Types of Social Media Adoption in Companies

Caught up with Goldee Udani, Founder & CEO of Social Media monitoring and Insights platform, Beevolve earlier today at the Ulsoor CCD for a chat. Beevolve aspires to become the Constant Contact of the SME/SMB Social Media realm. Not many are competing in the SME space – and the ones which are competing with Beevolve, especially the VC funded ones, are either running out of steam or getting acquired – mostly via consolidation effort(s) from Investors. On the other hand, Beevolve is going strong; and using stealth marketing to acquire SME/SMBs around the world. ‘We’ve clients from over 16 countries worldwide. Though we are not focusing on Fortune clients, but we have a few, but the cream of our share are mostly SME/SMBs worldwide‘, says, Goldee.

We discussed many things. One of the things that we were discussing was – types of social media adoption across companies in the US and how it differed in India. I believe, we can portray it as –

1. MNC/Fortune companies in US –

. enterprise social media involves mostly community management across channels, listening, monitoring and escalation of queries/brand related questions/issues.
. analysis of influencers in the space.
. branding campaigns across geographical locales & languages.
. re-targeting influencers with special offers/discounts/vouchers etc. to make them brand ambassadors.
. most commonly used Social CRM platforms: Sprinklr, Radian6, Spreadfast
. clear cut focus on how & why to capture insights
. clear cut focus on how to calculate Social Media ROI.
. have dedicated ‘Digital Marketing’ team(s), SVP/VP – Digital Marketing, Digital marketing strategies & policies in place.
. tapping such clients require process/infrastructure & outstanding pre-sales/sales team(s).

2. SMB/SMEs in US –

. involves mostly user engagement at very specific locales, listening, and answering queries.
. branding limited to specific East or West coasts.
. offers/vouchers/discounts mentioned on pages/accounts
. ORM (online reputation management) actively for the brands
. limited focus on how & why to capture insights
. limited (but increasing) focus on how to calculate Social Media ROI.
. usually don’t have a dedicated ‘Digital Marketing’ team.
. tapping such clients require showing value proposition to clients, and how the solutions will help them increase revenues.

3. MNC/Fortune companies in India –

. involves just creating social media accounts on platforms & channels.
. not serious about ORM
. not serious about active user engagement (barring a few exceptions)
. branding very limited to special products & offers (few times of the year)
. no clear cut focus on how & why to capture insights
. no clear cut focus on how to calculate Social Media ROI.
. usually don’t have a dedicated ‘Digital Marketing’ team (barring a few exceptions).
. tapping such clients require too many high-level negotiations, meetings etc.

4. SMB/SMEs in India –

. involves just creating social media accounts on platforms & channels.
. not aware of ORM
. not serious about active user engagement (barring a few exceptions)
. branding very limited to special products & offers (few times of the year)
. no clear cut focus on how & why to capture insights
. no clear cut focus on how to calculate Social Media ROI.
. usually don’t have a dedicated ‘Digital Marketing’ team.
. tapping such clients require ‘patience’.

These are the types of social media adoption I feel we can make out… do you agree? Share your comments.