Enterprise social media mgmt tools

Enterprise Social MediaManagement Software

Market Intelligence Report:

A Digital Marketing Depot Research Report

© 2012 Third Door Media, Inc. • http://digitalmarketingdepot.com 1 Email: [email protected]

M A R K E T I N T E L L I G E N C E R E P O R T:

Enterprise Social Media Management Software

Scope and Methodology

This report was written for enterprise marketers who are looking to buy or upgrade a social media management software (SMMS) platform, but are overwhelmed by the options for publishing, moderating, monitoring and measuring multiple social media channels. The goal is to help the reader navigate those choices in order to make

a more informed decision about the current market for SMMS platforms and what features and capabilities are most important to their organizations.

The report uses the following definition of SMMS from Altimeter Group: a software tool that uses business rules and approved employees and partners to manage multiple social media accounts such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. This system contains features such as governance, workflow, intelligence, and integration capabilities across the enterprise.

The report presents the key trends impacting the SMMS market, as well as detailed information about the leading SMMS vendors, including the functions and capabilities that are most important to marketers.

We use the term “social media management software” to describe the tools included in this report. Those tools assist users in managing: • content creation, scheduling, publishing and moderation • collaboration, workflow and permissions• data analytics and reporting

Other SMMS capabilities may include: • sentiment analysis • vertical-specific compliance• marketing campaign automation • integration with legacy marketing and analytics platforms • strategic social media consulting services

Our focus is on the leading SMMS vendors that provide a package of multichannel capabilities, which are available on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis. The space is rapidly evolving and features many sub-segments (see Diagram 1). Social analytics, sentiment, collaboration and other single function or “point solutions” that provide only one of these or other capabilities are beyond the scope of this report.

Our purpose is to look at SMMS platforms for large enterprises managing multiple social media accounts and channels across disparate locations – with a particular eye toward how they are managing and integrating a growing number of social marketing channels. This report is not a directory of all available solutions.

Tools that allow users to manage PPC advertising on social media platforms are beyond the scope of this report; they are covered in our report PPC Campaign Management Tools in the Facebook Era.

Digial Marketing Depot conducted numerous in-depth interviews with leading vendors and industry experts. Interviews took place in January and February 2012. These, in addition to third party research, form the basis for this report.

We would like to thank our editorial advisor, Tamar Weinberg, digital media strategist and owner, Techipedia; as well as Jeremiah Owyang, partner, Altimeter Group, for their valuable contributions to this report. In addition, we would like to thank the executives at all of the profiled SMMS vendors who agreed to be interviewed.

Consulting Editor: Tamar Weinberg, Techipedia (www.techipedia.com)Research Analyst: Karen BurkaEditor: Claire Schoen (http://digitalmarketingdepot.com)Open Research provided by the Altimeter Group (www.alimetergroup.com)




Source: LUMA Partners LLC

Diagram 1: The Social Media Marketing Software Landscape




Table of ContentsIntroduction .................................................................................................................................................................................. 4

SMMS Platform Use Explodes ........................................................................................................................................... 4

Leading Trends Shaping the SMMS Market ................................................................................................................................ 5Trend #1: The Increasing Number of Prominent Social Networks, plus Google .............................................................. 5Trend #2: Emergence of “Crowdsourcing” Means More Consumers are Using Social Media to Make Purchase Decisions ........................................................................................................................ 6Trend #3: The Use of Mobile Devices to Access Social Media is Growing ....................................................................... 6Trend #4: The Free Flow of Capital and Consolidation are Shaping the SMMS Market .................................................. 7

Choosing an SMMS Platform ..................................................................................................................................................... 10Is it time for an SMMS? .................................................................................................................................................... 10SMMS Platform Capabilities ............................................................................................................................................ 12Assessing Internal Resources ........................................................................................................................................... 14Pricing .............................................................................................................................................................................. 14

Conclusion ................................................................................................................................................................................. 16

Vendor ProfilesAdobe .............................................................................................................................................................................. 17 Awareness ........................................................................................................................................................................ 19Buddy Media .................................................................................................................................................................... 21Emailvision ....................................................................................................................................................................... 23Engage121 ....................................................................................................................................................................... 25Hearsay Social .................................................................................................................................................................. 27HootSuite ......................................................................................................................................................................... 29Involver ............................................................................................................................................................................. 32Shoutlet ............................................................................................................................................................................ 34SocialVolt .......................................................................................................................................................................... 36Spredfast .......................................................................................................................................................................... 39Sprinklr ............................................................................................................................................................................. 41Syncapse .......................................................................................................................................................................... 44Vitrue ................................................................................................................................................................................ 46Wildfire Interactive ........................................................................................................................................................... 49




IntroductionSocial media has become ingrained in the fabric of our global community. Consider these statistics taken from Facebook’s 2012 IPO filing:

• Facebook ended 2011 with 845 million users, a 39% increase over 608 million in 2010.• More than half of the Facebook audience logs into the network daily. • In Q4 2011, Facebook users recorded a daily average of 2.7 billion “likes” and comments.

Consider also that the number of daily Tweets has grown to 250 million, up from two million per day in 2009. Blog publishing platform Tumblr has more than 42 million active blogs today compared to one million in 2009.

For brand marketers of all sizes, social marketing has become an integral component of marketing programs and budgets. It is no longer enough to have a Facebook brand page, WordPress blog or Twitter account. Marketers have become smarter and more organized about social marketing and connecting their social content and campaigns to sales conversions and ROI.

Enterprises now have an average of 11 social marketing staff positions, including social marketing managers, strategists and analysts, according to a January 2012 survey by Altimeter Group. Social marketing has become an enterprise-wide endeavor, with departments including HR, legal, engineering and product development actively involved in creating, approving and distributing social marketing content.

Social media management often spans multiple locations and geographies. Large companies like Intel publish, analyze and measure the impact of localized social content in 35 countries, for example.

SMMS Platform Use ExplodesThe result is that more enterprises are using integrated SMMS platforms to create, publish, measure and make actionable their social media marketing initiatives. Adoption of SMMS tools (including freemium software) reached 64% in 2011, up from 52% in 2010, according to Altimeter Group, which also found that enterprises are already managing an average of 178 discrete social media accounts – not including employee accounts. Enterprises that have relied on standalone freemium tools recognize that they need to implement solutions that can manage social media across the organization.

SMMS platform providers are the beneficiaries of this enlightenment, as demonstrated by their rapid growth. In January 2012, Buddy Media announced that its staff doubled in size in 2011, growing from 100 to 225 employees. The company opened international offices in London and Singapore and increased monthly licensing revenues an average of 250% among its top 20 clients. Shoutlet’s revenue increased 300% in 2011, as the company opened eight new sales offices and grew its staff 250%.

Yet, the SMMS solution market is still in its infancy and continues to evolve. There are hundreds of social marketing “point solutions” that offer a range of specific tools from social media publishing and collaboration to social monitoring and analytics. Many of the current SMMS platform providers, including Involver, Emailvision and Engage121, were founded as point solutions and expanded their capabilities either through organic growth or acquisition. With relatively low barriers to entry and plenty of investment capital available, market participants will shape the field through both start up and acquisitions.

For their part, marketers are still learning how to harness the vast reach and power of social networks. Brands are adept at broadcasting messages to consumers but less knowledgeable about engaging in successful two-way social dialogues with prospects and existing customers.

Social media marketing is less about running timed one-way campaigns and more about building ongoing, interactive customer relationships.




Leading Trends Shaping the SMMS MarketA number of macro consumer trends and social media technology trends are shaping the evolution and growth of the SMMS market, including:

1. An increasing number of prominent social networks, now including Google+.2. The emergence of “crowdsourcing” and the growing number of consumers using social media to make purchase

decisions.3. The growing use of mobile devices to access social networks and content.4. The free flow of capital into – and the consolidation of – the SMMS market.

The following sections discuss each of these trends in more depth.

Trend #1: The Increasing Number of Prominent Social NetworksFor digital marketers, it is no longer a matter of choosing one social network over another but having a well-managed and coordinated presence on all relevant social channels.

While Facebook remains the predominant social network both in terms of consumer use and brand marketing pages, the number of social marketing channels with critical mass is growing.

Facebook, YouTube and Twitter topped the list of social networking and forums sites (ranked by number of visits) in the first week of January 2012 (see Table 1), according to competitive intelligence provider Experian Hitwise.

Google’s made its much-anticipated entry into social networking in October 2011 with the official launch of Google+. Google+’s share of the market is small but rapidly growing and drawing loyal users. During the first two weeks of November 2011, Google+’s average share of returning visitors increased 18% over the first two weeks in October – the first full month it was live. During the same time, total Google+ traffic increased 25%.

SEO platform provider BrightEdge found that 61% of the top 100 U.S. brands already had Google+ pages in November 2011. Comparatively, 93% of those same brands had Facebook pages at that time.

Many marketers are banking on the probability that Google+ will turn into a leading social network, given the company’s stature and resources., Google+ content is already being integrated into its search results. Integration with other Google digital marketing tools, including Gmail, Chrome, AdWords and Google Maps, is highly likely.

To facilitate marketers’ Google+ adoption, Google partnered with six SMMS vendors – HootSuite, Vitrue, Buddy Media, Hearsay Social, Involver and Adobe (formerly Context Optional) – to create Google+ page management tools. Several of these and other SMMS vendors have evolved from Facebook app developers and repositioned themselves as multichannel platforms.

Facebook 64.3%

YouTube 19.6%

Twitter 1.5%

Yahoo! Answers 1.0%

Tagged .8%

LinkedIn .7%

Other 1.7%

Note: Other includes Google+, Pinterest, MySpace and myYearbookSource: Experian Hitwise

Table 1: Social Networking & Forum Site Share, Week Ended 1/7/12




The rapid rise of the network Pinterest demonstrates just how quickly the social media and networking landscape is expanding. In January 2012 alone, Pinterest added 7 million users, jumping from 10 million to 17 million users overall.

Diagram 1, prepared by Luma Partners LLC, shows the visual landscape of social media, including networks and related software and services.

Trend #2: Emergence of “Crowdsourcing” Means More Consumers are Using Social Media to Make Purchase Decisions As more users signed on to social networks, the phenomenon of “crowdsourcing” emerged. Rather than searching for consumer product information, users turned to friends within their trusted network. With one post, you ask friends: “What’s the best beach in Florida?” or “Which camera should I buy?” These types of queries reflect a new way to research and make purchase decisions that marketers cannot ignore.

Recent research shows that the influence of social media on consumer purchase decisions is increasing. According to a June 2011 consumer survey jointly sponsored by Knowledge Networks and MediaPost’s Center for Media Research, 38 million U.S. adults said they discover new products and brands or refer to social media before making purchase decisions – a 14% increase in just six months (see Table 2). These figures include:

• 23.1 million people who said they discover new brands or products through social media, up 22% from 18.9 million in 2010; and

• 15.1 million people who said they make sure to refer to social media before making a purchase decision, up 29% from 11.7 million at the end of 2010.

In addition, 17.8 million consumers said social media has “strongly influenced” their purchase decisions, up 19% from 15.0 million in December 2010. Among mobile social media users (users who access social media through a mobile device), 27% use social media to compare or check prices, 24% refer to social media for product reviews, and 16% use social media to find coupons, discounts, or special offers for local businesses.

These statistics bode well for marketers that are investing more in their social marketing initiatives and the technology platforms that support them.

Trend #3: The Use of Mobile Devices to Access Social Media is Growing U.S. consumers are increasingly using their mobile devices – including smart phones, tablets and PDAs – to access social media. About 40% of all adult and teen social media users – some 80 million consumers – accessed social media through a mobile device in June 2011, up 12 percentage points over 28% at the end of 2010, according to Knowledge Networks and MediaPost’s Center for Media Research.

