2015 Social Media

Marketing Trends
A 2015 survey and report on social media marketing practices and software usage
By Megan Headley
Research Director, TrustRadius

First Published May 2015

2015 TrustRadius. All rights reserved. This publication has been licensed by Simply Measured. Reproduction or sharing of this publication in any form without
prior written permission is strictly prohibited.

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Table of Contents
Executive Summary..................................................................................................................................3
The Struggle to Demonstrate the Value of Social.................................................................................5
Measuring ROI is the #1 challenge........................................................................................................................................ 5
Communicating value is also a key challenge...................................................................................................................... 8
Companies focus on readily available vanity metrics......................................................................................................... 8
Companies have a hard time dedicating enough resources to social.............................................................................11

Finding the Right Goals for Social Media.............................................................................................. 12

Brand awareness is #1 goal................................................................................................................................................12
Companies struggle to define consistent goals...............................................................................................................13
Social media strategy not aligned with overall business................................................................................................14

Using Technology to Manage Social Media.......................................................................................... 16

Companies use multiple tools to manage and measure social media............................................................................16
Turning data into insights....................................................................................................................................................18
Conclusion..............................................................................................................................................................................20

2015 TrustRadius. All rights reserved. This publication has been licensed by Simply Measured. Reproduction or sharing of this publication in any form without TrustRadius prior
written permission is strictly prohibited. For information on reprints, please contact licensing@trustradius.com. TrustRadius is a trademark of T-Radius Holdings, Inc. All other
trademarks are the property of their respective owners. The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources believed to be reliable. TrustRadius disclaims
all warranties as to the accuracy, completeness or adequacy of such information and shall have no liability for errors, omissions or inadequacies in such information. This publication
consists of the opinions of TrustRadius research organization and should not be construed as statements of fact. The opinions expressed herein are subject to change without notice.

Executive Summary
Megan Headley, Research Director, TrustRadius
Social media is one of the newest and fastest changing elements of business. As we
noted in our Buyers Guide to Enterprise Social Media Management Software,
companies are slowly shifting their approach to social media, from an isolated
marketing channel to an integrated part of the business. As companies increase their
sophistication from a minimally viable social media presence to an integrated,
strategic approach to leveraging social media across the organization, a few things
tend to happen.
First, responsibility shifts from less than one FTE (typically in the marketing or communications department)
to a small, dedicated team within one department to a team servicing multiple departments to a holistic
approach, where many individuals in the company participate. Second, organizations start to leverage social
media in multiple ways, from reputation management to customer service to finding advocates to market
research. Finally, companies engage the help of more sophisticated technology to manage, measure, and
analyze social media activities.
This shift has been underway for a few years, so Simply Measured, a social analytics solution, commissioned
TrustRadius to survey the state of social media marketing today. Specifically, where do companies sit on the
social media maturity spectrum? What are their main goals, and what are the biggest challenges they face?
Do they have access to and are they using the right metrics to understand whether they are meeting those
goals? Are they satisfied with the technology they use to support their social media activities?
Nearly 600 social media practitioners from consultants to CMOs to community managers took our survey
in February/March 2015, responding to questions about the status, goals, and challenges of their social media
programs. These are our main findings:
1. Demonstrating the value of social programs is the number one challenge.
Companies of all sizes and maturity levels are struggling to prove the value of their social programs.
Social media activities can be difficult to quantify, and marketers are trapped between readily
available vanity metrics such as likes and followers and difficult-to-measure objectives such as
brand awareness.

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2. Social media is largely not yet integrated into the overall business.
Social media goals are not wholly aligned with overall business goals. Furthermore, while marketers
largely feel they effectively leverage social media data and analytics to optimize their marketing
strategies, they dont feel social media data impacts their companys overall business strategy.
3. Companies dont have the right set of tools to manage and measure social media activities.
Marketers are using multiple sources of data and multiple technology products to manage and
measure social media activities. Though they largely trust the data they get, they still arent able to
interpret the data to show value, and many arent satisfied with their set of tools.
Many of these findings are true regardless of company size (from small businesses to large enterprise) and
regardless of where companies fit on the social media maturity spectrum. All of these findings represent
a prime opportunity for social media software vendors to (a) educate their customers on building a social
media strategy that is realistic, measurable, and supportive of overall business goals, and (b) help their
customers take the leap from collecting data to surfacing insights. Once marketers are better equipped to
define and demonstrate the value of social media to the business, other common challenges, like garnering
enough internal resources, will be diminished.
The rest of this report explores these findings in greater detail and provides key survey results.

