan pages. Merchants and hospital- tion, advocacy and engagement, as well as
Pacific (17%); Other (3%) ity companies have begun jumping on the increase return on marketing investment (i.e.,
location-based mobile marketing platforms. get consumers to buy more). Think of it as
• Industries: Consumer and And some brands have found that they can word-of-mouth marketing writ large because
Retail (19%); Technology and drive sales the conversations play
Media (25%); Financial services by coddling out in the electronic
(15%); Pharmaceuticals and
Healthcare (12%); Telecom-
bloggers or
by directing “Despite the flurry town square. Marketers
have long known that
munication (4%); Other (25%)
• Job levels: C-level (4%); SVP/VP
special codes
or promotions of activity, social consumers trust the
opinion of people
(13%) Director (20%); Manager
(34%); Staff (19%); Other (10%)
to customers
who follow them media marketing they know – and even
consumers they don’t

Sample survey respondents:
on Twitter. Yet,
despite the flurry remains experi- know –far more than
they trust the opinion of

• Director, Fujifilm Medical Systems
of activity, social
media marketing mental in nature.” the marketer hawking
their goods or services.
• General Manager, Genuine Health remains experi-
Suddenly, marketers
mental in nature, and marketers are making
• CEO, HobbyTown USA can participate in the conversation and
up the rules as they go. To date there is still
affect the way consumers interact with one
• Marketing Director, Siemens no consistent toolkit or industry standard to
another and with their brands. Today’s social
• Manager, Fidelity help marketers figure out how to brand, staff,
media tools allow marketers to engage
deploy and measure their social media efforts.
• Manager, Chevron with customers who are active online and
In truth, social media is hardly a new phenom- on mobile devices, in the hope not only of
• Marketing Manager, Kohler enon. Companies like MySpace, Friendster securing their business, but also, impor-
• CEO, Intercontinental Systems and SecondLife were born, raised cash and tantly, of spurring them to recommend the
faded from glory long before Twitter became a brand to others in their network. This form of
• Director, Unilever
media darling. While indie bands, in particular, social selling is truly revolutionary in that it’s
• Vice President, Retail, may have recognized the power of MySpace, enabling marketers to reach consumers they
StonehamBank building digital fan bases by giving away never would have been able to reach through
their work, launching albums, and sharing traditional push marketing, including email.
the experience with online listeners, most
Five years ago, a tech-savvy, digitally focused
marketers stayed away from early social media
company could find satisfied and particu-
efforts, which were used after all by young
larly unsatisfied customers venting on any
consumers who looked askance at brands
number of electronic forums, including online
Rate & Review that appeared to be trying to encroach on
bulletin boards, chat rooms and blogs, but
their space. Even Facebook, the 800-pound
Related Research the conversations were more isolated and
gorilla in social networking, began with modest
therefore harder to find. It’s the interconnected
Tell a Friend ambitions. It wasn’t until 2006, when it opened
nature of today’s social networks and the way
the door to everyone – and then, more recently,
they broadcast messages, creating permanent
Note: This document is intended for individual made it easier for companies to market
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- search-friendly records, that make them so
ing on a personal website is in violation of the there – that brands started paying attention.
powerful—and, also, potentially dangerous.
terms of use.



Benchmark KPIs Part 2: Reasons to Implement
Brands have plenty of obvious and some not-so-obvious reasons to add
Gleanster uses 2-3 key performance
indicators (KPIs) to distinguish “Top social media marketing to their overall communications and marketing
Performers” from all other companies strategy. The prevalence of Facebook and Twitter in their competitors’
(“Everyone Else”) within a given data
set, thereby establishing a basis campaigns, the success of some high-profile efforts, and the idea that you
for benchmarking best practices.
By definition, Top Performers are
should fish where the fish are, clearly are having an impact on marketing
comprised of the top quartile of budgets. But, according to Gleanster research findings, the largest differ-
qualified survey respondents (QSRs).
entiator between Top Performers and Everyone Else lies in the area
of increasing customer engagement: Top Performers place a higher
The KPIs used for distinguish-
ing Top Performers focus on emphasis on increasing customer engagement, a nod perhaps to the
performance metrics that speak
to year-over-year improvement in
lingering inability to put classic ROI metrics on the marketing spend.
relevant, measurable areas. Not
all KPIs are weighted equally.
87% 90% 93%
The KPIs used for this Gleansight are: Most
• Improved customer-
support effectiveness
Compelling
• Improved market research Reasons to
effectiveness
Implement*
• Increased customer advocacy Increase customer Increase customer
Increase return on
advocacy marketing investment acquisition
To learn more about Gleanster’s
* According to Top Performers, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey
research methodology, please click
here or email research@gleanster.com. Increase customer acquisition. The are far removed from business transactions.
basic business premise behind social No doubt, brands will improve measurement
media marketing is that organizations can in terms of dollars-and-cents outcomes.
extend their customer base by leveraging
Increase customer advocacy. Brands are
the networks of people who have already
well aware of the inherent value of word of
“friended” (or “fanned” or “liked” or “followed”)
mouth marketing and the importance of having
them. Most social media platforms are set
satisfied customers share their brand experi-
up to automatically push their participants’
ences with others who are or might become
ideas, thoughts and comments out to the
customers. And since social media platforms
people that are connected to them – and
are built around the idea of sharing, it stands
sometimes to the people who are another
to reason that marketers would utilize these
step removed. Marketers have long known
tools as a vehicle for spreading positive
that consumers trust the recommenda-
word of mouth. The fact that social media
tions of people they know (and even other
content is indexed by search engines makes
customers they don’t know) more than brand
it of particular value over the long-term.
messages. Authentic recommendations
or referrals from friends/fans can heavily Increase customer engagement. Enticing
influence the purchase decisions of others. consumers to interact with the brand through
new contact methods provided by social media
Increase return on marketing investment.
platforms is seen as an important reason
Companies and brands have some fairly well-
for engaging in a social media marketing
established formulas for determining the impact
Rate & Review campaign. Increasing customer engagement
or effectiveness of traditional marketing efforts.
goes hand in hand with increasing customer
Related Research They have long histories of measuring the
advocacy in that it stresses the importance of
open rate, click-through rate and the financial
Tell a Friend getting customers to interact with the business
success of an email campaign. But the tools
in a new and visible way. Customers who make
for measuring ROI in social media marketing
Note: This document is intended for individual a brand a larger part of their life are likely to
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- largely remain a work in progress. While it’s
ing on a personal website is in violation of the spend more, become stronger advocates
fairly easy to track the redemption rate of an
terms of use. and have longer connections to the brand.
online coupon, most social media actions



74% 77% 79% 66%
**

Compelling
Reasons to
Implement*
Increase market Increase store Increase customer

“Social media
exposure/brand awareness and/or website traffic engagement


humanizes the
** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers
Increase store and/or website traffic. practitioners (or the brands they work for) hip.
The connection between a Facebook post It’s true that social media events can have
brand and makes and store traffic is pretty slim, except that it
strengthens the relationship with the customer
a negative impact on a brand’s reputation.
But the way a company deals with a crisis

it more real and and might make them more inclined to shop
with a company in the future. That said,
can exacerbate or defuse the situation.
Increase membership in branded online
some marketers are finding success with
tangible.” delivering traffic-boosting messages inside
their social media channels, using sales or
customer communities. Branded online
communities have had a head start in the
customer engagement game. Successful
other promotions – particularly messages
communities often drive themselves. Members
Scott Wilder, ex-General Manager, that are identified as “exclusives” – within
recruit others and the search-friendly nature of
Online Communities, Intuit those messages. Group coupon or shopping
the user- generated content tends to be visible.
networks have proven to be good customer
But customer communities take a lot of work,
acquisition tools, and location-based apps
and seeing this as a reason to implement social
can be used to target shoppers in the
media marketing campaigns is an indicator of
proximity of a physical store location.
how brands struggle with community growth.
Increase market exposure/brand
Increase customer loyalty. It’s surpris-
awareness. It used to be said that any publicity
ing that, among Top Performers, customer
is good publicity. Now it might be said that any
loyalty netted out to be the lowest primary
social media mentions are good mentions. It’s
factor in a brand’s decision to move into
not entirely true, of course. There is a lot that
social media marketing. Brands used to talk
can go wrong in social media. But brands have
about improvement in customer loyalty as a
learned that good social media participation
big motivator. There are likely many reasons
by employees, customers and other advocates
for this shift, not the least of which is an
can, in fact, build stronger brand awareness.
improved understanding of what’s possible.
The visible and indexed nature of social media
It’s also true that the customers who are
means that any customer interaction with a
most drawn to a company’s social media
brand is a public interaction, and the visibility
presence – those that tend to become the
of that interaction, through the networks and
biggest advocates – are loyal to begin with.
through search, can have a lasting impact.
Change brand perception. Social media is
hot now, but that doesn’t make social media

62% 66% 68%
Less
Rate & Review
Compelling
Related Research
Reasons to
Tell a Friend
Implement*
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- Increase customer Increase membership in branded Change brand
ing on a personal website is in violation of the loyalty online customer communities perception
terms of use.