Source: Knowledge Networks, MediaPost’s Center for Media Research

Table 2: Social Media Influence on Purchase Decisions

Source: Microsoft Tag

Table 3: What Do People Use Their Mobile Phones For?




In terms of the overall population of mobile phone users, Microsoft Tag reported that 49% use their mobile phones to access social networks (see Table 3). Only gaming, weather and maps/search were more frequently used mobile phone applications.

These numbers are projected to grow dramatically. Mobile social media users will reach 1.3 billion by 2016, more than the total number of social media users across all platforms today, according to Juniper Research.

In response, SMMS vendors such as Shoutlet, Awareness and Vitrue are using a variety of approaches to optimize their social content publishing tools for the mobile experience (see Diagram 2). Shoutlet, for example, offers its customers HTML-compatible apps for creating easily deployable iPad apps. The company is currently examining technology to render native iPhone or Android code through its SMMS platform. Others, like Buddy Media, Vitrue and Involver, are optimizing their existing social publishing tools for mobile content. Involver’s Audience Management Platform is built on a proprietary front-end development tool to allow marketers to distribute similar social experiences across channels including websites, social networks and mobile devices.

Trend #4: The Free Flow of Capital and Consolidation are Shaping the SMMS Market The SMMS space is experiencing explosive growth. The number of vendors is increasing rapidly, fueled by rapid brand marketer and advertising agency adoption and an eager investment community.

SMMS vendors including Awareness, Engage121 and Involver have expanded their platforms and rebranded to capitalize on marketers’ and agencies’ growing social media interest and budgets. Engage121, for example, was founded in 1998 as ENR Services, a PR and communications software platform. Due to customer demand to add social media management functionality, the company rebranded as Engage121 in August 2010. Awareness started out as iUpload, a white label online community platform, in 2005. After spending two years developing SMMS capabilities, the company re-launched as Awareness in July 2007.

Investors have been attracted to the opportunity as well. Four leading SMMS vendors – Buddy Media, Vitrue, Hearsay Social and Syncapse – have received nearly $150 million combined in just two years (see Table 4). The majority of these

Diagram 2: Vitrue’s Facebook Tabs Application Optimized for Mobile Access

• More than 1/3 of consumers on Facebook use Facebook Mobile

• 200 million-plus YouTube views occur on mobile devices

• 49% of smart phone users access social networks via mobile browser

Source: Microsoft Tag




Awareness Inc.

Hearsay Social

HootSuite

Involver

Shoutlet

Spredfast

Syncapse

Wildfire Interactive

SocialVolt

Buddy Media

Vitrue

Company

September 2011February 2010July 2007

July 2011January 2010

September 2011

December 2009

October 2010

September 2010September 2008

December 2010

January 20102007

September 2011April 2010

February 2011May 2010

April 2010November 2009

May 2011January 2011

August 2011

October 2010

April 2008

September 2007

February 2011

October 2007October 2006

May 2006

Date

$3.0MM$9.9MM$7.0MM

$18MM$3MM

$3MM

$1.9MM

$8.0MM

$1.6MM$1.44MM

$6MM

$2MM$1.2MM

$12MM$3.6MM

$25MM$3.3MM

$4MM$100K

$1.07 MM $250K

$54MM

$28MM

$6.5MM

$1.7MM

$17MM

$10MM$3.8MM

$2.2MM

Funding

UnattributedUnattributedGreylock Partners; North Bridge Venture Partners

New Enterprise Associates, Sequoia CapitalSequoia Capital

Hearst Ventures, Blumberg Capital, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Geoff Entress Blumberg Capital, Hearst Ventures, Geoff Entress

Bessemer Venture Partners, Western Technology Investment, Cervin VenturesNAPreetish Nijhawan, Neeraj Gupta

American Family Insurance, Origin Ventures, Leo Capital HoldingsOrigin Ventures, Leo Capital HoldingsSeed funding

InterWest Partners, Austin VenturesAustin Ventures

ABS Capital Partners, Michael ScissonsAngel funding

Summit Partners, Jeff Clavier, Avdin Senkut, Gary VaynerchukSeed funding

Archer Capital Angel funding

GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Bay Partners, Insight Venture PartnersInstitutional Venture Partners, Softbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, Bay PartnersSoftbank Capital, Greycroft Partners, European Founders Fund, Ron ConwayPeter Thiel

Scale Venture Partners, Advent Venture Partners, General Catalyst Partners, Dace Ventures, Comcast InteractiveComcast Interactive, Dace Ventures, General Catalyst PartnersComcast Ventures, Turner Broadcasting, General Catalyst PartnersGeneral Catalyst Partners

Source(s)

Table 4: Selected Venture Capital Funding of SMMS Vendors

Source: Third Door Media




funds have been used to expand research and development, staffing and operations and marketing.

The SMMS market has also begun to experience significant consolidation, as vendors seek to shorten their time to market and lower development costs through acquisitions and partnerships. When Buddy Media acquired Spinback in May 2011, the company quickly rebranded the social analytics tool as Conversion Buddy, a module in its SMMS platform. Similarly, HootSuite’s acquisitions of What the Trend and TwapperKeeper immediately boosted its platform’s Twitter data analysis capabilities. London-based Emailvision entered the SMMS market with its January 2011 acquisition of Objective Marketer, which has now been rebranded as Campaign Commander Social, and is available as a standalone tool as well as a component of the Enterprise Edition of the company’s email and mobile marketing platform.

Consolidation is also being driven by customer demand to streamline the number of vendor relationships they are managing as well as well the number of software platforms that must be integrated into existing back-end systems. Adobe Systems was the first software giant – and very likely, not the last – to enter the SMMS field with its January 2012 acquisition of Efficient Frontier, which bought Context Optional for a reported $50 million in May 2011 (see Table 5). Context Optional became part of Adobe and the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite as a result of the acquisition. The Adobe Digital Marketing Suite provides customers with the ability to create, manage, execute, measure and optimize digital marketing and advertising campaigns.

As marketers focus more closely on monetizing their social marketing investments with measurable bottom-line results, more consolidation and integration in the CRM, BI (business intelligence) and marketing automation fields will likely occur as well.

Table 5: Selected Social Media Management Mergers & Acquisitions

Adobe Systems

Emailvision

Context Optional

Syncapse

Efficient Frontier

Vitrue

Buddy Media

HootSuite

Acquirer

Efficient Frontier

Objective MarketersmartFOCUS

January 2012

January 2011June 2011

Unwrap

Nudge Social Media

June 2010

September 2010

Context Optional

Games That GiveUGENmedia

May 2011

July 2011June 2008

Brighter OptionSpinback

GeotokoWhat the TrendTwapperKeeperTwitterBarSwift App

February 2012 May 2011

October 2011September 2011September 2011April 2011March 2010

Acquired Date

Acquisition included Context Optional

Social media managementSocial analytics

Facebook apps (Buzzeo)

EMEA expansion

Social media management

Social gaming platformSocial advertising

Facebook Ads integration Social analytics & commerce

Location-based marketingTwitter context Twitter data analysisBrowser add-onMobile apps

Notes

1 Techcrunch.com 2 Quora.comSource: Third Door Media




Choosing an SMMS Platform SMMS platforms have become must-have toolsets as digital marketers and agencies recognize the impact that social conversations have on every part of the enterprise, from engineering and product development to marketing and sales.

Adoption of SMMS tools in enterprises reached 64% in 2011, up from 52% in 2010, according to the Altimeter Group, which also found that enterprises are already managing an average of 178 discrete social media accounts – not including employee accounts.

The platforms being used range from freemium services such as HootSuite, which provide free basic capabilities including publishing and measuring up to five social profiles, to enterprise-wide solutions like Syncapse, Buddy Media and Sprinklr that can cost tens of thousands of dollars per month. Many enterprises license more than one SMMS platform and use only the most robust features available from their vendors (see Table 6).

There are numerous benefits to licensing a SMMS platform, particularly for enterprises managing hundreds or even thousands of social media accounts. Virtually all current SMMS platforms provide:• structured workflow management• permissions and compliance tools that allow customers to monitor and control all social media content and campaigns

emanating from the enterprise.

Platforms such as SocialVolt and Hearsay Social cater to regulated industries including insurance and banking. SocialVolt provides a rigorous tonality dictionary that can be customized and set to five levels of strictness, while Hearsay Social’s customizable hierarchy and entitlement tools capture “rogue” social media accounts that try to represent the brand outside the platform.

Enterprise SMMS platforms are a significant investment, with typical customers spending tens of thousands of dollars each month in licensing fees. Many customers adopting SMMS platforms also require considerable training and integration with existing technology systems. Few vendors position their platforms as self serve, leading to additional and ongoing premium services costs to successfully run them.

Choosing an SMMS platform calls for the same evaluative steps involved in any software adoption:1. Do we need it?2. What capabilities do we need?3. Do we have the internal resources to integrate and manage it effectively?4. Does the investment make financial sense?

The following section explores these four questions in more depth.

Is it time for an SMMS?Enterprises deciding whether or not to license a SMMS platform or to upgrade from their existing freemium platform need to first consider the following:

• Does the enterprise have multiple social accounts and utilize multiple social channels, including Facebook, Twitter and blog publishing platforms such as WordPress?

• Does the enterprise operate in a regulated industry, such as insurance or real estate, where a lack of compliance can result in legal or regulatory problems?

• Does the enterprise rely on a sales network of local dealers, agents or franchisees that may be operating hundreds of Facebook pages or Twitter accounts not controlled by the corporate marketing department?

If the answer to one or more of these questions is “yes,” it may be time to consider using a SMMS platform.

Adobe & social marketingA complete solution for social

By bringing together the social engagement capabilities of publishing, moderation, and application creation with analytics and measurement from Adobe, brands and agencies bene� t by having a complete social marketing solution—Adobe® Social.

Get greater insight into how social campaigns are impacting business results and take meaningful action to improve ROI.

Learn more at:www.adobe.com/products/social.html

© 2012 Adobe Systems Incorporated. All rights reserved.

Adobe and the Adobe logo are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.




Awareness

Engage121

Campaign Commander Social

HootSuite

Shoutlet

Sprinklr

Syncapse

Context Optional(Adobe)

Involver

SocialVolt

Spredfast

Vitrue

Wildfire

Buddy Media

Hearsay Social

Vendor

FB, Tw, YT, In, WP, FL, SS, FS, email publishing

25 social platforms/ publishing tools; 42 consumer review sites1

Yes Yes Yes Yes PC/PS No

Yes Yes Yes Yes PS Yes

FB, Or, Tw, In, YT, WP, SFC, FS, SS

FB, Tw, In, G+, FS, WP, MS, Mixi

FB, Tw, YT, open web blogs

FB, Tw, In, YT, FS, SS, WP, Tu

FB, Tw, YT, WP, MovableType.org

Yes Yes Yes Yes PS Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

PS

PS/PL

PL/PS

PS/PL

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

FB, Tw

FB, Tw, YT, FL, Sc, Kl, GS

FB, Tw, In, G+, YT, open web blogs

FB, Tw, YT, In, G+, FS, FL, SS, WP and other open web blogs,

FB, Tw, G+, YT

FB, Tw, In

Yes No Yes Yes PC Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

No

Yes

No

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

No

No

No

PC/PS

PL/PS

PS/PL

PC

PC

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

FB, Tw, YT, G+, In, FS, FL, Tu, WP, open web blogs

FB, Tw, In, G+, YT (basic)

Yes Yes Yes No PC Yes

Yes Yes Yes No NA Yes

Social Networks Supported

Standard & Custom Content Creation

Open APIs

Standard & Custom Reporting

Sentiment Analytics& Custom Reporting

SaaS Pricing& Custom Reporting

Strategic Consulting Services

Notes: 1See Engage121 profile for complete list.SM network abbreviations as follows: Facebook (FB), Orkut (Or), Salesforce Chatter (SFC), Twitter (Tw), LinkedIn (In), YouTube (YT), MySpace (MS), WordPress (WP), Dropal (DR), Google+ (G+), Tumblr (Tu), Flickr (FL), Foursquare (FS), Slideshare (SS), Scribld (Sc), Klout (Kl), Get Satisfaction (GS).SaaS pricing abbreviations as follows: Per channel/page (PC); Per seat/user (PS); Per brand/location/department (PL)NA = Not availableSource: Third Door Media

Table 6: Vendor Comparison of Selected Capabilities




It is equally important to evaluate the type of SMMS vendor that will provide the best fit for the enterprise’s unique and specific social marketing needs. For example, enterprises with skilled in-house social marketing practitioners and resources may prefer a platform such as Involver’s Audience Management Platform, which is built on a proprietary Social Markup Language (SML) and allows internal developers to build completely customized social content and applications.