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The Struggle to Demonstrate the

Value of Social
The fact that companies are struggling to demonstrate the value of social media efforts is not new. In
Altimeters social media marketing surveys in 2010 and 2012, the ability to Create metrics that demonstrate
the value of social media was the most common internal social media objective, with 48% of respondents
identifying it as a key objective both years. Developing internal education and training was the second most
common internal objective each year. Training could be related to educating others on the value of social or
educating others on participating in social. The ability to Connect social data to other enterprise data sources
to deliver actionable insight was also a common internal objective among survey respondents in 2012, at 33%.
What is surprising is that despite the increasing sophistication of tools to collect and combine data and
surface insights, this weak point remains the number one challenge in 2015.

Measuring ROI is the #1 challenge

In our survey, Measuring ROI was the most commonly cited challenge; 60% of respondents included it as
one of the top three most challenging aspects of their social media program. Its followed by Tying social
activities to business outcomes (a similar challenge) and Developing our social media strategy.

What are the three most challenging

aspects of your social program?
60%

Measuring ROI
Tying social activities
to business outcomes

50%

Developing our
social media strategy

48%

Securing enough
internal resources

40%

Tracking results in
a centralized dashboard

32%

Keeping up with everchanging social networks

27%

Integrating various
social tools

20%

Monitoring our
competition

16%

Other

7%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

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The main challenges vary little among companies of different sizes. When segmenting responses by small
businesses (1-50 employees), mid-size companies (51-1,000 employees), and enterprises (more than 1,000
employees), measuring ROI and tying social activities to business outcomes are significant challenges across all
segments. However, developing a social media strategy is a more common challenge among small businesses
than enterprises, and securing enough internal resources is a more common problem in larger companies.

What are the three most challenging

aspects of your social program?
Small

Mid-size

Enterprise

Measuring ROI

Tying social activities

to business outcomes
Securing enough
internal resources
Developing our
social media strategy
Tracking results in
a centralized dashboard
Integrating various
social tools
Keeping up with everchanging social networks
Monitoring our
competition
Other

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

The challenges also vary slightly depending on a companys self-classified maturity level1. Measuring ROI is
a more common problem among more socially mature organizations, while developing a strategy is a more
common challenge among less socially mature companies.

Respondents were asked to rate the social media maturity of their company on a scale of 1 to 5, where 1 is early stage and 5 is very mature.
Those who answered 1 or 2 are considered Beginner, those who answered 3 are Intermediate, and 4 or 5 are Advanced.

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What are the three most challenging

aspects of your social program?
Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Measuring ROI

Tying social activities

to business outcomes
Developing our
social media strategy
Securing enough
internal resources
Tracking results in
a centralized dashboard
Keeping up with everchanging social networks
Integrating various
social tools
Monitoring our
competition
Other

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

The focus on measuring ROI among larger and more socially mature organizations is interesting. Many
experts feel return on investment might be a mismatched metric to social media. According to MarketingProfs
2012 State of Social Media Marketing report, focusing exclusively on ROI might lead to ineffective social
media strategies: The recent focus on measuring ROI in social media appears to have driven some marketers
to place direct sales at the top of their list of priorities. However, this may require marketers to become overly
aggressive with their messaging in an environment that does not typically welcome a hard sell approach.
Indeed, Altimeters A Framework for Social Analytics report states that ROI is just one metric in the social
business toolkit. Rather than focusing on social media as a monolithic entity, businesses should evaluate it
based on its contribution to a range of business goals.
Tying social activities to business outcomes the second most common challenge among survey respondents
could be a more mature method to evaluate the impact of social on the overall business, and allow
marketers to use social media in the most effective way, rather than forcing it to fit into a specific ROI model
measured directly in sales.