Core Technologies Part 3: Value Drivers
A successful social media In the rush to Facebook, marketers are discovering that different kinds
marketing effort requires multiple of content drive different kinds of results – and different social networks
disciplines and applications to
fully realize the power of social respond in different ways. It was not that long ago that the experts warned
connections. Following are some that brands could not “sell” in social media, that the audience would
of the key technology enablers.
Social media monitoring tools.
rebel, and the social media efforts would fail. We have learned, however,
A successful social media marketing that, when done correctly, it absolutely is possible to promote goods and
campaign should be backed by a
consistent, objective and ongoing set services to online fans and friends. As shown in to the FLASH charts in
of monitoring metrics. Most monitor- this section, Top Performers are focused most heavily on taking advantage
ing vendors classify posts based
on whether their tone is positive or of the “social” aspect of social media marketing, indicating a begrudging
negative, giving some insight into
the general response or perception
acceptance of the current state of ROI measurement.
of the company. They also measure
the volume of relevant conversation
and sometimes the level of consumer 85% 86% 94%
engagement or brand advocacy. These
factors can help brands adjust their Most
social strategy and start to determine
whether their social media efforts are Important
affecting the overall brand promise.
Specialized social media apps.
Value
Many brands get started with simple
interaction-based campaigns that Drivers*
are built around content or links. But, Leverage the reach and Identify and engage Give consumers a good reason to
increasingly, brands are investing in multiplier effect of social networks top influencers want to share brand-related content
larger apps or self-contained social
marketing vehicles or websites that * According to Top Performers, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey
can stand on their own or can be
embedded into sites, blogs or social
networks. Generally more expensive, Give consumers a good reason to want on a small scale. Influencers are a funny breed.
these apps give the brand more to share brand-related content. Good Brands should foster a positive relationship
creative control over the social media community managers have learned over time with them, but should be careful not to “buy”
experience and can form the basis
for longer-term or repeat engage- that one of the keys to a successful engage- their influence. Just showing them respect and
ments. Choose a vendor with a track ment campaign is to provide quality content attention, and giving them early information,
record, who can demonstrate that that is relevant to the brand but which does should be enough to keep them involved.
they can work in the social environ- not necessarily promote consumption of
ments you are interested in, and who Leverage the reach and multiplier effect
the brand. Marketers who run social media
will use metrics to quantify success. of social networks. Social media platforms
efforts for companies large and small need
work by allowing people to connect and
to remember that customers want to take
communicate with circles of friends, each with
the lead in advocating for the brand. Brands
their own circle of friends. These overlapping
might point them in the right direction, but
and interconnected circles allow users to
consumers will be most inclined to interact
broadcast their stories to their networks, and
with the content if it provides value, solves
also allow the information to creep into the
a problem, or is just plain interesting.
larger networks. Marketers who create interest-
Identify and engage top influencers. The ing offers, content or apps for these networks
influencers and brand advocates that gravitate can find that the social capital pays off by
to a company’s online communities and social sparking a “me too” connection to the brand.
media sites are the Holy Grail for marketers.
Adjust promotional tactics as needed,
Rate & Review These are the people who will tell the brand
based on campaign performance. Top
story, rally others to the brand’s side, and
Performers are outdistancing others by
Related Research speak up when the need occurs. With the
paying closer attention to the effectiveness of
right social media monitoring tools, brands
Tell a Friend their social media marketing, and changing
can identify these people without engaging in
course when necessary. Done right, social
Note: This document is intended for individual social media marketing themselves, but they’ll
media campaigns can be pretty flexible in
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- generally be at a loss to do anything about it
ing on a personal website is in violation of the scope and design, allowing marketers to
terms of use. without joining the social media universe, even
shift gears to reflect facts on the ground. In



74% 79% 68%
**

Core Technologies
(Continued)
Important
Online community platforms.
A component of the overall social
Value
Drivers
*
media marketing effort, branded online
communities can provide continued
access and personalized connec-
tions that may be harder to maintain Generate new content Adjust promotional tactics
on external networks. Vendors in this and conversation on as needed based on
campaign landing pages campaign performance
space should be able to integrate with
a brand’s existing registration system, * According to Top Performers, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey
provide tools or moderation services to ** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers
help build the community and maintain
order, and allow users to syndicate fact, because of the two-way nature of most no slam dunk. They require a lot of TLC, and
their content/participation into and social media, brands can get laurels for are something of a slow build. The challenge,
out of other social media channels.
adjusting their efforts in the face of criticism frequently, is in keeping the focus on building
Content/promotion management or a lack of response. Either way, the ability the community long enough to actually build
tools. Social media tools are, by and to modify a campaign to make it more the community. Done correctly, branded
large, built to respond to our need
to post and share our thoughts now. effective or to draw a larger response has communities can pay off in spades.
They are not typically content manage- clear benefits that are not as readily available
Integrate social media with other media buys
ment systems, meaning they lack the in more traditional marketing campaigns.
and campaigns. Social media marketing is
ability to pre-post or re-use content in
a database format. An effective social Generate new content and conversation seductive because there’s the perception that
media strategy will have to have a on campaign landing pages. Content costs you can do it on the fly – that you don’t need
system to calendarize the campaign, money, and marketing content can sometimes the kind of planning and back-end support
to repurpose content across multiple come across as, well, marketing content. as you do for email marketing campaigns or
platforms, and to gauge the effective-
User-generated content, on the other hand, traditional marketing efforts. More and more
ness of any particular message.
is generally authentic and is perceived by the marketers are adding Facebook and Twitter
CRM integration. audience as trustworthy. This user content mentions to their ads and marketing collateral.
Mapping social media activity to CRM
systems will let brands understand the can also make static pages seem alive, The callouts frequently are mere invitations
extent to which that activity is resulting offering a constant stream of changes. Brands to join or follow the brand on those sites. But
in incremental sales lift and affecting need to be willing to take their lumps, though, aggressive marketers are finding ways to bring
the customer purchase behavior. because these unvarnished and sometimes value to the fan for taking the action. They are
Simple sharing of content or branding impolitic comments can be off-putting. offering exclusive content, special deals or early
exposure is unlikely in the near term
to provide CRM integration. But information. The comingling of social media
Host one or more branded online customer
coupon codes that lead to sales will marketing with other campaigns can have the
communities. Branded customer communi-
allow brands to do some mapping of effect of making the entire brand seem more in
ties can be an effective way to gain customer
social handles to their CRM system. line with the sensibilities of today’s consumer.
insights, marshal enthusiasm and develop
advocates. Communities generally have
strong value in natural search. But they are

70% 71%
Less
Important
Value
Rate & Review Drivers*
Related Research Integrate social media with other Host one or more branded
media buys and campaigns online customer communities
Tell a Friend
** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post-
terms of use.



Part 4: Challenges
Creating a positive and productive social media marketing experience
takes ingenuity, work and a bit of luck. Many companies are taking a leap
of faith that, by subjecting their brands to the uncontrolled flow of social
conversations, they will earn the respect and admiration of their customers.

“Social media But they are learning that even well-intentioned social media campaigns
are fraught with danger, that it’s possible to fail, and to fail publicly. They
marketing is have also learned that while some of the biggest campaigns look easy,
they are anything but. As the FLASH charts in this section indicate, most
going to blow the brands are still struggling with campaign creation as well as with promotion
and tracking.
shingles off the
roof once people 92% 94%
Most
really figure out Challenging
how to use it.” Aspects*
Megan O’Connor, Director, Social
Effectively promoting social Creating “viral worthy”
Media Marketing, Levi Straus & Co. media marketing campaigns content

* According to All Companies, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey

Creating “viral worthy” content. Ever since media campaigns can sell themselves.
the first Mentos-meets-Coke video popped
Tracking and measuring success. The
up on YouTube, social media marketers have
explosive growth of social media opportunities
been focused on developing the perfect viral
has not brought along an equally explosive
video or YouTube moment. Problem is, it’s
ability to measure the effectiveness of those
virtually impossible to predict what content
campaigns. And because brands are using
will take off in the social sphere. The online
a variety of platforms and tools to broadcast
audience is not easily taken in by brand
their messages, they are finding that they do
messages, so marketers are well advised to
not have one clear and consistent dashboard
create authentic, shareable content (video
to monitor success. There is progress being
or otherwise), and open themselves up for
made, however, and some prominent vendors
customer review and commentary. With
are introducing increasingly sophisticated
luck, they’ll find something that works. But
monitoring engines that will help to further
more often than not, customer or third-party
quantify and qualify social media success.
content stands a better chance of going viral.
Securing executive level buy-in. Senior
Effectively promoting social media
executives tend to focus on core business
marketing campaigns. As with any new
objectives and programs that can bring
tool, marketers are finding that they have to
measureable results. And many tradi-
Rate & Review learn how to build and market their campaigns
tional companies are very protective of
effectively. The language of social media –
brand image, making them leery of the
Related Research from the words we use to the way we describe
free-wheeling nature of the social Internet.
ourselves and our customers – are different
Tell a Friend All of this puts social media marketing at a
than in traditional media, which makes it
disadvantage. The tools are changing fast,
Note: This document is intended for individual hard to fit into the cookie-cutter approaches
the analytics are in their infancy, and there’s
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- often used for old-school marketing. The
ing on a personal website is in violation of the no controlling what someone might say.
terms of use. good news is that, when done right, social
Wise marketers will seek executive buy-in



