Forrester Research has released a report that presents the findings of an in-depth analysis of 15 social software platforms. Analyst Melissa Parrish's "Take Control of Your Social Marketing Program" assessed vendor feature sets in 14 categories, ranging from moderation to mobility.
Summary of Findings
Social media management tools that have been developed to lessen the challenges of intricate social programs can be categorized into two categories: social publishing platforms and social promotion platforms.
Social Publishing Platforms - through one centralized dashboard - ease the pain of managing multiple social identities on multiple social sites, controlling the content, and tracking each.
Social Promotion Builders give marketers the tools to quickly and efficiently launch social promotional campaigns. With a focus on acquisition and monetization, they are differentiated by a wide variety of applications (polls, contests, etc.), customization, and tracking capabilities.
Forrester Recommendations
1. Think Long-Term When Selecting a Vendor
Parrish cautions against choosing one based on the hottest name or the slickest pitch - and instead advises to approach the decision with the same rigor usually applied to searching for more traditional vendors or agencies.
2. Do Your Due Diligence
The report strongly suggests companies do their own rigorous investigation of vendors, and outlines four steps for the vetting process:
1. Talk to your current community platform vendor to find out their own social management features or integration options with vendors you're evaluating.
2. Ask your agency for their recommendations on social management vendors.
3. Conduct a cost/benefit analysis to be certain your social media program needs a social software solution.
4. Discuss a potential vendor's long-term vision. Ask them about their product roadmap to ensure that upcoming features align with your own future vision for your company's social media program.
We couldn't agree more. Companies seeking a social media management system should be confident their tool of choice is comprehensive enough to meet the ever-changing needs of today's very nimble social media marketing leaders and be innovative enough to respond to market changes as they occur.
Where Shoutlet Fits in the Mix
When all the capabilities are added up, we're very pleased that Shoutlet finished at the top of the list - for all categories (see chart below). Among the key takeaways:
• Shoutlet is among just one-third of vendors analyzed that provide both publishing and promotion features within one system. As many marketers recognize, having a dashboard that helps execute as many tasks as possible is ideal.
• Of that small group, Shoutlet scores highest in terms of mobile accessibility (our most popular web apps are compatible with all mobile devices via HTML5), application and design templates, and enterprise customers (percentage of customers that earn $500M+ annually).
• We also rank among the top for system integration - a vital component for advanced social companies that want to connect social activity to other aspects of their business.
We're very proud to have been included, and scored so exceptionally well, in the Forrester report. Not only do Parrish's findings validate our rigorous efforts to empower companies of all sizes to create, manage, and measure their social media communication by themselves, but it also acknowledges the decision to choose the right tool should not be taken lightly.
For a copy of the full report, please email [email protected].