Enterprises with fewer in-house skills and resources may be better served by a vendor such as Vitrue, Hearsay Social, or Syncapse, which provide a plethora of social media consulting and program execution services.

Many SMMS vendors serve specific vertical markets by offering strengths such as regulatory and compliance monitoring of social media marketing content and campaigns or specific platform for enterprises with a large network of dealers, agents and franchisees. Hearsay Social, Engage121 and SocialVolt all cater to regulated industries, while Syncapse provides a dealer/franchisee edition of its enterprise platform.

SMMS Platform CapabilitiesVirtually all enterprise SMMS platforms available today offer a core set of social media tools and capabilities that focus on:

• content creation, scheduling, publishing and moderation • collaboration, workflow and permissions• data analytics and reporting

The platforms begin to differentiate by offering additional capabilities, often requiring additional investment, that include but are not limited to:

• sentiment analysis • vertical-specific compliance• marketing campaign automation • integration with legacy marketing and analytics platforms • strategic social media consulting services

The following section discusses some of the key considerations involved in choosing a SMMS platform.

Social Networks SupportedWhile Facebook still represents the lion’s share of social media traffic and brand pages, the majority of SMMS platforms are expanding the depth and breadth of social media networks they support. Engage121, for example, supports 25 social networks and blog publishing platforms; Spredfast supports 14 social networks and blog publishing platforms.

It is equally important to distinguish between a SMMS platform’s ability to publish to social networks versus its ability to listen to or monitor social media conversations. For example, Spredfast supports monitoring or listening capabilities on Google+ but does not yet enable customers to publish content or respond to conversations on the network. SocialVolt supports both publishing and monitoring capabilities for Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn, but only brand monitoring for YouTube, Yelp, Foursquare and blog publishing platforms. This means that SocialVolt customers can see and listen to conversations on those networks, but can’t post content or respond to specific messages or conversations from within the application.

Five Steps to SuccessfulSocial Marketing Strategy & Execution

Foundation. Begin with a firm organizational foundation. Create a comprehensive business plan and governance procedures that include objectives, policies, staff education and access guidelines

Safety. Prepare the organization for the risks involved in social marketing. Create a dedicated SM team (the current average is 11 team members including an SM manager, analyst, web developer, unit liaison and strategist), workflow rules and crisis preparedness.

Formation. Connect the SM unit to the entire organization to increase coordination and reduce duplication. This should include sharing best practices, asset inventories and perhaps centers of excellence.

Enablement. Give business units the support and flexibility to reach goals through empowerment, cross-learning opportunities and clear measurement standards.

Enlightenment. Weave real-time, predictive (based on what comes next, not what already happened) market responsiveness into SM business processes and planning.

Source: Altimeter Group




Social Content Creation The vast majority of SMMS platforms provide marketers with the ability to create customized social content for applications such as Facebook Pages, polls, or sweepstakes as well as to utilize pre-built application templates in which users drop in branding and specific promotional language. Some platforms such as Wildfire allow users to design the template, lock certain content elements, and allow other elements to be customized by local or regional offices.

Many platforms, including Spredfast, Campaign Commander Social and Engage121 feature a centralized content library that allows users to pull pre-approved content pieces or assets for their specific campaigns or promotions.

Open or Flexible APIsA platform’s Application Programming Interface (API) is a source-code based specification that allows other software systems to communicate with it. In other words, the API is the key that can either lock or unlock the platform for integration within other platforms.

Several current SMMS vendors including Awareness, Buddy Media, Emailvision, HootSuite and Syncapse have opened their platforms’ APIs to provide more seamless integration with customers’ existing CRM, web analytics and email platforms. Many marketers are seeking this type of integration to eliminate data silos within the enterprise and to create a more holistic approach to customer relationship marketing as well as a better understanding of the impact of social media on other marketing initiatives.

Standard & Custom ReportingAnalytics and reporting have become some of the most important functions of any SMMS platform. The volume of social media data available to marketers today is overwhelming, and without strong analytics and reporting capabilities, is unusable.

Virtually all SMMS vendors provide a pre-packaged set of social data reports that focus on quantitative metrics such as number of Facebook fans, likes and comments, as well as number of Twitter followers and retweets. User engagement, which looks at how often and how many times specific users engage with brand social content, is becoming more critical, as are metrics involving reach and virality or “true” reach, which measure how often and how much content is shared by followers, fans and other users. Reports can then be customized in any number of ways, including by social media channel, brand and location for enterprises with multiple locations.

The availability of more qualitative data, which measures the tone or sentiment of social media content, varies widely. Many vendors, including Spredfast and Syncapse, rely on their platforms’ open APIs to integrate with existing social listening or monitoring tools including Radian6, Crimson Hexagon and Social Mention. Other platforms, such as Sprinklr, Engage121, Adobe and SocialVolt, provide proprietary sentiment engines usually driven by keyword filtering to determine if user content is positive, negative or neutral.

Strategic Consulting ServicesThe importance of strategic consulting services, defined as services that help marketers set goals, develop content, execute and analyze their social media content initiatives and campaigns, varies according to the needs of the enterprise. Some marketing organizations have strong in-house staffing and skills to operate a self-serve platform, such as Involver, Shoutlet or Awareness, which primarily provide training and consulting on the use of the platform. The majority of SMMS vendors, however, offer a range of add-on social media consulting services designed to help educate customers but keep the vendor’s customer account staff involved in the strategy, execution and analysis of their social media efforts. These vendors include Adobe/Context Optional, Hearsay Social, Sprinklr, Syncapse, Vitrue and Wildfire.




Assessing Internal ResourcesSocial media has made its way into all aspects of most enterprises, from the HR department to the marketing and PR departments. Before investing in a SMMS system, make sure you understand who and where you will be using the software. Know how many accounts exist, and where and which ones are critical to your social media strategy.

• Do we have a social media strategy in place – or will we need social media consulting services as part of the SMMS package?

• Do we have a social media staff in place that can handle the new software or will there be a need for training?

• If so, who among them is best qualified to evaluate an SMMS platform?

• Do we have an organizational plan to integrate the use of SMMS software into our social media strategy? If not, who will create the plan?

• How will we define success?• Can we absorb the additional cost of the SMMS and

still meet our business objectives? • How will we benchmark success?

PricingVirtually every SMMS platform licenses its technology on a software-as-a-service (SaaS) basis; the technology is hosted by the vendor and customers log into a web-based dashboard to utilize the system. Customers license the use of the technology on a monthly basis although the majority of vendors require an annual contract to be signed.

Pricing varies among vendors in terms of whether the licensing fees are charged by the user or seat, by the social media channel or page, or by the location, brand or department (also called a subaccount by some vendors). As such, pricing can range from $25 per user per month to several hundreds of thousands of dollars per month, depending upon the scope of the enterprise’s social media marketing programs (See table 7.)

Six Questions to Ask Any SMMS Vendor

Do you have access to the Facebook Insights and/or Twitter API? Facebook and Twitter still dominate social media and generate a huge volume of trackable content and user data. With open API access to these two social networking giants, the platform can provide a strong foundation of analytics and reporting.

How frequently do you provide real-time alerts? Social media users communicate in real time and require real-time responses. Even if a post is “only” a customer complaint, it’s critical to answer it in a timely manner. If customer service is a priority for your company, then you’ll want the opportunity to address customer questions or confusion as soon as it’s discovered.

Can the system integrate with other applications? For sales-driven organizations, this move holds great promise of moving customers down from the sales funnel into legitimate sales opportunities. Ask whether the platform has an open API, and if not, how it integrates with existing CRM and web analytics platforms.

What kind of reporting capabilities does the tool provide? This is one of the most important questions and may vary based on company size, level of social media activity and the organization’s specific goals and objectives. Two critical roles of reporting for any organization are first, the ability to demonstrate progress or change over time (i.e., more website traffic driven by social media); and secondly, the ability for the analytics to trigger a marketing action.

How much will this cost and what kind of service is included? There are many different SaaS-based pricing models in this field, including per user, per location and per channel. Whatever the pricing model, ensure that the pricing is reasonable and will remain consistent. At the same time, service after the sale is critical. Does the vendor have a help desk? Will you have a dedicated account manager or representative who will be responsible for working to resolve issues quickly and satisfactorily? These are all important questions to ask.

What enhancements have been released in the past year? What’s in the development pipeline? The SMMS market is evolving and constantly changing. Vendors are being acquired regularly and innovation is essential to break free of what’s fast becoming a commodity market. Ask for a track record of what improvements have been made in the past year to better understand how the platform will continue to be upgraded.

Source: SmartData Collective, ReachLocal




Before talking to any vendors, just as you would for any business investment, ask others who may be in a similar situation for recommendations and suggestions. Involve those in your company who will be working day-to-day with the SMMS. Interview several vendors. Refine your questions as you go along, and don’t hesitate to ask for additional information and recommendations.

Adobe(Context Optional)

Buddy Media

Emailvision

Engage121

Hearsay Social

Involver

Shoutlet

Spredfast

Sprinklr

Syncapse

Vitrue

Wildfire

Hootsuite

Awareness

SocialVolt

Company

NA$3,000-$100,000/month based on volume of SM pages and number of fans/followers

NAMinimum in the four figures per month based on number of SM accounts or channels

Variable one-time set up and training fee $830/month for two users

NAEngage121

Undisclosed but based on number of seats or locations

Variable per user and account fees apply to larger enterprises

Free for one user and 9 Facebook apps. $2,749/month for 10 users and 40 publishing networks

NA$20k to $300k annually based on number of users and locations

NA

NA

Undisclosed one-time setup fee

Variable fees for additional accounts and locations

Standalone SM promotions tool available from $5 - $5,000/promotion based on branding and number of entrants

Starts at $30k annually based on number of users and brands or groups

$75-$200/user per month based on number of users and workgroups

Averages five figures per month based on number of SM accounts, customization and reporting frequency

$4,000/month for 2 SM accounts and 2 Facebook tabs

Four to five figures/month for three packages based on number of SM accounts and promotions

$15/month per additional Pro plan users. $21/month for Hootsuite University SM strategy, platform training and certification program

Free for up to five social profiles; $5.99/month Pro plan covers one user and unlimited social profiles. Customizable Enterprise pricing for unlimited users and channels available at an average $1,000/month

$70/month for additional channels; $20/month for additional users. One-time $250 setup/training fee

$500/month for 10 SM accounts and 5 users

Customized quotes available for enterprises with more than 6 SM channels and multiple locations

$100/brand and $5/user per month for 1 channel; $600/brand and $5/user per month for 3 channels; $1,800/brand per month for 6 SM channels

Add-onsBase Software License

Source: Third Door Media

Table 7: Pricing Summary of Selected SMMS Vendors




ConclusionThis report presents a snapshot of a fast-changing market. The impact of social media on consumers, digital marketers and their technology partners will continue to evolve and grow dramatically.