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Communicating value is also a key challenge

In open-ended responses on the topic of challenges, many individuals mentioned a difficulty in
communicating value or convincing others in the company of the value of social media:
Developing and nurturing belief in social as more than just a revenue- and traffic-

driving medium.

Communicating value to our uneducated internal stakeholders.

Getting brands to realize social is a long term investment.

People dont really feel comfortable putting money into social until they start to

see some results. Kind of a catch 22 really.

Companies focus on readily available vanity metrics

Another indication of the fact that marketers are struggling to measure and communicate the impact of social
is the fact that they are still largely focused on easy-to-access vanity metrics such as likes, shares, followers
and fans to evaluate success on social media.
Engagement (such as likes, shares, etc.) is considered the most important metric for evaluating success;
80% of respondents identified it as one of the top three metrics. Audience size and website traffic are also
important, with 61% and 56% choosing them as one of the top three. Notably, all three of these metrics are
easy to track. However, they dont always tie directly to business goals such as revenue or customer retention.
Metrics that are more difficult to track (yet tie more directly to broader business goals), such as revenue and
customer satisfaction, are among the top three most important metrics for less than a quarter of respondents.

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What are your three most important metrics for

evaluating the success of your social media program?
Engagement
(likes, shares, etc.)

80%

Audience
(followers, fans, etc.)

61%
56%

Website trafc

32%

Leads

24%

Revenue
Customer satisfaction
(support issues resolved, etc.)

23%

Benchmarking against
competitors (share of
voice, etc.)
Other

19%
4%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

Engagement, audience size, and website traffic are the most common metrics across all company sizes.
However, website traffic is less important among enterprises than SMBs. Conversely, customer satisfaction and
benchmarking against competitors are more commonly listed as important metrics among enterprises. Leads
and revenue are more commonly listed as important metrics among small and mid-size companies. The three
most important metrics dont vary in any meaningful way by social maturity level.

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What are your three most important metrics for

evaluating the success of your social media program?
Small

Mid-size

Enterprise

Engagement
(likes, shares, etc.)
Audience
(followers, fans, etc.)

Website trafc

Customer satisfaction
(support issues resolved, etc.)
Benchmarking against
competitors (share of
voice, etc.)
Leads

Revenue

Other
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

The focus on engagement is understandable though possibly misplaced and has the potential to lead to
ineffective social strategies. According to this Scribd article discussing engagement on Facebook, online
engagement metrics are not always an indication of the persuasiveness or effectiveness of content.
Engagement metrics alone are not an effective indication of campaign success; its also necessary to measure
real business outcomes attributable to social campaigns, such as customer loyalty or sales.
This doesnt mean attempting the hard sell mentioned in the MarketingProfs 2012 State of Social Media
Marketing report, which might be a suboptimal yet easy-to-measure approach to social media; rather, it means
finding ways to understand how interactions with customers on social are having a real business impact.

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In open-ended responses, a few individuals added context to the difficulty in truly understanding the impact
of social media activities:
Tying social media back to sales conversion points in the overall sales funnel
and then to business sales and even repurchase is incredibly difficult. Even with
sophisticated programs and services like Eloqua, DemandGen, SFDC [Salesforce.
com], etc. there is still the difficulty understanding what works and what does
not. At the end of the day social media is just one part of a greater whole that a
customer is exposed to.

Its almost impossible to gauge TRUE engagement numbers. We have Instagram

numbers, Facebook numbers, Twitter numbers, a fair amount of crossover where
members participate in numerous platforms, and no way to get a real bottom line
unique number.

Companies have a hard time dedicating enough resources to social

Given the difficulty demonstrating the value of social, its not surprising that marketers also have a hard time
securing the resources needed to maintain their social programs. Forty percent (40%) of respondents overall
identified Securing enough internal resources as one of their top three challenges. In addition, in openended responses, survey takers also mentioned struggling to dedicate enough time to social media activities,
and struggling to create enough content.
Social initiatives are very time consuming.

Not enough dedicated staff to do the job.