76% 78% 83%
Challenging
Aspects*

Making the business Securing executive Tracking and
case in terms of ROI level buy-in measuring results

* According to All Companies, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey

using metrics that are available. And they value of integrating their campaigns, they are
will focus on other tangibles, like customer finding it hard to incorporate the somewhat
interaction, in their attempt to secure uncontrolled nature of social interactions
executive buy-in. They might also stress into their structured marketing plans. It is
the risk of inaction, of not being a part of the no surprise that companies are struggling
conversation should something go wrong. with how to adapt to social media marketing
Making the business case in terms of ROI. because they have spent generations plotting,
As discussed above, the metrics available for refining and pushing their own narrative.
assessing social media marketing are not as Securing the right organizational
robust as marketers have been accustomed to resources. Figuring out the right organizational
for email or other marketing activities. There is structure for a social media marketing effort is
significant debate over the value of a Facebook no easy task, in part because it’s impossible to
fan or the ROI benefit of a customer engage- compartmentalize social media as a pure disci-
ment community that is not big or tied directly pline. It’s part marketing, part PR, part product
to sales. Add to that the fact that most social development and part customer service
media activity is not mapped into a company’s (among others). In 2010, companies are trying
CRM system, and it becomes virtually impos- to consolidate their social media marketing
sible to measure effectively. This is starting to efforts into small SWAT teams or centers of
change, but it will likely be some time before excellence. But within a few years, they will be
we have access to the kinds of metrics that can expected to make social media a part of every-
provide a reliable assessment of social efforts. one’s job. In any event, the people running the
Integrating social media into the overall social media efforts need to be empowered
marketing mix. Gleanster survey respondents to be vocal, persistent and proud. They need
point to marketing integration as both a value to have access to those with information, and
driver and a challenge to their social media they need the company to be in their corner.
marketing efforts, in pretty even numbers.
This suggests that while marketers see the

63% 71%
Less
Challenging
Rate & Review
Aspects*
Related Research
Securing the right Integrating social media into
Tell a Friend organizational resources the overall marketing mix

Note: This document is intended for individual * According to All Companies, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey
terms of use.



Gleanster Numbers Part 5: Performance Metrics
The science of measuring social media marketing is still a work in
7,000,000 progress. As noted earlier, the social media landscape changes every day,
Number of “fan votes” that were
cast for an M&M’s social media and the shifting ground makes it that much harder to determine whether
marketing campaign in 2009 the social media efforts are meeting the company’s overall business goals.
Social media monitoring tools can measure the ratio of positive-to-negative
94 sentiment and the volume of relevant conversation. But, as the FLASH
Percentage of companies that
regard “creating ‘viral-worthy’ charts in this section show, the top metrics employed by companies do not
content” as the biggest challenge necessarily correlate to the top reasons they launched their campaigns in
with social media marketing
the first place. In fact, Top Performers indicate that their primary reasons
81 for implementing a social media marketing campaign are customer acqui-
Percentage of Top Performers
sition, return on marketing investment and customer advocacy – none of
(compared to 70% of Everyone which surface as one of the most commonly used metrics. This will change
Else) who use “consumer engage-
ment rate” to track social media as companies demand better metrics from solution providers and as social
marketing campaigns media activity becomes more closely mapped to their CRM systems.

79
Percentage of Top Performers 81% 70% **
86%
(compared to 66% of Everyone Else)
who view “increase customer engage- Most
ment” as a reason to implement a
social media marketing campaign Commonly
79
Used
Percentage of Top Performers Metrics*
(compared to 68% of Everyone Else) Consumer engagement Audience growth rate - e.g.,
who view “adjust promotional tactics rate - e.g., # of click-thrus, # of Facebook fans, Twitter
as needed based on campaign registrations, etc., per week followers, etc., per week
performance” as an important value * According to Top Performers, based on 284 Qualified Survey Responses to the Q3 2010 Gleanster Voice of the Customer survey
driver for social media marketing ** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

Audience growth rate. The most visible inspired to participate and can be compared
metric in almost any social campaign, audience to earlier time periods. But it does not yet
growth is easily charted over time and can compare that number with the overall reach of
be seen in the number of people who follow the campaign, meaning that there’s no knowing
a brand, “like” a brand, take a poll, submit how many people chose not to participate.
a picture or share content. A handful of
Volume of relevant comments/posts. Top
brands have built enormous fan pages on
Performers are more likely to measure the
Facebook, sometimes through contests,
volume of relevant content than Everyone
coupons or classic marketing efforts.
Else, a sign perhaps of the work involved
Customer engagement rate. Another in determining relevance of user content.
metric that carries over from email marketing, In most cases, it’s much easier to see how
customer engagement rates can be fairly much content is produced overall than it is
simple to see. How many people are clicking to narrow down into positive or negative or
Rate & Review through a link, completing a registration relevant or not. Measuring customer sentiment
process, rating a video or responding to some of social media posts can be a tricky task and
Related Research
other call-to-action? Top Performers are is an art that is being perfected every day.
Tell a Friend monitoring this to a much greater extent than
Customer acquisition rate. Customer
Everyone Else, indicating that they are going
acquisition was the number one reason to
Note: This document is intended for individual to the numbers they have in the absence of
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- implement a social media marketing campaign,
ing on a personal website is in violation of the the numbers they want. Customer engage-
yet it fell in the middle of the pack of the top
terms of use. ment speaks to how many people have been



69% 73% 77%61%
**

Commonly
Used
“Integration with Metrics*
the brand strat- Customer advocacy Customer acquisition
egy and offline
Volume of relevant
score - e.g., NPS rate comments/posts


media is key. If ** According to Everyone Else, shown only when a notable disparity occurs relative to Top Performers

social media is metrics used. This goes in large part to the
disparate tools and platforms that are used
will change over time as companies become
more adept at creating social programs that
to conduct social media marketing efforts, are more closely tied to business goals and
siloed, it will be making it difficult to determine which partici-
pants are customers, become customers,
as they improve their data integration.
Customer acquisition cost. Increasing
a one-hit won- or change their purchase behavior.
Customer advocacy score. The Net Promoter
customer acquisition was cited as the top
reason that Top Performers implement social

der. A TV spot Score, popularized in the last decade, delivers
a single number used to measure how likely
media marketing campaigns, yet customer
acquisition costs are measured by only 59%

should point to a
a consumer is to recommend a product or of these companies. The oft-stated discon-
service. While it can be tracked over time, it nect between social efforts and company
can be difficult to make a correlation between CRM systems is a likely barrier to successful
Facebook page changes to the score and a specific social
media marketing activity, as a consumer’s
measurement of customer acquisition cost.
Brand awareness/exposure measure.
and vice versa. propensity to recommend a brand can be
influenced by any number of factors.
Social media campaigns work for the most
part by facilitating the viral or organic spread

Every touchpoint Return on marketing investment. The
number two reason brands begin a social
of a company’s message through the social
graphs of the customers who buy into the
media marketing campaign is that return message. It’s a generally accepted principle
should link and on marketing investment lags as a metric
used to measure the effectiveness of those
that this organic distribution of the message will
ultimately result in increased brand visibility,

point to other campaigns. This is true because a lot of
money can be spent on social media oppor-
which can be readily measured through aided
and unaided brand awareness studies.

touchpoints.”
tunities that do not tie back directly to the
company’s CRM systems, their point-of-sale
systems and their core business goals. This

Bert DuMars, VP, eBusiness and Inter-
active Marketing, Newell-Rubbermaid
52% 59% 62%
Less
Commonly
Used
Rate & Review Metrics*
Related Research Brand awareness/ Customer acquisition Return on
exposure measure cost marketing investment
Tell a Friend
terms of use.


.

