Q&A with Matt Petitjean
Vice President of Demand Generation at Automatic Data Processing, Inc.
Useful Social Media: In your view, what are the big issues to watch out for in 2013?
Matt Petitjean: The big issue in the industry right now is talent. Finding, retaining, and engaging digital and social experts in marketing is a huge challenge. The demand for talent is increasing as adoption increases and budgets shift. The increase in data available requires an even more technical type of marketer - very limited talent pool.
I think the biggest threat / issue are privacy policy changes that appear to protect the consumer, yet will hurt the overall experience on the web. The ability for marketers to measure, manage, and web interactions is critical to continue to show ROI. If privacy measures prevent that, it will be a big impact. Consumers probably don't realize the benefit of relevant content that is a result of cookies and profiles.
While nothing new, attribution will continue to be a challenge for marketers. This is particularly the case for social, but other forms of influence as well such as emerging trends like mobile.
Useful Social Media: Do you feel that brands across the board aren't doing enough to utilize social media?
Matt Petitjean: There has been great progress in the past 3 years and the use of social media has matured. I think we are still in experimental phase in many industries and the maturity will continue. I don't know if there is an across the board under-utilization, but there certainly isn't a saturation or over-utilization. New intersecting trends, like mobile continue to challenge marketers to reinvent how they do their jobs - even social media specialists are now challenged to get a clear picture of how mobile and social intersect.
Useful Social Media: Social is such a dynamic platform, if you could predict the biggest game changer in the next 10 years what would it be?
Matt Petitjean: No. And anyone that says they can is lying. The 10-15 year olds that grew up with social will be in the workforce through college and calling the social shots. Social commerce is the next game changer, along with the rise of mobile commerce which has begun to show signs of outpacing web commerce in some sectors, but that is much closer than 10 years. Mobile and social will continue to intersect. Very few "social companies" that went public are performing in the stock market. In 10 years, that will change. Remember, Amazon was called dead in its first couple year's public.
Useful Social Media: You are scheduled to speak at Useful Social Media' upcoming Corporate Social Media Summit. What issue will you be addressing?
Matt Petitjean: I think we have a great B2B story. Taking a goldmine of content and atomizing it for distribution through social. An integrated brand, thought leadership, and lead generation strategy. Investment in paid social to grow our relevant audience, and then pushing relevant content to that audience (I use a magazine subscription analogy). We also have a maturing measurement strategy. At the same time, we're diving into mobile head first. We'll launch the first mobile site for a 60+ year old brand just days before the conference.