Time and knowledge to do the work, develop all the content for inbound marketing.

Original content creation is my #1 challenge.

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Finding the Right Goals for Social Media

Companies face two challenges when it comes to setting goals and objectives for their social media
programs: (1) they are struggling to have well-defined goals consistent across departments and (2) social
media strategy is not wholly aligned with the overall business strategy.

Brand awareness is #1 goal

The focus of social media efforts is overwhelmingly on top-of-the-funnel activities. Overall, brand
awareness is by far the most common goal; 71% of respondents identified it as one of the top three goals
of their social programs. Its followed by driving website traffic and audience reach / share of voice
also top-of-the-funnel measures.

What are the top 3 goals of your social program?

71%

Brand awareness

48%

Drive website trafc

Audience reach/
share of voice

38%
32%

Generate leads

29%

Drive conversions/revenue

28%

Drive customer loyalty

22%

Customer service

20%

Reputation management

5%

Competitive research
Other
Market research

4%
3%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

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After brand awareness, the three most common goals do vary a bit by company size. Driving website traffic is
less important to enterprises; theyre focused on audience reach and customer service. Small businesses are
interested in generating leads, and mid-size companies are interested in driving customer loyalty.

GOAL PRIORITIZATION PER COMPANY SIZE

SMALL BUSINESSES

MID-SIZE COMPANIES

ENTERPRISES

1. Brand awareness (74%)

2. Drive website trafc (53%)
3. Generate leads (41%)

1. Brand awareness (75%)

2. Drive website trafc (50%)
3. Generate leads (34%)

1. Brand awareness (65%)

2. Audience reach/share of voice (41%)
3. Customer service (38%)

TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

Companies struggle to define consistent goals

Open-ended responses about goals emphasized the difficulty in having well-defined goals or consistent,
company-wide goals.
Right now, we are mostly on social media because it seems like a bad idea not to
be on social media. There arent really any definable goals.

Still trying to figure out how to monetize social.

Approach = minimum viable social presence.

Social media goals will vary by brand, we also face a challenge where goals will
vary by who youre speaking to within the company because brands are hesitant to
set actual goals for social media.

Others commonly mentioned engagement, recruiting, and thought leadership as additional goals.

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Social media strategy not aligned with overall business

As mentioned above, the most common goals of social media programs brand awareness, website traffic,
and audience reach are both top-of-the-funnel and, with the potential exception of website traffic, difficult
to tie back to real business outcomes. Overall business goals are more likely to also include goals tied
directly to revenue, such as increase conversions, tap into a new market, reduce churn, etc. In terms of both
strategy and measurement, most companies have not been able to align social media efforts with the broader
business objectives. It is still for many, as we can see in the open-ended responses, a channel that companies
know they need a presence, but arent always sure how to leverage it.
Marketers do generally feel they effectively use social media data to inform their social media marketing
strategy and to optimize their social campaigns; 50% agree and an additional 38% somewhat agree that
social media data and analytics impact their companys social media marketing strategy. However, agreement
declines significantly when we asked whether social media data and analytics impact the companys overall
business strategy. Marketers feel they are able to effectively leverage social data within their campaigns,
but businesses arent leveraging this data beyond the silo of social media marketing. While broad potential
uses of social data have been much discussed in the industry (informing product development decisions,
discovering new customer markets, testing messaging strategies, surfacing issues such as outages or product
failures, etc.), these approaches are still not widespread.
Not surprisingly, companies that are more socially mature are better able to leverage social data in their
social media marketing as well as their overall business strategy. Additionally, companies who use a dedicated
tool for social media analytics are also better able to leverage data than those who dont.

Social media data and analytics impact my

company's social media marketing strategy.
Agree

Somewhat Agree

Somewhat Disagree

Disagree

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Dedicated social
analytics tool users

All respondents

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

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Social media data and analytics impact my

company's *overall* business strategy.
Agree

Somewhat Agree

Somewhat Disagree

Disagree

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced

Dedicated social
analytics tool users

All respondents

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

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Using Technology to Manage Social Media

Companies are using multiple tools to both manage and measure their social media activities. While
marketers trust the data they get, they are struggling to interpret data and understand how to evaluate the
success of their social media campaigns. This is evidenced by the main challenges of measuring ROI and tying
social activities to business outcomes. Social media software vendors will need to educate their customers
further on how to aggregate and understand social media data.

