As customers become increasingly social, businesses are prioritizing their own transitions to becoming social businesses. According to a survey of more than 900 marketing and technology executives conducted by Oracle Corporation, 97% of respondents “believe it will be important for successful organizations to transition to being socially enabled enterprise.” Additionally, 72 percent say that leveraging social media will be “very important” for the future success of their organizations.
The study aimed to uncover the challenges and opportunities associated with integrating social practices and technologies into current marketing and customer engagement strategies. For example, although social business strategy is a top priority, 43% of executives surveyed expect that it will take their firms more than a year to leverage social practices and technologies throughout their businesses. According to the study, companies with 50,000 or more employees are further along in their transition to becoming social businesses. Nearly half (46%) of respondents whose companies are in the 50,000-plus employee category note that they’re already socially enabled; this is compared to about one third of companies with less than 5,000 employees.
Oracle’s definition of a socially enabled enterprise or social business: “an organization with social capabilities woven into the fabric of its daily business operations, from consumer marketing and sales, to customer service and research, to employee communications and collaboration.”
According to Meg Bear, group VP of Oracle Social Cloud Platform, organizations that transition to being social businesses can enhance their performance in customer service, marketing, and sales, as well as improve employee collaboration. “As this study shows, business executives now understand that creating a socially enabled enterprise can create better customer experiences, enable more responsive internal networks, and drive organizational efficiencies,” Bear said in a statement. “This combination gives organizations of all sizes a significant competitive advantage.”