Digital marketers will become more adept at harnessing the vast reach and power of social networks through successful two-way social dialogues with their prospects and existing customers. As the volume of social media data continues to explode, data storage and analytics will become increasingly important components of any SMMS platform. Marketers are already demanding the ability to link social media data to ROI and bottom-line results. They will seek SMMS partners that can provide strong data storage, integration, analytics and reporting capabilities. n




Vendor ProfilesAdobe (formerly Context Optional)

30 Maiden Lane, 6th Floor San Francisco CA 94108P: 415-738-7997www.contextoptional.com

Key ExecutivesBrad Rencher, SVP Digital Marketing Kevin Barenblat, Sr. Director of Social Strategy (Co-Founder, Context Optional)Craig Stoe, Director of Social Product Management Scott J. Kleper, Principal Scientist (Co-Founder, Context Optional)

Key CustomersAcerExpediaHyattKohl’sLive NationOffice MaxSony

Company Overview • Founded in March 2006• Acquired Unwrap and its Buzzeo Facebook apps platform

in June 2010 • Acquired by Efficient Frontier in May 2011 • Efficient Frontier subsequently acquired by Adobe in

January 2012

Product Overview• Developer of the first branded page application and

moderation tools for Facebook • Multi-platform publishing tool (Facebook, Google+ & Twitter)• Broad set of in-stream, Page (Canvas) and Open-Graph apps

As an early entrant in the social marketing space, Context Optional closely aligned itself with Facebook, creating the first branded Facebook page application as well as the first moderation tools for brand pages on Facebook. Currently, Context Optional supports Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. The solution features the following modules and tools:

•Publisher: Gives administrators the ability to create, preview, approve, schedule and deploy targeted social media content.

•Moderation: Streamlines community management across multiple social media accounts. Includes keyword filtering to monitor content tone.

•Admin: Creates robust roles and permissions to streamline administrator and stakeholder roles and creates workflow around access.




Vendor Profiles•Apps: Provides a broad set of in-stream, Page (Canvas)) and Open-Graph apps including contests, sweepstakes,

promotions, catalogs and more. •Analytics: Integrates the latest Facebook Page Insights API and features proprietary industry benchmarks.

Context Optional integrates with existing CRM, ESP and campaign management platforms including Adobe SiteCatalyst and Salesforce.com through APIs. As part of Adobe, Context Optional provides seamless integration with Adobe’s ad management and optimization platform (formerly Efficient Frontier) and is in the process of becoming part of the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite.

Analytics & Reporting • One of three beta partners for the latest Facebook Page Insights API• Total Reach analyzes viral impact of brand page fans • Keyword filtering provides modest sentiment analysis

Context Optional’s standard analytics capabilities include over 140 unique metrics. One of three beta partners for Facebook’s latest Page Insights API, Context Optional provides detailed metrics for Like Growth, People Talking About This and Total Reach on Facebook – all of which help brands deeply analyze the interaction between brand posts and fans. Application metrics include numbers of visitors, entries and votes, as well as the number of existing fans and how many new fans a sweepstakes or contest attracts. A conversion funnel metric helps marketers determine how well an app is performing and where conversion can be optimized. Post analytics include numbers of user posts, user engagement by brand post and viral reach (user shares with friends). Admin user stats help brands manage internal and external stakeholders. Advanced metrics are also available for Google+ brand pages.

Context Optional provides moderation tools for brands to engage and respond to conversations and issues on Facebook. This includes keyword filtering of discussions that allow for highlighting of positive, neutral and negative mentions. As a part of Adobe, Context Optional will be able to expand moderation of conversations to the entire social web.

Target Customer & Strategy• Large enterprises and agencies with global operations• Pricing based on volume of social accounts and fans/followers • Strategy, design and community engagement consulting services

Context Optional targets large enterprises and agencies with global operations and/or agent/franchisee organizations. The platform has customers in a wide range of verticals including financial services, retail, consumer packaged goods, automotive, entertainment/hospitality and government/non-profit. Pricing is based on volume of social pages and fans/followers and can range from $3,000 to $100,000 per month. Customers are required to sign an annual contract.

Customers work with an account management team for on-boarding and training. Product support is available through email and phone as well as an online knowledgebase of articles and videos. Context Optional complements its solution with comprehensive support services, including strategy, design and community engagement consulting.

Context Optional became part of Adobe and the Adobe Digital Marketing Suite as a result of Adobe’s acquisition of Context Optional’s parent company Efficient Frontier in January 2012.

The Adobe Digital Marketing Suite provides customers with the ability to create, manage, execute, measure and optimize digital marketing and advertising campaigns. The acquisition of Efficient Frontier added cross-channel ad campaign forecasting, execution and optimization capabilities to the Suite, along with a social marketing engagement platform and social ad buying capabilities.




Vendor ProfilesAwareness, Inc. 25 Corporate Drive, Suite 390Burlington, MA 01803United StatesP: 866-487-5623www.awarenessnetworks.com

Awareness Canada5050 South Service Road, Suite 100Burlington, ON L7L 5Y7P: 905-635-3134

Key ExecutivesBrian Zanghi, CEODavid Carter, CTOMike Lewis, VP, Marketing and SalesMelissa Leffler, VP, EngineeringStephen Tremblay, VP, Finance

Key CustomersAmerican Cancer SocietyComcastCox CommunicationsMLBStarwood Hotels and Resorts

Company Overview • Founded in 2005 as iUpload, a white-label community platform• Rebranded as Awareness, Inc. in July 2007• Raised $20 million from Greylock Partners, North Bridge Venture Partners and several unnamed investors• Research and development headquartered in Burlington, Ontario CANADA

Product Overview• Social Marketing Hub platform collects individual social media user profiles based on engagement• Open APIs for integration with analytics, CRM platforms• Built-in email publishing app allows brands to connect with social networks not native to the Hub.

Awareness has evolved from providing a white-label community platform that allowed clients such as McDonald’s and Sony to create branded, exclusive online customer communities, to becoming a SMMS platform with its Social Marketing Hub. The Hub’s strength is its ability to publish content to multiple social channels, engage with social media audiences and capture comprehensive user profiles to make social marketing data actionable. This is done by capturing and tracking all publicly available social network data, including user names, likes, posts, brand interactions and transactions when individuals engage with content published by a brand. Additional profile details can be gathered when users grant permission through an opt-in box on Facebook to collect personally identifiable information such as names, email addresses and work history.




Vendor ProfilesThe Social Marketing Hub currently supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, YouTube, Foursquare, Slideshare and WordPress-based content blogs and forums. The platform’s open APIs provide out-of-the-box integration with existing analytics, CRM and Business Intelligence (BI) platforms including SalesForce.com, Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst. The Hub also has a built-in email publishing application that doesn’t require an API allowing brands to publish to additional social networks not available natively.

Analytics & Reporting• Approximately 100 standard report templates• Customized dashboard integrates additional data sources• Cloud-based storage enhances integration

The Social Marketing Hub’s dashboard features approximately 100 report templates including reach, amplified reach, engagement and number of comments/posts. All captured data is stored in a “report cloud,” which can be seamlessly integrated and used in customer CRM, analytics, BI and other internal systems. Awareness also offers a premium-priced customized analytics dashboard, called Social Analytics, which allows customers to plug in other data sources and highlight engagement, performance and overall success.

Awareness has partnered with text analysis engine Lexalytics to create a built-in sentiment analytics tool. All social content is scored by individual channel and individual user to gauge tone and influence.

Target Customer & Strategy• B2C and B2B customer base • Pricing starts at $500/month• Consulting services focused on onboarding

The Awareness Social Marketing Hub targets both mid-sized and enterprise-level organizations and agencies and has a strong customer base in the hospitality, broadcast/communications and B2B high-tech verticals.

Pricing starts at $500/month for 10 social media accounts/channels and five users with no limits on workflow, permissioning and tasks. There is a one-time set-up and training fee of $250. Additional channels cost $70/month and additional users are $20/month. The pricing includes 24/7 web-based support. Every Awareness customer has a dedicated services manager for onboarding and training. Consulting services are limited to training on the use of the platform, rather than social media strategy and execution.

With a strong focus on connecting social marketing data to sales results, Awareness plans to enable the Social Marketing Hub to capture more above-the-funnel user data. The company also is looking to increase it B2B customer base, which currently includes Computer Associates, Nuance and DemandWare, among others.




Vendor ProfilesBuddy Media 360 W. 31st Street, 12th FloorNew York, NY 10001P: 646-380-7331www.buddymedia.com

Key ExecutivesMichael Lazerow, CEOKass Lazerow, COOJeff Ragovin, Chief Strategy Officer Michael Jaindl, Chief Client OfficerKen Mandel, Managing Director, AsiaLuca Benini, Managing Director, Europe

Key CustomersESPNFord Motor Co.L’OrealNFLStarwood Hotels & Resorts The HartfordVirgin Mobile USA

Company Overview• Founded in September 2007• Raised $90 million from GGV Capital, Institutional Venture Partners, Insight Venture Partners, Softbank Capital,

Greycroft Partners, Bay Partners, WPP Digital and PayPal founder Peter Thiel • Acquired Spinback in May 2011 which added analytics and social currency capabilities• Acquired Brighter Option in February 2012 to integrate Facebook Ads

Product Overview• A Facebook, LinkedIn and Google+ preferred developer partner • Software connects brands and customers via major social networks and open web • comScore partnership adds demographics to social data

Buddy Media’s social marketing suite is one of six initial Google+ page management tool developers and also supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Flickr, Foursquare, Tumblr, YouTube and open web blog publishing platforms such as WordPress. The suite includes four products that can be licensed separately:

•ConversationBuddy: Publish, moderate and analyze content for Facebook, Twitter. LinkedIn and Google+. •ProfileBuddy: Provides more than 50 social apps, including sweepstakes and contests. Allows existing Twitter, Amazon,

Flickr and Foursquare content to be leveraged through open APIs. •ConversionBuddy: Enables consumers to share content across Facebook, Twitter, email and blogs and tracks revenue or

conversion per share. •ReachBuddy: An open web tool that generates a line of embeddable code that can be used to create social

functionality on brand websites, blogs and landing pages.

Buddy Media’s social marketing suite is tailored to connect customer websites to their social properties and metrics. For




Vendor Profilesexample, ConversionBuddy tracks user website purchases and how they share or like those products through a social media button right on the website allowing the brand to own the data. The tool follows through on conversion, tracking how many of those “likes” turn into additional buyers. ReachBuddy’s embeddable code makes it easier for customers to dynamically republish content across social media properties without having to cut and paste templates or designs. To support global customers, the platform provides one-click access to change languages.

Buddy Media is fully integrated with Google Analytics; customers can export data into their existing email, analytics and campaign management tools through open APIs. The company acquired London-based Brighter Option, a Facebook Ads API partner, to more tightly integrate user engagement data with social media advertising. Buddy Media also is integrating comScore consumer panel data into its dashboard to add demographics, reach and frequency to their social media data.

Analytics & Reporting• Dashboard features drag-and-drop widgets• C-Rank index provides industry benchmarks

The Buddy Media dashboard is completely customizable using a library of drag-and-drop widgets. The dashboard features 20 standard reports and a preprogrammed hierarchy of report views with a built-in permission structure. Metrics include the number of impressions, link clicks and destinations, fan growth, traffic sources, user engagement and revenue or conversion per share.

Buddy Media offers a proprietary benchmarking index called C-Rank, which allows customers to compare their brand engagement across social networks to their specific industries. Brands are assigned a numerical score up to 100 in the areas of social communication, community, content and creative. C-Rank is included with the suite’s standard analytics and provides benchmarking for 15 verticals including automotive, consumer packaged goods, entertainment, finance, retail, publishing and telecom.

Target Customer & Strategy• License based on number of social media accounts• Minimum spend of four figures per month• Non-exclusive partnership with WPP

The Buddy Media social marketing suite targets large, global enterprises that can spend a minimum of four figures per month on their social marketing activities. Buddy Media’s monthly licensing fee is based on the number of social media channels or accounts. The suite is modularized allowing customers to initially license specific modules (i.e., Profile Buddy and/or Conversation Buddy) and scale to the entire platform as their social media programs increase or become more sophisticated.