Part 6: Success Story
Major consumer brands spend millions of dollars every year on sponsor-
ship deals as a way of grabbing consumer mindshare during activities
that would otherwise seem far-removed from their core go-to-market
message and brand promise. Mars Chocolate North America, no stranger
to such deals, has a longstanding relationship with NASCAR, which has
More Success Stories been supported in recent years by an innovative social media marketing
campaign looking to identify the M&M’s Most Colorful Fans of NASCAR.
The campaign, now in its third year, has been sweet for the brand, which
says it is seeing a higher level of engagement and activity through its
integrated marketing approach.
The Challenge selected through voting of registered users at
NASCAR.com/mostcolorfulfans. The campaign
NASCAR has one of the most brand-loyal
is supported by Facebook and Twitter feeds
fan bases in all of sports and is second only
and was expanded this year to allow partici-
to the NFL in TV viewership. M&M’s, which
pants to upload their photos through Sprint
has had a NASCAR relationship for 20 years,
smart phones.
entered the 2008
season looking for “Mars wanted to Winners in early
a fan-friendly way
to boost customer leverage the NASCAR rounds get gift
cards, while the

Note: The original version of this Success Story
engagement while
employing the fans’ legendary enthu- ultimate winner gets
a $10,000 prize and
may have been prepared—and previously pub-
lished—by an enabling solution provider. If so,
it is edited and reproduced here by permission.
social media tactics
that were beginning
siasm with a campaign is showcased for
a year in a display
While reasonable efforts have been made to
verify the accuracy of the information contained
to hold sway.
that would connect at the NASCAR
Hall of Fame.
racing fans to the
herein through independent fact-checking, Mars wanted
Gleanster disclaims liability for any content
that was developed and submitted by third to leverage The Results

M&M brand and
parties. Success Stories are selected based the NASCAR
solely on the merits of the content as judged The simplicity of the
fans’ legendary
by Gleanster’s Research Oversight Committee. contest matched
Vendors are not charged a fee for inclusion and
no preference is given to vendors based on their
ability to purchase other Gleanster products or
enthusiasm with
a campaign that to one another.” with the natural
enthusiasm of
services. Any questions or concerns regarding would connect
the fan base was
this particular Success Story–or Gleanster’s racing fans to the M&M brand and to one
selection criteria or policies, in general–should a hit for Mars, which found that the sharing
another. The company understood that it
be directed to successstories@gleanster.com. and engagement on social media properties
Case studies may be submitted for publish- needed to have an integrated approach to the
ing consideration using the Success Stories drove entries, buzz and word of mouth. The
campaign, one that involved digital creative,
Submission Form. company reports that it saw exponential growth
public relations, media and the promotions
in engagement (measured in votes), submis-
team. And officials knew they would need to
sions and media impressions in 2009 over
measure reach, engagement and sentiment
2008. Some 5,700 photos were submitted
– and gain a clear understanding of how the
in 2009, up from about 2,000 photos the
campaign would address business goals.
first year. About 7 million votes were cast in
The Solution 2009, up an astounding 1400% from 2008.
Rate & Review
The M&M’s Most Colorful Fans of NASCAR “M&M’s Most Colorful Fans of NASCAR
Related Research contest is a deceptively simple campaign that contest is unique because it’s 100
takes advantage of NASCAR fans’ passion percent fan generated,” noted Suzanne
Tell a Friend for the sport and the most basic social media Beaudoin, vice president of sponsor-
Note: this document is intended for individual sharing tools. Participants are encouraged to ships and sports marketing.
use. Electronic Distribution via eamil or by post- upload colorful photos depicting their enthusi-
terms of use.
asm for all things NASCAR, and winners are



Note: While Gleanster strives to include all
Part 7: Vendor Landscape
of the most relevant and noteworthy solution The competitive arena for social media marketing is comprised of solution
providers in the Vendor Landscape section,
the list is by no means comprehensive in
providers with a wide range of specialized tools, platforms, capabilities and
nature. Omissions may occur due to lack
of sufficient market presence, as judged by
approaches, many of them still somewhat experimental in nature, making it
the Gleanster research analyst team. Space
constraints may necessitate some amount
difficult to create a basis for comparison. Given the newness of the disci-
of paring of even those vendors that do have pline, few vendors have a track record that spans more than a few years.
sufficient market presence. Simple oversights
may also happen on occasion. To submit Existing solution providers, particular those in the email marketing space,
information about a solution provider, please
complete the Solution Provider Informa- are adding social media marketing functionality while new vendors are
tion Form. To schedule a vendor briefing,
please email research@gleanster.com. cropping up on an ongoing basis. Yet, as the frontier on what’s possible
Vendor descriptions are taken verbatim from
company websites or from vendor-submitted continues to advance, some trends are emerging – the focus on integrating
profile information. Gleanster Skinny (GS)
commentaries are based on vendor briefings, social media campaigns with Facebook and Twitter, for instance, and lever-
customer interviews and Gleansight research
findings as well as on company press releases aging the ubiquity of mobile devices. This vendor landscape aims to shine
and various other information sources.
a light on solution providers that have a strong technology component as
part of their offering. Advertising and PR agencies with a dedicated social
Agencies & Consultancies
media marketing practice, as well as related boutique consultancies, are
Ant’s Eye View listed in the sidebar.
www.antseyeview.com
“Ant’s Eye View guides organizations Affinitive GS: Awareness recently enhanced The
through the process of transform- www.beaffinitive.com Hub, an application designed to help
ing customer experience and brand
engagement by activating and “Affinitive is a Word of Mouth (WOM) and marketers publish, manage and measure
embedding customer voice in every social media marketing and technology marketing campaigns across social media
aspect of their business. The Ant’s solutions pioneer. Since 2002 we have been channels. Now, in addition to integrating
Eye View team comprises experienced helping companies to democratize their with such social networks as Facebook,
practitioners delivering proven expertise Twitter, Flickr and YoutTube, marketers can
in internal collaboration, social media, brands through a consumer-centric approach
community building and management, focused on the core values of community and publish content to blog publishing platform
and influencer strategy development.” social networking, research, viral and buzz, WordPress as well as location-based
education, and loyalty and CRM, coupled with social networking website Foursquare.
Gleanster Skinny (GS): Co-founder
Sean O’Driscoll knows his stuff, our best-of-breed suite of fully managed Web Bazaarvoice
having previously led Micro- 2.0 social media engagement platforms.” www.bazaarvoice.com
soft’s global MVP program.
He’s assembled a world-class Gleanster Skinny (GS): Affinitive is a “Bazaarvoice’s SaaS social commerce
“colony” of social media strate- relatively small vendor with an ambitious solutions have served over 125 billion pieces of
gists as well as a client list that range of solutions related to social media. customer-generated content on over 850 brand
includes such companies as LEGO, Its customer engagement platform, called web sites like Best Buy, Dell, Costco, and P&G
Dell, Intuit, Apple, and IBM.
Enclave, enables everything from customer in 36 countries. Bazaarvoice connects organi-
Banyan Branch communities and brand ambassador programs zations to their influencers through a unique
www.banyanbranch.com to online consumer advisory panels and network that reaches hundreds of millions
social media apps. Clients include E.&J. Gallo of consumers around the globe, enabling
“Banyan Branch is a new-media
Winery, Novartis, Random House, Sports authentic customer-powered marketing.”
marketing consulting group based
in Seattle, WA. Banyan Branch is a Authority, Travelocity, and Electronic Arts.
GS: A dominant player (along with rival Power-
hands-on practice, meaning that we Awareness Networks Reviews) in the customer ratings and reviews
not only make recommendations for www.awarenessnetworks.com
best practice, we execute against the space, Bazaarvoice recently introduced Social-
“Awareness builds on demand social Connect Suite, which allows companies to
marketing software for serious marketers incorporate features and content from various
Rate & Review who leverage multiple social channels social media sites into their own website to
to engage with their customers, build enhance the fan experience. Included are
Related Research such capabilities as social sharing, social
their brand, and increase revenues. The
Tell a Friend Awareness Social Marketing Hub is built syndication, social applications, and social
upon Awareness’ expertise deploying more networking. The company is likely to see
than 200 communities and social media continued growth – despite the just-announced
ing on a personal website is in violation of the projects for some of the world’s biggest departure of CMO Sam Decker, a leading
terms of use. brands including Sony, Kodak and Best Buy.” voice in the word of mouth marketing sphere.



