By Liam Dowd - July 15th, 2014

This year's briefing clearly shows that social is now an integral part of business strategy

The 4th annual State of Corporate Social Media Briefing has recently been published and some of the findings indicate that social media has entered a stage of maturity.

Anyone working within corporate social media will know that the past four or five years has seen accelerated growth and change - unmatched in nearly all other areas of business.

Social media has gone from something 'companies do' to being a central component of overarching business strategy.

Below are five findings taken from the briefing that give the indication that social media is maturing...

  1. More companies are creating social media teams – This year’s briefing highlights that 50% of companies have a team devoted to social media. This is a growth of 16% over the last two years.
  2. Social is changing the way we work – Over the past year there has been an 18% increase – to 72% of corporate respondents – stating that social is changing the way they work. 
  3. Rise of the social budgets – For the past four years a large proportion of corporate respondents state a rise in social media budgets. This year 41% of brands see their budget increasing. The increase in budget has slowed over the past couple of years which indicates an age of maturity
  4. Measuring the most important KPIs – This year’s briefing reveals that corporates are measuring less. Executives have become proficient and now focus on the KPIs that matter. There’s been considerable growth in the more ‘advanced metrics’; the tracking of engagement has jumped by 32% in the last two years and sentiment has jumped by 38% over the last year.
  5. Social: Access all areas – One of the biggest changes we’ve seen through our conference research is that social is now part of many business departments, not just marketing and comms. The briefing supports this trend; 58% of companies are using social for customer insight, 59% are using it for customer service and 37% for employee engagement

Lara Ruth, Vice President, Content and Social at Citibank North America, firmly believes that social media has not matured, but is beginning to mature.

“Companies are no longer doing social for social’s sake. It’s not a box companies are simply checking off…Now its understanding the value, what’s working (and, more importantly, why) and how it’s driving corporate business goals.”

“It is no longer acceptable to simply track trend lines on all social variables but instead understanding what really matters to your company,” states Lara.

The question is do you agree with the above? Do you sit in the stagnating camp or the maturing camp? Download your free copy of this year’s briefing, and see where you sit.

Some select arguments for the stagnating camp can be found within the ‘Corporate Social Media 2014: Steady Stagnation?’ article.

Please do share your thoughts below or better yet join the conversation on Twitter using #stateofcsm
 

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