Standard customer support includes a 24/7 dedicated account manager and access to Buddy Media University, the platform’s online and in-person certification program. The company offers premium-priced consulting services but does not actively promote them as a core competency, particularly since it works with many agencies including WPP, Edelman and Publicis.

Buddy Media has been an active consolidator, acquiring Spinback in May 2011 to grow its analytics and social commerce capabilities. The company’s CEO has not ruled out more growth through acquisition. Buddy Media also is actively courting partnerships – the company is working with comScore for third-party data overlays to help customers scale their social marketing efforts. Through its relationship with global agency WPP, Buddy Media’s social marketing suite is integrated into the work of many WPP agencies.




Vendor ProfilesEmailvision (Campaign Commander Social Edition)

Lynton House7-12 Tavistock SquareLondon, England WC1H 9LTP: 44(0)20-7554-4500www.emailvision.com

545 5th Ave., Suite 1000New York, NY 10017 P: 212-257-6018

Key ExecutivesNick Heys, Founder and CEO, EmailvisionCharles Wells, Chief Product OfficerLeah Anathan, Product Marketing DirectorAmita Paul, Product Management Director, Social Media

Key CustomersCisco Live EventsCMO.comZN MarketingPuma Future Electronics

Company Overview • Markets Campaign Commander, a SaaS-based

solution available in Email/Mobile, Social and Enterprise editions

• Acquired Objective Marketer in January 2011 to add social media to its portfolio

• Acquired smartFOCUS Group PLC in June 2011 to integrate SaaS-based customer intelligence into Campaign Commander Enterprise Edition

Product Overview• Objective Marketer rebranded as Campaign Commander Social Edition• Out-of-the-box content development in 16 languages • Open APIs for seamless integration with existing CRM, analytics and ERP software

Formerly Objective Marketer, Campaign Commander Social (CCS) has a global reach, supporting social media content development in 16 languages and several foreign social networks, including Orkut (Latin America) and Renren (China, available in Q3 2012) out of the box. U.S.-based networks CCS currently supports include Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, WordPress blogging and content publishing platforms, Chatter (Salesforce.com), Foursquare and Slideshare.

The platform includes community and campaign management; workflow and collaboration tools by initiative or group/individual roles; and an integrated media library allowing users to upload pre-approved content, messages and images. An integrated content editor is also available to create custom apps for Facebook pages and community polls. Customized




Vendor ProfilesRSS feeds control content scheduling automatically in real time across geographies. The user rights controls provide multi-account management to support agency execution of customer campaigns. CCS features open APIs to provide seamless integration with existing CRM, ERP, SFA and web analytics platforms such as Coremetrics, Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst and Webtrends.

Analytics & Reporting• Real time geographic, campaign and channel metrics• Klout integration tracks key influencers and amplifiers• Customer Intelligence add-on provides more sophisticated campaign targeting

CCS’s dashboard displays geographic, campaign and channel activity in real time. Reports measure clickthroughs by time, traffic, tags and location; response rates by channel; and cross-channel campaign performance. CCS is fully integrated with Twitter analysis tool Klout, which allows customers to track key influencers and amplifiers as well. Customers can link any social marketing data to web traffic and conversions through the platform’s open API. CCS does not provide sentiment analytics.

Campaign analytics enable users to set up social marketing campaigns and goals at the outset and measure actual performance against pre-set objectives. For example, a Twitter campaign can be set to generate a specified number of retweets. During the campaign, actual numbers can be compared to the original goals and changes made in real time. CCS also features branded URL shorteners to provide more recognizable links between social media messages and the customer’s brand.

Emailvision also offers a more sophisticated set of online analytics through an add-on module called Customer Intelligence (a result of its June 2011 acquisition of smartFOCUS). The software enables customers to slice and dice customer data to better target, up-sell and cross-sell customers and prospects.

Target Customer and Pricing • Mid-sized and large agencies and brands• Pricing starts at $700 per month per user• Enterprise Edition combines all three Emailvision marketing tools

Campaign Commander Social targets mid-sized to large agencies and brands in the retail, publishing, financial services, travel and hospitality industries. Headquartered in London, Emailvision has a large non-U.S. customer base, while Objective Marketer had a strong existing set of U.S.-based customers.

Pricing for CCS starts at $700 per month per user. There is a one-time set up and training fee that varies according to customer need. Customers receive a dedicated account manager plus online and phone customer support.

Campaign Commander’s Enterprise Edition, which includes the Email, Mobile and Social modules, is a key growth area for the company. The package is priced at $5,000 per user/seat per month and also includes the value-added Customer Intelligence analytics.




Vendor ProfilesEngage121, Inc. 20 Glover Avenue, 2nd FloorNorwalk, CT 06850P: 888-607-9101www.engage121.com

Key ExecutivesJon Victor, President and CEOKurt Strumpf, Chief Technology OfficerJack Serpa, EVP, Sales & MarketingJennifer Tayntor, Controller

Key CustomersAmtrakJaguarMercedes BenzMotorolaPhilips

Company Overview• Founded in 1998 as ENR Services, a PR and

communications software platform• Received undisclosed funding from BEV Capital in

2002• Rebranded as Engage121 in June 2010, and launched

flagship SMMS application in August 2010

Product Overview• Ten years’ experience as PR and communications

management platform • Focused on global enterprises with geographically

diverse local sales networks• Monitors 42 customer ratings and reviews sites• Integrates 25 social media platforms and publishing tools

After ten years as a PR/communications management software platform, Engage121 entered the SMMS space in June 2010, in response to customer demand for social media marketing capabilities. The company still offers PR platforms, called MediaQ, GrassRoots PR and AP Planner.

Engage121 focuses on enterprises with a distributed sales presence, such as a restaurant chain or automotive dealer network, which needs to manage communications between the corporation and local outlets. The workflow and permissions hierarchy allows enterprise users and administrators to pre-approve social content and limit or enable access at the local level.

Engage121 provides three ways to localize corporate social content:

1. Pre-approved content assets can be stored in a centralized, unlimited content library that can be accessed by local managers.




Vendor Profiles2. Corporate users can create content and insert localized information to make it suitable for local users. With one click,

the localized content is pushed to the local social platform of each local outlet.3. Local managers can create customized content using the outlet edition of the platform.

Engage121 supports Facebook (including Facebook Ads), Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, YouTube, Foursquare, Tumblr, Flickr, Vimeo, SocialFlow and Traackr, as well as all open web blogging, forums and wiki applications. In addition, the platform monitors 42 consumer ratings and review sites including Epinions, Kelley Blue Book, Kudzu, Ripoff Report, TripAdvisor and Trusted Reviews. Through the platform’s open API, existing CRM, ESP and web analytics platforms (i.e., Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst) can be seamlessly integrated with Engage121.

Analytics & Reporting• Evaluate module includes dozens of standard reports• Sentiment engine reports industry share of voice

Engage121’s standard reporting module, called Evaluate, features dozens of reports, including (but not limited to) numbers of fans and followers, true reach (retweets in response to posted tweets), engagement by tag (i.e., identifying users as influencers vs. detractors vs. competitors) and bit.ly links.

The platform includes a proprietary keyword-driven sentiment engine with a built-in tonality dictionary that can be customized for vertical industry jargon and nuances. Sentiment reports include share of voice, allowing customers to track their mentions against competitive brands in social media conversations.

Target Customer & Strategy • Enterprises with dealer/agent/franchisee networks• Pricing starts at $1,000 per corporate seat and $25 per local seat

Engage 121 targets global enterprises with dealer/agent/franchisee networks, including financial services/insurance providers and automotive manufacturers. About half of Engage121’s 1,250 PR and communications customers license the SMMS platform. The platform includes both a corporate and local edition, with pricing based on the number of users/seats at both the enterprise and local level. Corporate seats cost $1,000 per month, which includes three users for a typical customer. The per-seat license for local users is $25 per month. An annual contract is required and volume discounts are available.

Customer engagements begin with an orientation call with the client services team led by an account director to discuss and set social marketing program goals. Training is provided through a series of webinars for both corporate and local users; Engage121 will also present at corporate franchisee conferences. Consulting services are limited to training on the use of the platform, rather than social media strategy and execution. Potential customers should consider the strength of their in-house SM expertise and available budget.




Vendor ProfilesHearsay Social 185 Berry St., Suite 3800San Francisco, CA 94107P: 888-990-3777www.hearsaysocial.com

Key ExecutivesClara Shih, CEOSteve Garrity, CTOAmy Kelman, VP, Customer SuccessAmy Millard, VP, MarketingRob van Es, VP, Global SalesKevin Zellmer, VP, Business Development

Key CustomersState FarmFarmers Insurance 24 Hour Fitness

Company Overview • Founded in 2009• Raised $21 million from Sequoia Capital and

New Enterprise Associates in two rounds of funding

Product Overview• Specializes in corporate-to-local enterprise

social media• Robust compliance tools to manage brand

and regulatory standards• Sole compliance tool developer for Google+

Hearsay Social is positioned as the premiere SMMS platform for “corporate-to-local” enterprises that rely on sales networks of agents, stores, franchises or dealers. The platform’s strengths include its content distribution and compliance standards, which allow customers to manage and regulate content flow and campaigns to local outlets or locations. Administrative access is built to the district level with customizable hierarchies, roles and entitlements to monitor and control content access for local outlets. “Rogue” social media pages or accounts that represent the customer’s brand but are outside its control are tracked and reported.

Hearsay Social is the only compliance tool developer for Google+ among the six initial Google+ page developers, and also supports Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter. The platform provides some basic YouTube integration as well. Hearsay Social offers out-of-the box integration with existing content archiving and analytics platforms such as LiveOffice and Symantec, and can plug in to open ID and SSO standards for single sign on.

Analytics & Reporting• 12 Out-of-the-box reports• FT data analytics support team




Vendor Profiles• Corporate and local dashboards

Hearsay Social features 12 standard reports, which monitor social user actions, engagement and lead generation. The platform also tracks internal enterprise adoption rates by geographic region to allow customers to evaluate company use of the tools. Customers can generate an infinite number of customized reports that roll up at the local, regional and/or national level. The platform offers dynamic hierarchies that report data automatically to the customer’s internal hierarchies via LDAP as well as automatically update hierarchies to match any organizational changes. There also is a full-time data analytics team that gathers requested or more customized customer reports. The platform does not currently measure content sentiment.

The platform features two sets of dashboards, one for corporate users, including CMOs, district marketing managers and compliance officers; and one for local users such as franchise agents and store managers. Corporate administrators control message archiving, keyword flagging and filtering and permissions, allowing the enterprise to deliver content that can be localized and results that can be analyzed by the agents.

Target Customer & Strategy• Global enterprises with extensive dealer/agent/franchisee networks• Undisclosed pricing structure based on seats and locations• Customer Success organization offers strategic services

Hearsay Social targets large, global enterprises with extensive dealer, agent or franchisee networks. The company is building upon its current financial services and insurance customer base to reach out to the hospitality, real estate and automotive verticals. Pricing is on a per-user or per-location basis and varies according to the functionality included. The company would not disclose its average customer monthly fee.

Customers are supported by Hearsay Social’s Customer Success organization, which provides training, product support and strategic services to build awareness and use of social marketing within the customer’s organization.