developed plan for our clients, providing
end-to-end service, working closely
Ease of Deployment
Social Media Marketing Solution Providers
with clients to help them better listen
and engage across the social web.”
GS: Banyan Branch, which has
attracted such high-profile brands This chart is intentionally left blank.
as Disney, Fox, Viacom, and MTV,
Vendor ranking results based on
Best
seems to have a knack for develop-
ing quirky campaigns that resonate survey response data will be
especially well with today’s media-
savvy and “always connected” included in Gleansight benchmark
youth. An example is the viral reports beginning Q2 2011.
campaign for Parallels, a virtual-
ization and automation solutions
provider, which featured a parody
of a popular SNL clip that instantly
became as much of a pop-culture
sensation as the original. In
October, the firm announced that This chart is intentionally left blank.
Blake Cahill, former CMO at Visible
Better
Technologies and a leading industry
voice, joined as a principle. survey response data will be
Big Fuel included in Gleansight benchmark
www.bigfuel.com
reports beginning Q2 2011.
“Big Fuel is a full-service marketing
and communications company based
in New York that takes brands from
Content To Commerce. A unique
approach that bridges “people stories”
to “product stories” through social
media and branded content. Big Fuel
is one part marketing agency, building
This chart is intentionally left blank.
Good
brands through consumer insight; one
part entertainment company, creating
content that people love; and one part
survey response data will be
distribution company, driving guaran- included in Gleansight benchmark
teed results by delivering content to
targeted audiences. We work with major reports beginning Q2 2011.
brands, leading agencies, publish-
ers and platforms to help marketers
achieve true consumer engagement.”
Founder Avi Satar began his career Buddy Media tion, and a number of social applications
on the creative side of TV progam- www.buddymedia.com designed to drive user engagement. Also
ming and his perpective on the new is Buddy Media Platform +GLOBAL,
convergence of marketing and “In today’s social media world, every brand
entertainment continues to guide needs a Buddy. The Buddy Media Platform is the first page management system that
the company’s strategic direction. web-based marketing software that provides enables supports content in any language.
Launched in 2004, Big Fuel has companies global scale, secure architecture
established a strong presence in
Bueda
and straightforward administrative tools to www.bueda.com
the social media marketing space,
with clients that include Colgate- connect with their current and future customers “Founded in January 2009, Bueda is a
Palmolive, Fox Interactive Media, using the power of Facebook’s 550-million Pittsburgh-based, CMU spin-off company
NBC and Johnson & Johnson. strong and growing social network. Seven headed by semantic expert Dr. Vasco Pedro.
of the top 10 largest global advertisers have Bueda has already begun to pursue its
selected the Buddy Media Platform as their goal of ‘understanding all the world’s infor-
preferred Facebook management system.” mation’ by the release of its first product:
Rate & Review
GS: It’s been a good year so far for Buddy the semantic matching platform that lies
Related Research Media, which recently secured $23 million in at the core of Five. Leveraging research
Series C funding and has amassed an impres- from Carnegie Mellon University, Bueda’s
Tell a Friend
sive client roster. The Buddy Media Platform semantic matching engine enables the
Note: This document is intended for individual features real-time analytics, geo-targeting, creation of smarter applications in markets
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- where information overload creates signifi-
a library of more than 30 social applications
terms of use. or “applets,” Facebook Open Graph integra- cant barriers to communication efficiency.”


GS: Bueda’s semantic matching platform, measure brand presence across the social
called Five, is designed to extract meaning web to meet their acquisition, engagement
Dachis Group
www.dachisgroup.com from unstructured data, including Tweets and retention goals. By combining industry
and profile status updates, helping marketers expertise, a leading technology platform, and
“Founded in 2008, Dachis Group is a
better understand customer preferences. comprehensive analytics into an integrated
social business design firm that helps
companies capture value from shifts The platform, which just completed beta approach, Context Optional delivers the most
in technology, society, and work. Our testing, may prove to be a valuable tool in effective social CRM and marketing solutions
work focuses on three practice areas: the context of social media marketing. to Fortune 500 brands and agencies.”
customer participation, workforce
collaboration, and business partner Buzzlogic GS: Context Optional has made a splash
optimization. We deliver assistance www.buzzlogic.com with its Social Marketing Suite, which is used
via research, strategy, implementa- “BuzzLogic is a digital media company with for managing, monitoring and measuring
tion, and managed services.” brand presence on Facebook. In June, the
a data-driven ad platform built to optimize
GS: Dachis Group was started by advertising across the largest pool of trusted vendor acquired Buzzeo, a platform for
Razorfish founder and company Facebook application creation, manage-
blog content on the web. We combine
namesake Jeff Dachis along with
proprietary conversational analytics with ment and deployment, further enhancing
two former Forrester analysts, Brian
Havenblog and much-“followed” industry-leading audience targeting data its capabilities. The vendor is the first to
social business blogger Peter to maximize performance - and provide provide a product for Facebook Places, called
Kim, whose thinking on all things contextual insight to boost results.” Facebook Places Check-In Leaderboard,
Web 2.0 has always been cutting allowing brands to conduct geo-targeted
edge. Dachis Group has grown GS: BuzzLogic began life as a social media
marketing campaigns in which they publish
significant in the past year, in monitoring vendor and later morphed into a
part due to its acquisition of three coupons, videos, polls, etc., directly into
social media ad agency with strong technol-
companies in April. Clients include the news feeds of their Facebook fans.
Coca-Cola, BBC, Intuit, and Phillips. ogy capabilities. In July, the vendor hit a
home run, securing $8.8 million in series Converseon
Digitas B funding. It just introduced BuzzRoll, a www.converseon.com
www.digitas.com social media ad unit designed to encourage
sharing amongst blog readers. Clients “Converseon is a leading social media
“Digitas is a leading digital marketing
agency, helping the world’s biggest include HP, Starbucks, Walmart, HBO, consultancy that has been helping brands to
brands develop, engage and profit Microsoft, and American Express. ‘join the conversation’ to meet business goals
from building profitable relationships since 2001. We provide innovative technolo-
with their customers. The agency pairs Bzzagent gies, operational consulting and engagement
media, marketing, technology, creativ- www.bzzagent.com
services designed to create social media strat-
ity, imagination and analytics to ignite
emotional bonds between people and “BzzAgent creates a deep connection between egies from the inside out. Converseon has won
brands. Digitas is a member of Publicis consumers and brands to activate word awards from Digiday, WOMMA, and more.”
Groupe’s VivaKi—a global digital of mouth across social and offline media.
knowledge and resource center. Clients GS: Perhaps better known as a leading
Through the engagement of our network of
include Comcast, P&G, Samsung, technology provider in the social media
passionate, vocal and connected consumers,
American Express, and Kraft.” monitoring arena, Converseon also has
we provide companies the ability activate
GS: Digitas’s website, which extensive experience in designing and imple-
large-scale discussions, uncover hidden
manages to strike a nice balance menting social media marketing campaigns.
value, and drive measurable results.”
between order and chaos, loudly The vendor’s work has won many awards
proclaims that this isn’t your father’s GS: Over the past decade, BzzAgent has and for “engagement and activation excel-
ad agency. The company recently built an extensive network of participants lence.” Converseon is currently expanding into
racked up a number of awards,
including three Effies, a BtoB Social (themselves called BzzAgents) in its word of Europe and in October announced a partner-
Media Marketing Award and a Webby mouth marketing network, running hundreds ship with Twitter to infuse Firehose data into
People’s Choice Award, suggesting of programs for such brands as Kraft Foods its Conversation Miner technology, the next
it must be doing a lot of things right. and Unilever. The company has tried to version of which is set for release next month.
replicate some of its offline success with the
Crowd Factory
introduction of BzzScapes, which aims to www.crowdfactory.com
build a network of online brand communi-
ties by leveraging product reviews, as well “Crowd Factory is the first company to deliver
as Frogpond, a digital listing service. a customer acquisition solution that actually
Rate & Review monetizes social activity by connecting it
Context Optional to conversion data. The focus on person-
Related Research www.contextoptional.com
level data and ROI tracking gives marketers
Tell a Friend “Context Optional is the leading provider of the ability to send their campaigns viral
social marketing software and services to through the social channels and then track
Note: This document is intended for individual global brands and advertising agencies. The the social activity back to purchases and
company provides marketers with comprehen- conversions. As pioneers of Social ROI
terms of use. sive solutions to build, manage, monitor and our applications enable companies of all



