In our State of Social Marketing Report 2012, which surveyed over 450 marketers from a wide variety of industries, company sizes and levels of social sophistication, several key themes emerged. One theme speaks to what we can expect from social marketers in the near future.
With the explosion of social data, and to the extent to which this data can be layered on top of known customer and prospect data, expect to see a rise in social CRMs. Social CRM systems will be increasingly used to integrate social data with traditional marketing and sales data to allow marketers to close the loop on their integrated marketing efforts. Currently, adoption of social CRMs is higher among advanced brands than novice brands, but expect to see this number increase across the board in 2013 and beyond.
But, it’s not just social CRM that has seen growth. Companies are also turning to other social technologies to help transition their businesses into social enterprises. Among these platforms, various community platforms are used by 65% of the companies represented in this report. There is a growing interest in social technologies like collaboration platforms (33%), social commerce platforms (23%) and innovation platforms (15%).
For a detailed set of findings on this topic and others, including top marketing challenges in 2012, download the full white paper, State of Social Marketing Report: 7 Major Findings & In-Depth Analysis.
Marketers, do you agree? Have you implemented a social CRM yet? Sound off on Twitter at @awarenessinc.