Vendor ProfilesHootSuite HootSuite Media, Inc.37 Dunlevy Ave.Vancouver, V6A3A3 CANADAwww.hootsuite.com

Key ExecutivesRyan Holmes, CEOSteve Johnson, CROSimon Stanlake, CTO Greg Gunn, VP, Business DevelopmentDave Olson, VP, Community Darren Suomi, VP SalesMatt Switzer, VP, Corporate Development Ben Watson, VP, Marketing

Key CustomersFOXThe NBAPepsiCoTIME magazineThe Martha Stewart ShowThe Onion

Company Overview • Founded in November 2008• Raised $5 million from Hearst Ventures, Blumberg

Capital, Millennium Technology Value Partners, Social Concepts and Geoff Entress

• Acquired mobile app developer Swift App in March 2010 to boost Android capabilities

• Acquired TwitterBar to expand platform messaging in April 2011• Acquired Twitter data analysis tool TwapperKeeper and Twitter context provider What the Trend in September

2011• Acquired location-based marketing tool Geotoko in October 2011

Product Overview• The HootSuite Platform had three million users as of January 2012• Flexible API and seamless integration with Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and Google+• Secure Profiles flag content and campaigns targeting key influencers

The HootSuite platform is used by a wide variety of marketers, from individuals and small businesses with five or fewer users to large enterprises like PepsiCo and the National Basketball Association. The company announced in January 2012 that its platform reached the three-million-user mark. HootSuite currently supports Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+ Pages, Foursquare, WordPress, MySpace and Mixi (Japan). A key HootSuite strength is its approach to integration with third party platforms within the enterprise. HootSuite is a preferred development partner for Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Google+ Pages, providing seamless integration with




Vendor Profilesthose networks. HootSuite’s platform also features a flexible engagement API that allows customers to integrate HootSuite with applications such as click.to (streamlines social sharing), Digg, Constant Contact, Flickr, Get Satisfaction, InboxQ, Orkut (Brazil), Ping.fm, Trendspottr, Tumblr, YouTube and more.

HootSuite’s web dashboard can be used to localize social marketing content and campaigns in English, Japanese, French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian through a crowd-sourcing initiative called the HootSuite Translation Project, allowing users to build social communities in their native languages. HootSuite users can create, approve, schedule, geo-target and set privacy options for all content assets. A feature called Secure Profiles protects key influencers or journalists (known as social profiles in the HootSuite system) from receiving errant or non-approved messages by flagging all content scheduled for those profiles. All messages flagged through this feature must be reviewed twice before being published. HootSuite users can also assign incoming social network queries and comments to specific team members for follow up.

Analytics & Reporting• Includes Google Analytics, Google+ Pages Analytics and Facebook Insights integration • Ow.ly URL shortener and Vanity URL shorteners for end-to-end tracking • Reports accessible through mobile devices

HootSuite provides four out-of-the-box report templates that mimic the look of third-party analytics dashboards such as Google+ Pages analytics and Facebook Insights. Key metrics include number of Twitter followers, tweets and retweets, as well as engagement metrics such as links and links followed and shared. Customers can drill down or roll up and summarize any metric by region, referral and day/time. Ow.ly, HootSuite’s custom URL shortener, allows users to track and monitor link clickthroughs. HootSuite does not provide algorithmically generated sentiment analysis but its custom search streams allow users to monitor brand mentions, industry keywords and competitor names.

Users can create customized reports through a drag-and-drop report builder tool that features 30 individual report modules. All reports can be shared with any HootSuite user (not just team members); report sharing can be scheduled daily, weekly, biweekly and monthly. The HootSuite dashboard can be accessed by iPhone, iPad, BlackBerry and Android mobile devices.

Target Customer & Strategy• Targets individuals, small businesses and enterprises• Pricing ranges from free to an average $1,000 per month• HootSuite University is an add-on social media educational service

HootSuite targets individuals, small businesses (five users or less) and enterprise users with the following three-tiered pricing structure:

•Freemium: Includes five social profiles, two RSS/Atom feeds and basic reports that track retweets and clicks.•Pro: Priced at $5.99 per month, the Pro plan includes one user, unlimited social profiles, one enhanced analytics report,

integration with Google Analytics and Facebook Insights, unlimited RSS feeds, opting out of Ads and tweet archives. The fee for additional users is $15 per month per user. According to company officials, Pro users are its fastest growing segment and provide the bulk of the company’s revenue to date.

•Enterprise: Pricing is customized according to client need, but averages about $1,000 per month. The Enterprise plan includes an unlimited number of users and channels.

Customer support for Freemium and Pro users focuses on online educational tools, including a #HootTip series, and a HootSuite Library of white papers, case studies and learning guides. For $21 per month, customers can also enroll in Hoot-Suite University, which provides online education on social media strategy and thought leadership, as well as platform train-ing, testing and certification. Enterprise level customers can access HootSuite University free and receive VIP account set up and training from a dedicated HootSuite educator and social media coach.




Vendor ProfilesHootSuite is committed to serving the individual-level and small business markets, but is adding agency and enterprise customers, including Pepsi and Palms Hotels, at a rapid pace. The company recently announced a Solution Partner Program to attract agencies that will sell the HootSuite platform to their clients. HootSuite plans to develop deeper analytics and better reporting to attract and keep this type of customer base. In addition, the company plans to deepen its integration capabilities with CRM, marketing automation, analytics and web management systems, to appeal to enterprises that want their social marketing efforts to be part of a larger marketing strategy.




Vendor ProfilesInvolver 611 Mission St., 7th FloorSan Francisco, CA 94105P: 877-309-8293www.involver.com

Key ExecutivesDon Beck, CEORahim Fazal, Chief Strategist Noah Horton, CTO Roland Smart, Sr. Director of Product MarketingDominic Zuccarini, VP, Channels

Key CustomersBest BuyFacebookSymantecJack DanielsOgilvyRazorfishZimmerman

Company Overview• Founded in March 2007 as RapOuts• Rebranded as Involver in April 2008 • Raised $11 million from Preetish Nijhawan, Neeraj

Gupta, Bessemer Venture Partners, Western Technology Investments and Cervin Ventures

• Additional U.S. offices in Austin, Portland and New York

Product Overview• Proprietary SML development language enables

brand customization• Offers a broad range of publishing, monitoring,

application and analytics solutions

Involver was founded as RapOuts, a turnkey Facebook app suite for brands looking to bring YouTube video content to Facebook. Today, the company’s Audience Management Platform provides social content creation, management and moderation as well as analytics. The Audience Management Platform includes both a turnkey solution, which marketers and designers can implement, as well as a technical solution called Social Markup Language (SML). SML provides the foundation for front-end developers to build customized social content and apps. To leverage SML, customers must have adequate in-house development resources and expertise or a relationship with an agency that has these resources. As such, Involver is a pure technology platform that enables its customers without significant services offerings.

Involver’s Audience Management Platform currently supports Facebook, Twitter, Google+, Flickr, YouTube, RSS, WordPress and other social applications. Basic integration with Salesforce.com allows for Salesforce.com forms to be embedded into social properties. The Audience Management Platform has more seamless integration with customer support platform Get




Vendor ProfilesSatisfaction, which enables customers to monitor and synchronize Facebook content to provide one-click service responses. With built-in moderation and email functionality, Involver can support complex contest applications that notify users as to the status of their entries.

Analytics & Reporting• Exploratory analytics track over 30 metrics• Distributed analytics seeks to optimize social campaigns

Involver segments its analytics capabilities into two buckets: exploratory and distributed. The exploratory analytics track over 30 metrics around numbers of posts, likes, comments, video plays, fan page views and user engagement. Distributed analytics help customers optimize campaigns by slicing and dicing data around where users are going to act or interact with the brand. Involver customers can also set custom metrics and reports. All data tables can be converted and exported to third party analytics platforms such as Adobe SiteCatalyst or Google Analytics.

Target Customer & Strategy• Mid-sized to large digital agencies and sophisticated brands• Freemium service includes one user and nine Facebook apps• New visual authoring tool to appeal to marketing users

Involver’s Audience Management Platform targets mid-sized and large digital and traditional agencies such as Edelman, Razorfish and Pollinate as well more sophisticated brand marketers. The platform appeals to agencies and brands with the internal technical and marketing expertise to build completely customized social marketing apps and experiences using SML. Involver plans to build its brand-direct business with a new visual authoring tool that will sit on top of the SML language and appeal more to marketing users.

The platform’s tiered pricing structure ranges from a basic freemium service, which includes one user, nine Facebook apps and online community support, to a $2,749/month enterprise package that starts at 10 users, 25 apps, 40 publishing outlets, advanced monitoring and analytics, and a dedicated account manager with 24-hour turnaround on customer support questions. SML training is included in the fees. Additional per-user and per-account fees apply for larger enterprises, which are required to sign an annual contract.




Vendor ProfilesShoutlet 1 Erdman Pl., Suite 102Madison, WI 53717P: 608-833-0088www.shoutlet.com

Key ExecutivesJason Weaver, CEOAaron Everson, President & COODavid Prohaska, VP, MarketingEric Christopher, VP, Sales

Key CustomersFour Seasons Hotels & ResortsBurt’s BeesAmerican Family InsuranceCiscoCloroxReader’s Digest

Company Overview • Launched January 2010• Raised $9.2 million from American Family

Insurance, Origin Ventures and Leo Capital Holdings

• Opened a U.K.-based office in December 2011

Product Overview• Supports Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, sharing to

more than 100 social sites, and custom apps for anywhere on the web

• Social Switchboard “trigger-based” campaign publishing tool

• Social Canvas drag-and-drop design tool• Open API offers CRM, ESP, and web analytics

integration

Shoutlet is positioned as an enterprise social marketing platform that helps brands build customer relationships through social marketing campaigns. The platform’s professional-level design tool, called Social Canvas, allows customers to create Facebook custom tabs, HTML5 pages and custom web apps, which can be linked to trigger-based marketing automation software that automatically launches additional promotions.

The platform’s workflow and permissions structure enables corporate account holders to pre-approve




Vendor Profilescontent for subaccounts; every subaccount has an additional three levels of permissions or roles to control content access and use.

Shoutlet currently supports Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as social sites driven by RSS feeds. The company is planning to add Google+, Foursquare and LinkedIn publishing and app capabilities in the near future. Through its open API, Shoutlet provides drag-and-drop integration with CRM solutions such as Salesforce.com, ESPs like BlueHornet, and web analytics platforms such as Adobe SiteCatalyst.

Analytics & Reporting• 50+ standard reports • Built-in CRM tool tracks individual user data• Trigger-based marketing automation tool

Shoutlet features more than 50 standard reports including numbers of likes, fans, followers and views, and includes Facebook Insights data, Twitter and YouTube to generate hundreds of customizable reports. Shoutlet’s Influencer Score ranks Facebook fans according to post frequency; a “Shop and Share” Facebook tab allows customers to promote specific products or pages then track user shares and conversions. Shoutlet does not provide sentiment analysis of social network content.

All social marketing data (posts, videos, contests) is correlated to user activity, i.e., video plays, page clicks or shares, through Shoutlet’s built-in CRM tool to track the relationship between specific campaigns and fan or follower growth or contraction. Shoutlet tracks data to the individual user level to create social profiles that can be used to better segment and target social media users. Users can be targeted through a trigger-based marketing automation tool that lets customers set business rules or criteria to automatically launch social campaigns. For example, if a user with a particular profile clicks on a Facebook message, it triggers an email with an electronic coupon attached.

Target Customer & Strategy• Fortune 1,000 companies and large agencies• Pricing based on number of users and accounts• Seeking exclusive partnerships for growth

Shoutlet’s platform targets large brands and large agencies. Pricing is based on both the number of users and the number of subaccounts (brands or locations) and ranges from $20,000 to more than $300,000 annually. Shoutlet encourages customers to commit to annual licenses.

A training portal with videos and user guides is available to all customers. Customer service includes a 24/7 online support desk. Shoutlet stresses the ease of using its platform, claiming most customers can master it within 30 minutes of training.

Shoutlet is seeking exclusive partnerships with major software companies to expand its capabilities in the next 12 months. The company is actively looking at broadening the application by integrating with other digital marketing tools and expanding into other areas of social including ads and listening.