Companies use multiple tools to manage and measure social media

Most companies are using one to two software products to manage social media activities. Many are using
three or four. Larger companies tend to use more tools.

How many software products does your company use

to help manage social media activities?
Small

Mid-size

Enterprise

1-2

3-4

5-6

7+

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

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In terms of measurement, companies are using an average of three different tools to report and analyze
their social media activities. The most commonly used tools are the analytics offered natively in social media
networks (64% of respondents), a social media management tool (62%), a web analytics tool (59%), and
spreadsheets (46%).

What does your company use to

analyze and report on its social media activities?
The analytics offered natively
in social media networks

65%

A social media management

platform (e.g. Hootsuite)

62%

A web analytics solution

(e.g. Google Analytics)

59%
46%

Spreadsheets (e.g. Excel)

A dedicated social media
analytics software product
(e.g. Simply Measured)

22%

A CRM solution
(e.g. Salesforce.com)

15%

A marketing automation
solution (e.g. Marketo)
Nothing

10%
4%
0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

Larger and more socially mature companies tend to use more analytics tools.

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Average number of tools to analyze and

report on social media activities
4.0

4.0

3.5

3.54

3.0

3.5

3.39

3.0

3.03

2.96
2.5

2.5

2.66

2.47

2.0

2.0

1.5

1.5

1.0

1.0

0.5

0.5

0.0

Small

Mid-size

Enterprise

0.0

Beginner

Intermediate

Advanced
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

Given multiple sources of data, it is not surprising that 35% of respondents identified Tracking results in a
centralized dashboard as one of their top three challenges.

Turning data into insights

Respondents largely trust the data they get from these multiple sources of analytics. The vast majority of
respondents feel they understand their social media audience. Additionally, 26% agree and an additional
49% somewhat agree that I trust the accuracy of my companys social media data and reporting. However,
agreement declines when respondents were asked about their ability to optimize social media content and
their level of satisfaction with the tools used for social analytics. Potentially, marketers trust the accuracy
of the data, but feel analytics tools could do a better job of helping them interpret the data and use it to
optimize their campaigns and strategies.

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Please indicate whether you agree or

disagree with the following statements.
Agree

Somewhat Agree

Somewhat Disagree

Disagree

100%
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
I understand
my company's social
media audience.

I trust the accuracy

of my company's social
media data and reporting.

My company is able to
effectively optimize our
social media content.

I am satised with
my company's current
social analytics platform
or set of tools.
TM

Source: 2015 Social Media Marketing Trends

Some respondents articulated via open-ended responses the struggle to find the right tool or set of tools for
social media analytics:
I find it difficult when it comes to deciding which tool I can use for analysis.

Need a tool that handles ALL our social networks. Many do 3 out of 4.

Additionally, some respondents brought up issues with social media networks themselves, which make
analysis and optimization challenging.
LinkedIns lack of support in sharing analytics on individual contributors (status

updates and LinkedIn group and company page participation)... its an enormous
hole for the collection and dissemination of metrics.

Social networks change access to data from time to time and this makes it difficult

to continue to develop the value added insights our customers wish to see by using
our products.

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Conclusion
Marketers are interested in leveraging social media as a marketing channel, a source of data and insights,
and potentially an integrated part of the overall business strategy. Their primary challenges include aligning
goals, demonstrating value, and deriving insights from data. This represents a prime opportunity for social
media technology vendors to help companies address these challenges.

About TrustRadius
TrustRadius is the leading site for business software users to share real-world insights through in-depth
reviews and networking. We help users make better product selection, implementation and usage decisions.
To learn more, visitwww.trustradius.com.
About Simply Measured
Simply Measured is the most complete social analytics solution, empowering marketers with unmatched
access to their social data to more clearly define their social strategy and to optimize their tactics for
maximum impact.
To learn more, visit www.simplymeasured.com.

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