Digital Influence Group
Ease of Use
www.digitalinfluencegroup.com Social Media Marketing Solution Providers
“Digital Influence Group is a full
service digital agency, located outside
of Boston, focusing on social media
strategies to help clients build deeper This chart is intentionally left blank.
relationships with their key constitu-
Best
encies. Digital Influence Group is
a part of W2 Group, Inc., a next- survey response data will be
generation marketing services company
founded by Larry Weber in 2004.” included in Gleansight benchmark
GS: Digital Influence Group was reports beginning Q2 2011
an early leader in developing
and executing integrated social
media marketing programs.
The consultancy has won
several prestigiuous awards
for its work, for clients that
include Sony, P&G and Visa. In This chart is intentionally left blank.
July, it named former Digitas Vendor ranking results based on
Better
exec Glenn Engler as CEO.
Draftfcb included in Gleansight benchmark
www.draftfcb.com
“Draftfcb is the first holistic, global
reports beginning Q2 2011
marketing communications agency to
operate against a single P&L, with a
network that spans 92 countries and
employs over 9,200 people. Draftfcb
is driven by The 6.5 Seconds That
Matter, an operating system that
recognizes the brief period of time This chart is intentionally left blank.
marketers have to capture consumers’
Good
attention and motivate them to act.”
GS: Recent campaigns include
Sharpie’s “Uncap What’s Inside” included in Gleansight benchmark
and Taco Bell’s “Super Delicious
Ingredient Force,” in which a team reports beginning Q2 2011
of animated superheroes were
designed to engage and interact
with fans on Twitter, Facebook and
Flickr. Other clients include Nike,
Dockers, Honda, and Yum! Brands. sizes to run and optimize social marketing in April and may well be on track to do a repeat
campaigns that dramatically increase new performance. Clients include HBO, Universal,
Edelman Digital customer acquisition, drive loyalty and Billboard, The Golf Channel, Sony and McAfee.
www.edelmandigital.com engagement, and amplify brand awareness.”
ExactTarget
“Edelman Digital is the digital and GS: Crowd Factory has gained recognition as www.exacttarget.com
social marketing division of Edelman
PR Worldwide, the world’s largest a provider of flexible social marketing solutions. “More than a decade ago, three businessmen
independent PR firm. Edelman Digital Its CrowdWorks Social Marketing Suite comes recognized that organizations needed a way
specializes in helping customers with a number of applications that can be to communicate with their customers using a
leverage digital and social media deployed and scaled based on a brand’s objec- “new” medium called email. ExactTarget was
to engage their markets, through tives. Its newest app, called Social Campaign,
web, video, flash and mobile content the result—a company committed to helping
is designed to enable marketers to not only marketers create targeted customer commu-
deliver personalized, targeted messages nications. The same entrepreneurial spirit,
Rate & Review across multiple social channels but to enable innovative technology, and commitment to
them to harness the “power of the crowd” to client success define us today as they did back
Related Research drive new users back to “conversion events” then. And we’re already revolutionizing the
that the marketer cares about. It also aims to next generation of online interactive marketing
Tell a Friend track click-level, individual-level, and campaign by pairing the strength of email with social
Note: This document is intended for individual level data to provide a more accurate read on media, mobile marketing, and websites.”
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- ROI. Sanjay Dholakia, who helped Lithium
ing on a personal website is in violation of the GS: A behemoth in the email marketing space,
terms of use.
Software grow by 10X as CMO, joined as CEO
having generated $114 million in revenue last


year, ExactTarget also secured $75 million to quantify the value of dollars spent on brand
development, social marketing in venture funding last December. Then, in development across the social web. Involver
programs, and community outreach March, it acquired CoTweet, which had made won acclaim for creating the leaderboard
and engagement campaigns.” a name for itself as one of the first players in for its FIFA World Cup page on Facebook
GS: With well-known blogger and the Twitter enterprise tools cottage industry. Sports and has even built large-scale appli-
columnist Steve Rubel among those Social media marketing has since emerged cations for the White House. In October,
running the show, it’s no surprise as a big focus area for ExactTarget, which Involver announced an $8 million Series C
that Edelman Digital has the scoop
on the latest social tools, with lots also introduced Social Forward. The latter round led by Bessemer Venture Partners.
of helpful advice on its website. gives a brand’s customers the ability to
Jitter Jam
Recent campaigns include an online share content via 20-plus social networks. www.jitterjam.com
competition for the next MTV social
media correspondent that uses a Infosys “JitterJam helps your business capture
tool, called TweetLevel, to determine www.infosys.com
relevant conversations on the real time
the most influential candidates. “Infosys defines, designs and delivers technolo- web and turn them into lasting and trusted
gy-enabled business solutions that help Global customer relationships. Its web-based social
iCrossing 2000 companies win in a Flat World. Infosys marketing software that combines social
www.icrossing.com also provides a complete range of services by media, email and mobile engagement with
“iCrossing is a global digital marketing leveraging our domain and business expertise an intelligent contact database and the
agency that combines talent and and strategic alliances with leading technol- tools you need to turn social interaction into
technology to help world-class
ogy providers. Infosys service offerings span new opportunities for revenue growth.”
brands find and connect with their
customers. The company blends business and technology consulting, applica-
GS: The new version of its social rating engine,
best-in-class digital marketing services tion services, systems integration, product
called Jitterater 2.0, aims to help companies
— including paid search, search engineering, custom software development,
engine optimization, Web develop- identify and engage with top influencers online
maintenance, re-engineering, independent
ment, social media, mobile, research and to further their offline marketing initia-
testing and validation services, IT infrastructure
and analytics — to create integrated tives, as well. Features include enhanced
digital marketing programs that services and business process outsourcing.”
analytics for measuring buzz, the ability to
engage consumers and drive ROI.” GS: Through partnerships with Jive Software, deliver customized opt-in forms, and a “Hot
GS: The company, which provides a a leading player in the online customer List,” which is designed to highlight the most
broad range of solutions, just signed communities space, and ATG, a provider of important issues for marketers to address
an agreement to be acquired by the
commerce software, Infosys has developed regarding their social media marketing efforts.
Hearst Corporation. Clients include
Toyota, Coca-Cola, Unilever, Office feature-rich social media marketing solutions.
Depot, Nokia, and Mastercard. Its platform, called iEngage, enables marketers KickApps
to participate in relevant online conversations www.kickapps.com
Ignite Social Media with community members, aggregate and
www.ignitesocialmedia.com “KickApps is an award-winning social publish-
distribute content across social channels, and ing platform that helps the world’s most
“Ignite Social Media keeps up with integrate e-commerce and customer care recognizable brands (including NBC Universal,
trends, filters the noise, and helps functionality into their social media network.
companies put social media to American Express, Scripps Network, Hearst
work. We’ve helped some of the Involver , HBO, and Cox Television) connect with
world’s top brands develop effective www.involver.com their customers and fans. As a leading SaaS
social media marketing campaigns solution, the KickApps platform enables
and programs, including Microsoft “Involver is the web’s most trusted social
marketing platform supporting 80,000 companies and brands to build social sites,
(Windows 7, Office, MSN, Bing), Intel,
Nature Made, Disney Interactive, brands and agencies and interacting with socially enable existing sites and publish
Ad Council, and The Body Shop.” more than 200,000,000 fans. Involver’s shared content to the mobile and social web.”
GS: Marketers new to the world platform powers over 30 applications built GS: KickApps in June launched the Drag-
of social media marketing can specifically for marketers engaging their and-Drop Facebook App Development Suite,
look to Ignite for advice on how audiences through Facebook, the iPhone, enabling brands to not only publish content
to get their feet wet. The company
provides good insights into Twitter, and other social media channels. from a community out as a Facebook fan page
social media marketing and, in Clients include Best Buy, General Mills, Sony/ but to also collect customer comments, blog
RCA Records, P&G, Levi’s, and Dockers.” posts and user generated media (including
GS: Involver just launched its Audience photos, videos) directly on Facebook. In
Rate & Review Management Platform, an integrated social August, the vendor launched a new social
media marketing dashboard that allows media strategy division as well as version
Related Research
marketers to monitor and manage their brand 5.0 of its platform. It recently received
Tell a Friend online as well as engage with consumers. The IBM’s 2010 ISV Innovation Award, SAMMY
vendor’s suite has over 30 apps, including Awards for Best Social CRM and Best Social
Note: This document is intended for individual Platform, and was ranked in the Business
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- polls, coupons, quizzes, sweepstakes and
ing on a personal website is in violation of the email signup. Also included are tools designed Insider’s Digital 100 and On Hollywood’s 100
terms of use. Most Valuable Private Companies lists.



fact, just released a book, called
Social Media Is a Cocktail Party.
Features and Functionality
Mr Youth
www.mryouth.com
“Mr Youth has worked with some of
the world’s leading brands including
Pepsi, Nike, T-Mobile, Crayola, Vendor ranking results based on
and Microsoft to help them connect
with the rapidly evolving and highly
elusive consumer. Mr Youth develops
included in Gleansight benchmark
Best
strategies and campaigns centered
around the modern media mix of reports beginning Q2 2011.
word-of-mouth, social interactive and
experiential marketing, with a strong
focus on creating integrated campaigns
that fully engage the audience.”
GS: Mr Youth’s high-energy
website reflects the hip sensibility This chart is intentionally left blank.
that’s embodied in the company’s
Better
marketing campaigns. It was
voted Mashable’s 2009 Social survey response data will be
Media Agency of the Year and
recently landed a coveted spot included in Gleansight benchmark
on Fast Company’s list of the Top reports beginning Q2 2011.
10 Most Innovative Companies.