Vendor ProfilesSocialVolt 10851 Mastin Blvd.Overland Park, KS 66210P: 415-800-3534www.socialvolt.com

Key ExecutivesScott Oppliger, CEODerrek A. Harter, COO, Director of Business Development

Key CustomersKauffman FoundationYouCast

Company Overview• Founded 2009• Received $250k in angel funding in January 2011 and

$1.07 million in series A funding in May 2011

Product Overview• The SocialVolt platform provides strong risk

management for regulated brands • Five-level “filth” filter flags and blocks objectionable

terms• Google+ monitoring enabled in February 2012 release

SocialVolt’s platform caters to agencies and brands operating in regulated industries, specifically financial services, real estate and healthcare, to manage risk related to social media marketing. The platform allows customers to create custom keyword dictionaries to monitor the content of all outbound social messages, as well as archive and audit all social media accounts on the system. The standard dictionary features a “filth filter” that flags or blocks profanity and other objectionable terms at five levels of strictness. The dictionary is set to the strictest setting out of the box; customers can dial down the level if necessary. SocialVolt monitors all FCC, FDA, FINRA and SEC regulations regarding social media to maintain customer compliance.

Agencies represent half of SocialVolt’s customer base. As such, the platform features a menu that separates accounts into containers or silos. Agency users can switch back and forth between client accounts without having to re-log in or out. All analytics and reports are self-contained within each account.

SocialVolt currently supports both publishing and brand




Vendor Profilesmonitoring on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn; the platform supports brand monitoring only on YouTube, Yelp, Foursquare and open web blogs, as well. SocialVolt anticipates including Google+ publishing within the next year. The platform does not currently feature an open API, therefore integration with existing CRM, ERP, ESP and web analytics platforms are done on a custom basis.

Analytics & Reporting• February 2012 release incorporated 25 new Facebook data points• Report frameworks include auditing, scheduling and share of voice• Sentiment engine provides unlimited listening agents within channels

SocialVolt includes dozens of metrics out of the box, including numbers of wall posts, likes, comments, mentions, followers and retweets. In its February 2012 release, Studio added 25 Facebook data points to its existing 13 Facebook metrics, including user demographics.

SocialVolt reports are divided into four data frameworks: • Auditing (tracks internal user posts and content by date, time and IP address)• Content calendar and scheduling• Share of Voice (competitive brand monitoring and listening)• Status (more granular data slicing and dicing, i.e., by individual brands or accounts)

Sentiment analysis is a key feature of SocialVolt’s brand monitoring capabilities. Users customize the keyword filter for terms to locate and identify as positive, negative or neutral. Users can override the sentiment setting for distinct brand terms or tone. SocialVolt’s sentiment engine uses machine learning to automatically learn from manual adjustments and incorporate the changes in the platform. Listening is organized by channel or brand, with an unlimited number of listening agents within each channel. For example, a pharmaceutical brand can choose any number of competitive brand names to monitor or listen for.

Target Customer & Strategy• Mid-sized and large agencies and organizations in regulated industries• Tiered pricing structure based on number of users, brands and mentions• Add-on services provide accelerated launch and brand architecture

SocialVolt targets mid-sized and large agencies as well as organizations in regulated industries, including financial services (i.e., banks and credit unions, insurance and mutual fund companies), real estate and healthcare. The company’s business is currently split evenly between agencies and brands in those industries.

SocialVolt’s tiered pricing structure is based on the number of brands, users and social network mentions as follows:

•Team Edition: $100 per brand and $5 per user per month for both publishing content and brand monitoring. Brand monitoring includes one channel, unlimited listeners and 1,000 mentions.

•Business Edition: $600 per brand and $5 per user per month for both publishing and brand monitoring. Includes three channels, unlimited listeners and 20,000 mentions.

•Professional Edition: $1,800 per brand per month includes six channels and 160,000 mentions per brand. Additional mentions can be purchased in increments of 20,000 for $200 per month.

•Enterprise Edition: Custom quote for organizations with multiple locations and more than six channels.

Onboarding and customer training through online tutorials, videos and webinars are included in all pricing. Telephone support is handled by SocialVolt’s customer service team. SocialVolt uses Get Satisfaction to manage its customer community, allowing users to search the company’s online knowledgebase, provide product feedback and vote on enhancements.




Vendor Profiles

SocialVolt offers several premium-priced services, including a Rapid Launch methodology to provide customers with account set up, user roles and permissions and brand architecture. Additional strategic consulting services are available to define business processes, goals and social media content development.




Vendor ProfilesSpredfast 412 Congress Ave., 2nd FloorAustin, TX 78701P: 512-538-0460www.spredfast.com

Key ExecutivesRod Favaron, President and CEO Ken Cho, Chief Strategy Officer and co-founderJim Rudden, CMO Keith Zoellner, CTORandy Potts, Chief Sales Officer Dan Doman, VP, Business DevelopmentVirginia Miracle, EVP, Professional ServicesJay Harry, VP, Finance

Key CustomersAARPBayerCNNIBMNokiaOracleWells FargoWhole Foods

Company Overview• Founded in early 2008• Raised $15.6 million from Austin Ventures and

InterWest Partners• Partnered with Austin-based Dachis Group in

December 2011 to expand social analytics and benchmarking capabilities

Product Overview• Horizontal multi-channel social media

integration• Supports 14 social media networks and

blogging apps• Focus on facilitating social marketing campaigns

Branded as a social CRM platform (SCRM), Spredfast’s strength is building multi-channel social media integration and analysis horizontally across the enterprise. The platform allows customers to organize, audit, execute and track social marketing content and campaigns by department, brand or geography. For example, built-in functionality allows tweets to be tagged as an open issue and delegated or escalated to the appropriate expert or department in the organization to be addressed.

Spredfast SCRM currently supports Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn, Flickr, Slideshare, Foursquare and Google+




Vendor Profiles(listening only), as well as blogging apps Drupal, WordPress, Lotus and Blogger. The platform features an open API facilitating integration with existing analytics, CRM and other campaign management platforms, and provides seamless integration with Salesforce.com.

Users can create original content or choose assets from a central “pre-approved content” library, a feature designed to appeal to national/local enterprises with many sales agents or dealers. For customers in regulated industries such as pharmaceuticals and financial services, Spredfast SCRM is industry compliant and offers a suite of audit trail, approval path, workflow, permissioning and archiving capabilities.

Customizable workflow tools allow customers to assign any number of approval groups throughout the content/campaign development process. Users can tag and assign content assets to other users and track their response times. Spredfast SCRM is increasingly focused on facilitating social marketing campaigns and conversations; social ad publishing functionality (Facebook Ads) is being developed.

Spredfast is available to mobile users through the Spredfast iPhone application in the iTunes store. Users must be licensed customers to use the iPhone application.

Analytics & Reporting• Two levels of social analytics• 45 configurable widgets/reports• Social ranking and benchmarking

Spredfast SCRM features two levels of social analytics. The first pulls data directly from all supported social platforms to track aggregated metrics such as social activity (posts, tweets, retweets), reach (fans, followers, shares) and engagement (likes, comments). The second level includes 45 configurable reports or widgets to allow users to drill deeper into data, including measuring the top 10 content posts by audience or engagement, or best engagement days and times.

Customers with existing web analytics platforms (i.e., Google Analytics, Adobe SiteCatalyst or Webtrends) can leverage the central SCRM dashboard to create an attributed view of how their social media campaigns are driving web traffic and conversions. All analytics reports can be downloaded to a CSV file for export.

Through a partnership with Austin-based Dachis Group, announced in December 2011, Spredfast SCRM’s analytics include real-time brand ranking, analysis and benchmarking for common customers. Spredfast SCRM features a sentiment engine, allowing users to see sentiment scores for individual comments, as well as aggregated data to evaluate conversations over variable timeframes. Customers using Crimson Hexagon or Radian6 can also integrate these sentiment analytics into the SCRM dashboard to view sentiment analysis on a 24-hour delay. Spredfast is planning to add sentiment capabilities through keyword filtering in 2012.

Target Customer & Strategy• Large enterprises with multiple brands and locations• Brand customers spend between $30,000 - $250,000 annually• UI for local users coming in 2012

Spredfast SCRM targets large enterprises with multiple brands and locations in a wide range of vertical markets. Pricing is based on the number of users and brands or groups; enterprise Spredfast customers spend between $30,000 and $250,000 annually. Most Spredfast customers sign annual or multi-year contracts.

Spredfast provides 24/7 customer support and standard training through its Customer Success team. More customized on-boarding and implementation services such as in-person training or consulting on goals, workflow and system configuration are also available.




Vendor ProfilesSprinklr 115 W. 30th St.New York, NY, 10001P: 707-276-6362www.sprinklr.com

Key ExecutivesRagy Thomas, CEOMurali Swaminathan, SVP, OperationsJeremy Epstein, VP, MarketingElizabeth Closmore, Director of Client Services and StrategyChris Kieff, Director of Business Development

Key Customers American ExpressCiscoDuPontNike PfizerTarget

Company Overview• Founded in September 2009




Vendor ProfilesProduct Overview• SIREn platform features compliance, governance,

workflow and enterprise-wide campaign management capability

• Multi-channel audience management and engagement with associated reporting in singular user interface

• Open APIs provide integration with CRM, analytics and other legacy platforms

Sprinkr’s SIREn (Social Intent Revelation Engine) platform is an organizational tool for large enterprises seeking to manage social media within a strong compliance and operational framework. SIREn manages multi-channel social conversations, content, audiences and campaigns across departments and functional teams where accountability and permission hierarchy are important. Every message on the platform has the option to go out attached to a campaign as well as the option for pre-publishing approvals and notifications. All user profiles show internal and external messages, conversations and recent tweets. Sprinklr supports in-platform custom URL shortening and bit.ly links for clearer brand recognition.

SIREn currently supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Flickr, Foursquare, Slideshare and blog publishing platforms such as WordPress and Tumblr. The platform is integrated through open APIs with analytics and CRM tools including Coremetrics, Google Analytics and Adobe SiteCatalyst.

Analytics & Reporting• 150 out-of-the-box metrics• Unlimited user dashboards• Automated sentiment analysis

SIREn’s reporting dashboard provides 150 out-of-the-box metrics offering views by campaign, channel or message. Users can create and share an unlimited number of dashboards. Screen widgets can be moved or exported into Excel in one click. Sprinklr provides homegrown automated sentiment analysis through its internally developed Natural Language Processing (NLP) engine. NLP automatically detects and flags questions, complaints and compliments through three types of sentiment analytics:

• Influence Index: Algorithm that measures the impact of the brand conversations with their audience •Engagement or Participation Index: Rates sentiment related to individual accounts •Quality Index: Looks at the type and frequency of user messaging

Target Customer & Strategy• Global enterprises • Average cost in the tens of thousands per month• Beta testing customized Facebook tabs

Sprinklr’s SIREn platform targets large, global enterprises and offers add-on strategic consulting services for the retail, financial services, travel and publishing verticals. Pricing is based on the number of users and the number of partitions or work groups on the platform and typically ranges from $75 to $200 per user per month. For example, HR, Marketing and




Vendor ProfilesLegal departments that have different access and permissions on the platform would be separate work groups. The average Sprinklr customer spends in the low five figures per month and has a dedicated account manager.

Sprinklr is currently beta testing customized Facebook tabs that will allow customers to target Facebook users by a number of segments, such as by language or fan vs. non-fan using centrally approved templates and permissions. The integrated Facebook pages will automatically feed other internal platforms, such as web analytics or CRM.