Ogilvy & Mather
www.ogilvy.com
“Ogilvy & Mather is an international
advertising, marketing, and PR agency
that is owned by the WPP Group. Ogilvy This chart is intentionally left blank.
has six divisions, including Ogilvy
Good
PR, which has a social marketing unit
called 360 Degree Digital Influence. survey response data will be
360 Degree Digital Influence has
developed digital programs for such included in Gleansight benchmark
clients as Unilever, Intel, Lenovo,
Nestle, Ford, Louis Vuitton and more. ”
GS: The 360 Degree Digital Influence
team has an especially good head
on its shoulders: John Bell, who
launched an enhanced version of its enterprise
currently serves as president Mzinga
of the Word of Mouth Marketing social software suite, called OmniSocial, which
www.mzinga.com
Association. The unit benefits is designed to enable everything from social
from a strong market reputation “Mzinga is the leading provider of social networking to enterprise learning manage-
and partnerships with BzzAgent, software, services, and analytics that improve ment. New features include cloud computing,
Radian6, and NetVibes. Considering business performance. Through a combina- multiple mobile apps, and advanced analytics.
the brand equity it has established,
it’s odd it would continue to brand tion of enterprise-class technology, strategy
Omniture (Adobe Systems)
itself under the Ogilvy umbrella. and value-added services, Mzinga software www.omniture.com
solutions enable businesses to increase
Pandemic Labs revenue and lower costs by improving brand “Omniture, a business unit of Adobe Systems
www.pandemiclabs.com visibility, employee performance and satisfac- Incorporated, is a leading provider of
“Pandemic Labs is a social media tion, and customer loyalty. Headquartered in online business optimization software for
marketing agency dedicated to Waltham, Massachusetts, Mzinga supports managing and enhancing online, offline and
more than 14,000 communities and 2.5 billion multi-channel business initiatives. Hosted
Rate & Review and delivered via on-demand subscription
monthly social interactions from 40 million
Related Research unique visitors in 160 countries worldwide.” service and on-premise solution, Omniture
software enables customers to capture,
Tell a Friend GS: Mzinga went through a tough period store and analyze information generated
early last year and came back swinging for by their Web sites and other sources.”
Note: This document is intended for individual the fences. Led by Barry Libert, a bestselling
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- GS: A dominant player in the web analytics
ing on a personal website is in violation of the business author (Live Nation is his latest effort)
terms of use. and Web 2.0 visionary, the vendor recently space, Omniture got into the social media game


earlier this year with the launch of Omniture marketing and influencer activation. Earlier
helping brands navigate the ever- SearchCenter+, now a key component of the this year, Powered acquired three social
changing world of new media to Adobe Online Marketing Suite. SearchCen- media agencies—StepChange, Drillteam
create marketing success. The theme ter+ features analytics designed to optimize and crayon—to lay the foundation for its own
at the core of all of our services
the performance of Facebook ad campaigns agency growth. The vendor has a lot going
is the belief that, in our increas-
ingly on-demand world, marketing along with a host of other social media for it, not the least of which is its stable of
is a dialogue not a monologue.” marketing capabilities. Clients include Ford, thought leaders, which includes CMO Aaron
GS: Pandemic Labs is currently Microsoft, HP, Pepsi, Siemens, and Forbes. Strout, Greg Verdino (author of microMARKET-
promoting an eight-month, user- ING) and, following the crayon acquisition,
Pluck
generated HD video contest www.pluck.com blogger Joseph Jaffe of Jaffe Juice fame.
sponsored by Canon and hosted
on Vimeo.com. Recent clients ““Pluck powers the social media experience PowerReviews
include Dunkin’ Donuts, Puma, www.powerreviews.com
on the world’s leading digital destinations.
Daily Grommet, and Viacord. Pluck combines a comprehensive technology “PowerReviews is the leading provider of
platform; a curated, professionally produced customer reviews and social commerce
Razorfish
www.razorfish.com content library; and full lifecycle services. solutions to retailers and brands. The
Pluck’s enterprise customers offer uncommonly company’s innovative tag-based approach
“As one of the largest interactive
marketing and technology companies rich and engaging social experiences, deliver- to collecting, organizing, structuring and
in the world, Razorfish helps its clients ing measurable improvements in site traffic, analyzing user-generated content signifi-
build better brands by delivering consumer engagement and customer loyalty.” cantly boosts product sales and customer
business results through customer engagement. PowerReviews works with
experiences. Razorfish combines the GS: Pluck would seem to have a winning
over 850 retailers and brands on over 2700
best thought leadership of the consult- combination: a widely-acclaimed platform and a
ing world with the leading capabilities websites, including Staples and Jockey.”
professional services arm that, according to the
of the marketing services industry to vendor, has logged “more than 50,000 hours GS: A pioneer (along with Bazaarvoice) in
support our clients’ business needs.”
planning, enabling, delivering and optimiz- the e-commerce ratings and reviews space,
GS: Having rebranded several ing social media for 400+ premium digital PowerReviews offers a social commerce
times, Razorfish was acquired last destinations.” Pluck 4 enhancements include suite (which now includes Facebook’s “like”
year by Publicis Groupe. While the
agency has made good traction deeper connectivity with Facebook and other functionality) and various stand-alone solutions
with its Social Influence Marketing social networks and customized user profiles designed to enrich a retailer’s relationship
(SIM) score, which recognizes the that feature private messaging and “shared with its consumers and influence the purchas-
role of social influencers and the activity comments”. In October, the vendor ing decisions of friends. The vendor, which
participatory nature of branding, announced the release of a broad Modera- operates the popular Buzzillions product review
Shiv Singh, one of the brains behind
the score (and author of Social tion Services suite. Parent company Demand site, has a lot going for it, not the least of which
Media Marketing for Dummies), Media filed an S-1 in August, thereby signaling is Cathy Halligan, former CMO of Walmart.com,
just departed for PepsiCo. its intention to take the company public. who just joined as SVP of sales and marketing.

Tribal DDB Powered RightNow Technologies
www.tribalddb.com www.powered.com www.rightnow.com
Tribal DDB Worldwide, an Advertising
Age A-List Agency, is headquartered “Powered is a focused social media agency “Founded in 1997, RightNow is helping rid
in New York and includes 56 offices that helps brands fully capitalize on their the world of bad experiences one consumer
spanning 36 countries throughout the social initiatives, make them more relevant interaction at a time, seven million times a
Americas, Europe and Asia-Pacific in an increasingly digital, connected and day. RightNow CX, the customer experi-
region. Tribal DDB Worldwide is part social world. Now with 70+ employees in its ence suite, helps organizations deliver
of Omnicom Group’s DDB Worldwide.
offices, Powered brings its clients “best-in- exceptional customer experiences across
GS: TribalDDB, which in February class” expertise across the social spectrum the web, social networks and contact
rolled out a “center of excellence”
by offering a combination of strategy, centers, all delivered via the cloud.”
around social media, dubbed
Tribal Radar, has won acclaim for planning, activation and management for
GS: A leading provider of CRM solutions,
social presence and programs including those
RightNow in September announced the
centered on Facebook, location based/LBS,
release of RightNow CX for Facebook. The
mobile applications, influencer activation and
platform is designed to provide companies
Rate & Review community building, content marketing and
with a single view of consumer interactions
earned media, and experiential marketing.”
from Facebook and other channels, and to
Related Research
GS: Powered has solid technology capabilities provide consumers with consistent experi-
Tell a Friend and also partners with others to help brands ences as they traverse interaction channels.
with strategy, development, management and
SalesFusion
execution of campaigns and programs across www.salesfusion.com
ing on a personal website is in violation of the the entire spectrum of social media. Focus
“SalesFUSION 360 provides software that
terms of use. areas include online communities, experiential



several recent campaigns. Notably,
it launched a Hasbro campaign in
Overall Value
which city streets around the globe
were transformed into a virtual,
highly-interactive monopoly game.
Other clients include Subaru,
McDonald’s, and PepsiCo. This chart is intentionally left blank.
Best
We Are Social
www.wearesocial.net survey response data will be
“We are a conversation agency with included in Gleansight benchmark
offices in London, Paris, Milan and
Sydney that combines an innate reports beginning Q2 2011.
understanding of social media with
digital, PR, and marketing skills. We are
entirely focused on innovative, creative
and effective social media marketing
and communications and we like to
think we are getting rather good at it.”
GS: As the name suggests, We Are
Better
Social has significant experience
leveraging social media networks and survey response data will be
branded online communities to help
companies raise brand awareness. included in Gleansight benchmark
Clients include Coca-Cola, Ford, reports beginning Q2 2011.
Unilever, Microsoft and Absolut.