Vendor ProfilesSyncapse 20 Duncan St.Toronto, Ontario M5H 3G8P: 416-593-3773www.syncapse.com

Key ExecutivesMichael Scissons, President and CEOClaude Galipeau, Chief Operating OfficerStephen England-Hall, Chief Client OfficerSarah Johnston, SVP, Managing Director, Client SolutionsSarah Long, VP, Global Marketing

Key CustomersBlackberryNationwide InsuranceAnheuser-Busch InBev

Company Overview• Founded in November 2007• Raised $30.3 million from ABS Capital Partners, BDC

(Canada’s business development bank) and CEO Michael Scissons, Ian Giffen and Rob Burgess

• Acquired London-based Nudge Social Media in September 2010 to expand into EMEA

Product Overview• A highly customized platform that serves global

enterprises • Includes corporate and dealer/franchise editions • Plug-in integration with CRM and listening tools

The Syncapse platform is geared toward Fortune 500 enterprises whose social marketing programs need a high degree of customization to serve multiple regions and business units. The platform includes both corporate and dealer/franchise editions to allow local outlets to leverage pre-approved social content that can be customized through local dashboard management. To help customers maximize the success of their social media marketing campaigns, Syncapse offers a wide range of social media strategic services, such as enterprise strategy assessments, and custom workflow design, keyword moderation implementation, content and community planning.

Syncapse customers can use the platform to build all of their social apps and page tabs, publish and schedule content across time zones, multiple languages (30 total)




Vendor Profilesor regions, and archive content for up to seven years. Syncapse’s workflow, collaboration and approval tools feature a single-user log on, allowing administrators and high-level users to manage compliance as well as performance across the system.

Syncapse currently supports Facebook, Twitter and YouTube as well as WordPress and MoveableType.org blogging applications. The platform’s open APIs provide seamless integration with CRM and listening platforms including Radian6, Buzzient and Crimson Hexagon.

Analytics & Reporting• Dashboard customized by KPIs, geography, roles• Proprietary metrics focus on earned media and reach• Sentiment and segmentation available

The Syncapse platform features a central reporting dashboard that users can customize by KPIs, brands, global vs. regional views, and roles and data access. Syncapse includes Facebook Insights and all of its key metrics (number of fans, likes, shares, community growth) as well as proprietary metrics such as earned, owned and paid media value; consumer engagement; and earned impressions and reach.

Syncapse provides sentiment and CRM analysis through plug-in integration with Radian6 and other listening platforms such as Buzzient and Crimson Hexagon, allowing customers to track conversation tone and influence on the Syncapse dashboard. The platform measures social behaviors including demographics and activities or events, and segments social user data to track the number of producers, engagers, participants and lurkers.

Target Customer & Strategy• Global enterprises with dealer/agent networks• Customized pricing structure based on numbers of users and accounts• Wide range of strategic social media consulting services available

Syncapse targets Global 1,000 enterprises with large dealer/agent networks and has a strong customer base in the consumer electronics, financial services, consumer packaged goods and insurance industries. The platform’s tiered pricing structure is highly customized and based upon the number of social marketing accounts, the number of users that need training, dashboard customization and reporting frequency. There is also an undisclosed one-time setup fee. The typical Syncapse customer spends five figures per month and has access to 24/7 customer support.

As a tailored solution, Syncapse provides a wide range of strategic consulting services, including social media strategy assessments and educational training, and social performance studies that can track KPIs such as Facebook fan value. The company is focused on enhancing the flexibility of the platform’s user workflows as well as the range of add-on vs. standard measurement tools.




Vendor ProfilesVitrue 101 Marietta St., Suite 1700Atlanta, GA 30303P: 888-9VITRUEwww.vitrue.com

Key ExecutivesReggie Bradford, CEOJim Anderson, COOMichael Strutton, Chief Product OfficerChris Hackney, VP, Strategic AlliancesBrian Blond, Chief Revenue OfficerErika Brooks, VP, Marketing

Key CustomersIntelAmerican ExpressLowe’sP&G BrandsMcDonald’sCase MateSamsung

Company Overview• Founded in April 2006• Raised $33 million from General Catalyst Partners,

Comcast Ventures, Turner Broadcasting, Dace Ventures, Scale Venture Partners, Advent Venture Partners

• Acquired social gaming platform Games That Give in July 2011

• Acquired social advertising platform UGENmedia in June 2008

Product Overview• Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform• Provide publishing, content creation, monitoring,

analytics and other capabilities to manage SM across the social Web

• Integrates with Javascript-based analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Webtrends and Adobe SiteCatalyst

Vitrue was one of Facebook’s first Preferred Developer Consultants, and the focus of its Social Relationship Management (SRM) platform continues to be on helping brands harness the marketing potential of social and manage their expanding and sophisticated social




Vendor Profilescommunities on Facebook, Twitter, Google+, YouTube and emerging platforms.

The SRM platform features Publisher, Tab and Analytics modules that provide the following capabilities:

•Publisher: Provides 24/7 automated publishing, scheduling, moderation and administration capabilities for Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. Automated content moderation and community management is algorithmically driven, and flags inappropriate content by keyword, criticism and hate speech. The module includes more than 10 apps for coupon, poll, quiz and video development and publishing. Customers can centrally create and manage pre-approved social content that can be distributed and customized by local agent or franchisee sales networks.

•Tabs: Features an app library that allows customers to create and publish more than 50 out-of-the-box customizable Facebook apps, which can be targeted by region, city, zip code, language, brand and products. A Vitrue Games module offers 25 Facebook gaming apps that customers can license to drive deeper user engagement.

•Analytics: Delivers more than 120 different metric types that allow customers to measure engagement, understand global perspectives of fan demographics, time navigation abilities and visibility across the Web.

Vitrue is one of six Google+ page management tool developers and also supports Twitter and YouTube video integration with Facebook (not YouTube publishing). The SRM platform integrates with Javascript-based analytics platforms such as Google Analytics, Webtrends and Adobe SiteCatalyst but does not yet feature an open API.

Analytics & Reporting• Multiple reporting dashboards provide real-time data• Customizable widgets drill down into social user

engagement• Developing UI integrated with Facebook Insights

Vitrue’s SRM platform features multiple reporting dashboards providing real-time data by channel, geography and level of user. For example, a CMO dashboard aggregates high-level Facebook KPIs. Other key metrics include engagement by fans and country, demographics, post effectiveness and Klout scores, which




Vendor Profilesare integrated into the platform to identify social media influencers.

Currently quantitative metrics such as number of impressions, clicks, likes, shares and comments are displayed on the platform’s Publisher dashboard but will be moved to its Analytics dashboard in 2012. A set of customizable widgets also drill down into engagements by day, fan growth over time, top influencers and top 10 Facebook fans. Vitrue is planning to release a new UI integrated with the Facebook API to capture and download Facebook Insights data in 2012. All Vitrue reports can be exported as CSV files.

Vitrue’s SRM platform does not currently provide machine-based sentiment analysis. Instead, customers set business rules around negative and positive keywords, phrases and brand names, which set off red and green flags in the system, respectively. Target Customer & Strategy • Upper mid-market and Fortune 1,000 enterprises and

agencies• Base price of $4,000 per month includes two social

media accounts and two Facebook tabs• Focus on optimizing tabs for mobile devices

Vitrue targets upper mid-market and Fortune 1,000 enterprises and agencies, and has customers in the retail, hospitality, automotive, consumer packaged goods, consumer electronics and travel/leisure verticals. The platform’s base price is $4,000 per month, which includes two social media accounts and two Facebook tabs. The price increases as more social accounts or geographic locations are added. On-boarding (installation and in-person/online training) and a 24/7 help desk are included in the base price. Vitrue also offers an array of premium services focused on best practices, technical services for global implementations, advanced analytics and strategic planning.

Vitrue is seeking to capitalize on the growth of mobile usage by optimizing the platform’s tabs for mobile devices. The company will continue to support custom Facebook apps and migrate more of those capabilities to create custom, compelling experiences on other social networks.




Vendor ProfilesWildfire Interactive 1600 Seaport Blvd., Suite 500Redwood City, CA 94063P: 888-274-0929www.wildfireapp.com

Key ExecutivesVictoria Ransom, CEOAlain Chuard, Head of Product Management Tom Rikert, Director of Product Management

Key CustomersFacebookPepsiSonyUniversalOgilvy

Company Overview • Founded in July 2008• Raised $4 million in Series A funding from Summit

Partners, Jeff Clavier, Aydin Senkut and Gary Vaynerchuk in April 2010

• Foreign offices in London, Munich, Paris and Singapore

Product Overview• Supports Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn• Customers can build custom Facebook pages or choose

from over 70 pre-built page templates• Wide selection of promotion formats, including

sweepstakes, coupons and contests

Wildfire has its roots in Facebook promotions but now offers a complete suite of four social marketing tools:

•Promotion Builder: A publishing tool to build custom sweepstakes, coupons and contests.

•Page Manager: Custom pages or more than 70 pre-built promotion templates.

•Messenger: Allows customers to view, manage and moderate social media messages across networks. Messages can be targeted by geography (language or country) or demographics.

•Analytics: Tracks audience growth and engagement across social properties.

Promotion Builder is the only one of the four that is available as a standalone application, allowing customers to buy and




Vendor Profilesbuild sweepstakes, coupons and contests a la carte. The toolset currently supports Facebook and Twitter, and is one of four certified LinkedIn developers for publishing promotions.

The company prides itself on making social marketing simple and effective for brands and agencies, from SMBs to the largest global enterprises. Customers can build customized Facebook pages either completely from scratch or using one of over 70 pre-built templates. They can choose to run a variety of plug-ins on their page to grow, engage or monetize their audience, including polls, twitter feeds, video or photo galleries, or contests.

Once customers customize their template, they can lock certain elements, and allow other elements to be customized by local or regional offices. Wildfire customers can also create completely customized apps and share them across the organization. Permissions are based on roles within the organization.

Wildfire is integrated with several email service providers, including Constant Contact and Email Monitor, to allow customers to act quickly upon leads generated through brand promotions. A synching feature automatically exports promotion data to customer accounts with these ESPs.

Analytics & Reporting• Page, post and promotion analytics• Sentiment analysis based on keyword filtering

Wildfire segments its reporting capabilities into three buckets: page, post and promotion analytics. Page analytics tracks such metrics as total Facebook likes – broken out by tab or aggregated across tabs – total reach, number of storytellers and engaged users. Post analytics measures the impact of messages posted with Messenger by tracking organic reach, viral reach, viral growth rate and visibility (the number of users viewing a message on the brand page). Promotion analytics reports on sweepstakes and other contests and tracks referral sources, entrant demographics (i.e., gender, age, education) and entrant likes and follows.

The dashboard allows customers to drill down and customize reports and sharing. Wildfire provides basic content or sentiment analysis using keyword filtering according to business rules set by the customer.

Target Customer & Strategy• Mid-sized to enterprise brands and agencies• Tiered pricing for enterprise use• Promotion Builder available from $5 up to $5,000

Wildfire targets mid-sized brands and agencies but also counts many Fortune 500 enterprises, including Cisco Systems, among its customers. Pricing for the Wildfire suite ranges from four to five figures per month for one of three tiered packages: Starter, Pro and Enterprise. The Starter package includes one social property/account, unlimited promotions, no permissions or audience targeting and standard support. The Enterprise package includes multiple social properties/accounts, unlimited custom promotions, branding control, audience targeting, advanced permissions and analytics. All suite customers are assigned account managers and strategists to help with social marketing campaigns and goals. Add-on creative consulting services are also available.

Customers can also purchase Promotion Builder as a standalone tool starting at $5/promotion and $1/day for unbranded, standard entry forms, and rising to $5,000/promotion for custom branded, unlimited participants, any type of promotion, customized entry forms and personal account management. Monitor, Wildfire’s free analytics tool to track the growth of Facebook fans and Twitter followers, is also included.

Wildfire continues to invest significantly in analytics to provide customers with deeper understanding of Facebook user engagement at both the individual and group level. The company is also seeing more interest from customers in the LinkedIn platform and continues to fine tune its capabilities for that network.

Education

Enterprise social media mgmt tools