Wieden + Kennedy
www.wk.com
“Wieden+Kennedy is an independently
owned advertising agency headquar-
tered in Portland, Oregon. W+K was This chart is intentionally left blank.
founded in 1982 and currently has 1000
Good
employees working in Portland, New
York, Amsterdam, Tokyo, London, Delhi
and Shanghai. Our client list includes
some of the most recognized and included in Gleansight benchmark
well-respected brands in the world.”
GS: The firm has recently won
widespread kudos, and for good
reason. The viral videos it created to
revitalize Old Spice’s brand image
have become a pop culture sensation. accelerates revenue by connecting sales RSS, text messaging, podcasts, widgets,
and marketing with prospects at the moment social bookmarking pass-along, and more.
they are ready to buy. This is made possible Clients include Solo, Perry Ellis, Fiskars,
through the SalesFusion 360™ suite, MasterCraft, American Family Insurance,
which complements Sales Force Automa- Sub-Zero, Tippman, Rayovak, and Remington.”
tion applications by adding an on-demand
GS: Shoutlet offers a variety of tools for
enterprise lead management service.”
creating, managing and analyzing social
GS: The SalesFUSION 360 platform media marketing campaigns. Widgets
includes standard sharing commands for for sharing content can be dragged and
Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and other social dropped into a custom Facebook tab. An
media sites. Particularly noteworthy is its e-commerce tool called Shop & Share is
IttyBitty app, which makes it possible to designed to enable companies to integrate
create social site-specific links (tracking an online store with their Facebook page.
Rate & Review URLs) back to the homepage or “edialogs” Shoutlet, which raised $2M in Series A funding
with detailed reporting capabilities. earlier this year, also offers tools to help
Related Research with content management and for analyzing
Shoutlet
Tell a Friend www.shoutlet.com consumer activity on a brand’s Facebook
page. In October, the vendor announced the
“Shoutlet is a social media communica-
Note: This document is intended for individual release of an expanded CRM component for
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- tion and content distribution platform. With
ing on a personal website is in violation of the engaging with users on social networks.
Shoutlet’s time-saving interface, companies
terms of use.
create, distribute, and track e-mail, video,


SilverPop Google Buzz. Our software listens to what
www.silverpop.com your audience is interested in and talking
“Silverpop’s on-demand digital marketing about in real time. We pair your potential
platform helps marketers succeed in turning Tweets and posts with your audience’s
prospects into customers—and customers interests in real time, and release the
into fans—through the creation, automa- message that is most likely to earn the most
tion and delivery of relevant, multichannel attention and action from your audience.”
messaging. Companies rely on the Silverpop GS: Although still in beta testing, SocialFlow
Engage platform to create and manage looks to have some significant backers,
sophisticated email marketing campaigns that impressive talent (including Michael Chin,
engage prospective customers and enhance formerly of KickApps) and lots of promise
lifetime customer value and brand loyalty.” as an emerging player in this space.
GS: Long a dominant player in the email StrongMail
marketing space under the leadership of www.strongmail.com
Bill Nussey, a well-known Internet visionary,
“StrongMail’s online marketing solutions
SilverPop entered the social media
for email and social media enable
marketing arena with the introduction of
businesses to reach, engage and influence
several innovative solutions, including a
their target audience using the most
drag-and-drop Web forms builder as part
powerful channels available to marketers
of its Landing Pages offering. The new
today. StrongMail helps email marketers
feature is designed to enable marketers to
improve campaign performance, boost
create and manage their own customized,
deliverability and lower costs, while also
branded landing pages and online forms.
leveraging the power of social media.”
Social Twist
www.socialtwist.com GS: A major provider of email marketing
solutions, StrongMail recently acquired two
“SocialTwist develops solutions that turn social interactive marketing agencies to boaster
media into social marketing. Its solutions its social media capabilities: Conversa
harness the power of trust and referrals - a Marketing and Magnetik. The result is a
key driver in consumer purchase decisions - to new agency, called ThreadMarketing, which
create successful, measurable campaigns should help advance StrongMail’s efforts to
for today’s smartest marketers. Tell-a-Friend, integrate email marketing and social media
SocialTwist’s flagship product suite, promotes marketing. Clients include Macy’s, Sony
highly viral, word-of-mouth marketing Online Entertainment, Inuit and Tesco.
campaigns online by combining consistent
marketing messages, the power of referrals Syncapse
www.syncapse.com
and the social platforms customers use most.
Clients include Jamba Juice, Barnes & Noble, “Syncapse is a full service social technol-
Greenpeace, Intel, Monster, and ING Direct.” ogy partner. Our mission is to help
companies build, manage and measure
GS: Social Twist’s core solutions – Tell-
customer relationships through the use of
A-Friend for Brands, Tell-A-Friend for
cutting-edge social media technology.”
Agencies, and Tell-A-Friend for Rewards
– enable the sharing of customized promo- GS: Syncapse’s platform, called SocialTALK,
tions, content and offerings across multiple aims to make it easy for brands to create and
social channels, including email, IM and publish content to multiple social networks,
social networks like Twitter, Facebook, including Twitter, Facebook and WordPress,
and LinkedIn as well as bookmarking and also analyze the results. Another solution,
services like Digg and Delicious. Tell-A- called SocialSYNC, provides a means for
Friend relies on human filtering; consumers consumers from different communities to
designate the like-minded individuals who participate in a single discussion thread.
Rate & Review make the cut in receiving their referrals. In May, the vendor announced that it had
secured $3.3 million in private equity funding.
Related Research SocialFlow
Vitrue
www.socialflow.com www.vitrue.com
Tell a Friend
“SocialFlow helps publishers, brand marketers “Vitrue is a social media management
use. Electronic distribution via email or by post- and online retailers increase click-throughs, company providing technology solutions to help
ing on a personal website is in violation of the ReTweets, mentions, sharing and organic brands harness the vast marketing potential
terms of use.
follower growth, on Twitter, Facebook and



of social networks. Vitrue’s social marketing YesMail
solutions combine a fan management platform www.yesmail.com
designed to help you build and scale your “Yesmail is an industry-leading provider
social media initiatives. Through our industry of online emarketing solutions. Built on a
expertise, technology platform and integrated solid core of innovative technology and
approach, we provide the most comprehen- strategic services, Yesmail boasts a complete
sive social media marketing solutions built portfolio in emarketing solutions and tools,
exclusively for Fortune 1,000 global brands.” including direct marketing applications,
GS: Vitrue just enhanced its social media multi-channel campaign management, data
platform, called Vitrue Publisher 2.0, to include management, business intelligence, lead
support for Facebook’s Open Graph API. Using generation and email lists, interactive appli-
the platform, marketers can now send news cations and best practices consulting.”
on discounts or updates to consumers who GS: An email marketing pioneer, and now a
“like” a certain product on their company’s subsidiary of infoGROUP, Yesmail recently
Facebook page or website and create actions introduced its Enterprise 7 platform, designed
around “like” buttons or other social objects to enable companies to execute and manage
to better segment their Facebook messaging. their marketing campaigns across multiple
The vendor reportedly manages over 680 platforms. It also offers a number of interactive
Facebook Pages and Twitter accounts for applications. One aims to help companies build
various clients, which translates into 276 branded social media sites, another to deliver
million fans/followers. New clients include event invitations across social media channels.
Harley Davidson, Mentos, Dick’s Sporting Clients include Coca-Cola, Hershey’s, HP,
Goods, Eddie Bauer, Maybelline and Purina. Kodak, Ticketmaster.com and Panasonic.
Wildfire Interactive Zuberance
www.wildfireapp.com www.zuberance.com
“Wildfire Interactive, Inc. is a technol- “Our mission at Zuberance is to enable
ogy company that specializes in developing marketers to harness the power of social media
simple tools that enable organizations to to drive qualified leads, traffic, and sales. We
engage the hundreds of millions of users do this by providing marketers with a powerful
of social network sites. Our patent-pending technology platform that makes it easy to
technology allows corporations, small engage and energize brand advocates on
businesses, marketing agencies, bloggers Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Amazon, Yelp,
and non-profits to easily create their own brand websites, mobile devices, and more.”
attractive, branded interactive campaigns and
to simultaneously publish them in multiple GS: Backed by premier venture capital firms,
social networks and on their website.” and with a terrific name to boot, Zuberance
made a big splash last year with the introduc-
GS: Wildfire has gained visibility over the tion of an on-demand platform for propagating
past year helping brands develop social product and service recommendations across
marketing campaigns that include contests, the Internet in a highly-targeted and contex-
coupons, quizzes and virtual gifts, primarily tualized fashion, with the goal of helping
on Facebook. The popularity of the vendor’s companies increase brand advocacy. Clients
applications helped it secure $4 million in include Symantec, Chili’s, Jamba Juice, Sears,
Series A funding in April. Its newest app, TiVo, 24 Hour Fitness, Accor Hotels and CDW.
called Group Deals, is designed to allow In October, Zuberance secured $8 million
marketers to integrate Groupon-like deal in Series B funding, to be used for fueling
functionality into their brand’s Facebook product development and business growth.
page or website. Clients include PepsiCo,
The Gap, Unilever, Red Bull and Universal.

Rate & Review
Related Research
Tell a Friend
terms of use.



Lead Authors
Kevin S. Ryan
Principal Analyst
Kevin S. Ryan previously served as
Vice President of Social Media at
Barnes & Noble. He can be reached
at kevin.ryan@gleanster.com.

Jeff Zabin
Research Director
Jeff Zabin previously served as

Related Research
Research Fellow at Aberdeen Group and
in product marketing at FICO. He can be
reached at jeff.zabin@gleanster.com.
Other recently published Gleansight benchmark reports that may be of
Note: Research and analysis for the Vendor
Landscape section was conducted by Gleanster interest to senior marketing practitioners include:
research support staff.

Social Media Monitoring
Customer Feedback Management
Lead Nurturing
Mobile Marketing
Online Customer Communities
Customer Intelligence
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